Would an essay about sports work? I’ve been told by some that writing about sports has become relatively cliche but could be good if written in the right way.
I’ve been playing basketball at a young age and I quickly developed a strong passion for the sport as I basically stopped playing all other sports such as tennis and tennis. At that moment, I thought I was the best after playing with some friends in my neighborhood. However, when I was in middle school, I failed to make the team. It was at that moment where I learned that I was not the best and in fact, there were probably at least 20-30 kids in my grade that were better than me. I had trouble accepting this. In the summer before 9th grade, I trained hard knowing that making the JV team would be way more difficult than making a middle school team. However, I failed to make the team while I saw a couple of my closest friends make it. While I didn’t make the JV team that year, I was closer to making the team than I was to making the team in middle school. I knew that playing basketball was my passion so I decided that I would give the team one last attempt my sophomore year. During the first cuts of tryouts in my sophomore year, coach told me he had basically selected the team and that if I continued to perform well, I had one of those spots. During the third and final cuts, coach told me “I’ll see you in 5 minutes for practice”. I couldn’t believe that this was happening after 3 years of failing to make the team.
Being on the team taught me many lessons about my self. First it has taught me to stay focused and determined, and to not give up on something if its your dream. Second, it taught me about teamwork. Out of the 16 players on the team, I was an average player and was out of the main rotation which consisted of 7-8 players. I didn’t play in all the games and I only played in certain games because we had an insurmountable lead. In our third game, I finally got an opportunity to play but it was in limited time. Even though I scored a couple points and we had won big, I was down. While we were on the bus on our way to McDonalds, I was quiet and had isolated myself from my teammates who were celebrating the win. As we arrived, Coach gave a speech about our win. At the end of his speech he told us about the importance about every player. He said that when the team wins, everyone on the team wins. He said that basketball is a team sport, where everyone is important to team success. This was an important message that taught me an important lesson. Whether I was playing or not, there were always things I could do to help the team succeed. This paid off. At the end of the season, we finished with as league champions with a 16-2 record. I learned that leadership isn’t the most important thing, but teamwork is.
This isn’t my actual essay but just a description about the story. I don’t know if this is too cliche or not. Please give me your thoughts on this essay idea. Thanks