Tryouts | Teen Ink

Tryouts

October 11, 2010
By adam gray BRONZE, Manhattan, Kansas
adam gray BRONZE, Manhattan, Kansas
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

It was the summer of my freshman year and I wanted to go out and play sports for my school. There are a couple of problems with me making a sport though. I haven’t played sports for at least 5 years, which was at least fourth or fifth grade since I had. Since I haven’t played since then, I am heavier than most people at my school. I am pretty lazy, and I don’t do very much physical activity. But this year everything will change, and I will try to make it on a team. There are three sports that I like most and they are basketball, indoor soccer, and regular soccer. This year I was going to see if I could even make basketball team. My friend John got me to come out and try to make the team. So I went to all the summer camps that my high school had. At the end of the summer I lost almost fifteen pounds. John kept on telling me at school that I could make the team. So I was thinking that I might have a slight chance at making it because my friend tells me I can. But the first day of tryouts I didn’t do so well and there were so many people that were better than me. When I thought I was in shape I was wrong. I was dripping sweat and my face was bright red. I wiped my face and my body with a towel and noticed the towel was soaked and dripping sweat like a leak. Once I got home I took a long shower and then went straight to bed. The next day was the last day of tryouts and I needed to try as hard as I can. I did with every ounce of energy I had, I ran down the court blocking shots and trying to put some in the goal. Throughout the whole tryout I did very well at defense, but I could never make a shot. They sent out an email, once I read it I clenched my fists on the closest object by me, which was a shirt and threw it in anger. John said it was ok and that I just need to work on shooting and other things and I could make it next year. But honestly I didn’t want to tryout at all because I felt like they chose people that were worse than me.
After I didn’t make the basketball team I tried to focus on playing soccer. Indoor soccer was about to start and I needed to get ready. I had only two weeks to be ready so I need to try as hard as I can to improve. Every day after school I drove to the indoor soccer facility where I could practice with the adults. The first time I went to the facility I got owned. I went for a ball, missed it and fell on my butt. Then I was dribbling a ball, after at most 5 seconds a person took the ball from me and scored. I felt ashamed about how bad I played, but I wasn’t going to give up just yet. I kept on practicing and practicing every day and I noticed I was a lot better than what I started out as. I woke up on a Saturday for the tryout and saw my friend Tom there. We talked for a while before and he said it was going to be hard to make the team since I haven’t played in a while. We had to run for a little bit at the start, I had good endurance so I never got tired. But it was just that I wasn't good with the ball. Whenever I got the ball passed to me I would try doing a move and I would get stopped every time. I never got passed one person. I would dribble the ball about to shoot and someone would run up and take the ball away from me like I wasn’t even there. But one thing I was good at was defense; I would always get the ball from someone if they came my way. For the whole tryout I thought I did all right, but I needed to work on my foot skills a lot. The next day at school the office gave us letters saying if we made it or not. I got mine and it said I didn't make it but I could still practice with the team if I wanted. So every single day for the whole season I decided to practice with them to get better. It was really annoying at practice too, because I had to pick up the equipment with the freshman. It was just because I didn’t make the team, but I wasn’t the only one, there was at least 5 others that had to help.
The year went by slowly and it was very, very boring. But once summer came I would be able to go to conditioning and tryout for the real soccer team not the indoor. At the first day of conditioning it was tiring and hard. But I still fought through it and kept on trying as hard as possible. I started lifting weights also and lost even more weight. Every other day was a workout day so I was still getting in shape all the time. At the end of conditioning I think I lost about 20 pounds. I was ready for tryouts and I knew that I had a chance to make the team. During all of the tryouts I tried hard and never let down. At the end I thought I made it because I did better than most people out there. The head coach sent out an email, and I saw my name on the JV team! This was the happiest day of my life. I ripped my shirt off, ran down the street swinging my shirt and screaming that I made the team. My parents were happy also and they even gave me a cake for making it. And halfway through the soccer season I did the impossible; I started every game and got to play at least 50 minutes a game or more. My team did very good this year; we only lost 5 games throughout the whole season. I felt so good playing this year that I am going to tryout again next year, and hope I make it.

The author's comments:
Had to write a short story for English

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