“Hallberg, I’m so proud of the way you brought the team out of that lose.” These words were spoken to me as I crawled off the field in exhaustion. Those were the words that single handedly drove me to the absolute love I have for the game. Previously thinking to myself that soccer was more of a mediocre sport being completely honest, and I was slowly over the years losing much of my interest for the game, and seriously had the thought of quitting on my mind and being done forever.
This hope was reassured, all because of the words of one man with a beautiful gift to say the least. These words of wisdom and courtesy came from no other than Cutis Payment.
My first year playing varsity soccer for clarkston high school was my sophomore year, only making it with three other kids in my class and all of which had tremendous talent no doubt. Going into the season I wasn't too sure to how well it was going to go due to being the one of the youngest on the team, and I also wasn't too sure as to how much actual play time I was going to get. Just as I thought in the beginning of the season there were games in which I didn't touch the field, and I can remember the first time I didn't play was against brother rice.
I had played in the first half quite a bit ,and then second half rolled around and I didn't see the field. We ended up losing and I can remember actually crying about it because I was under the impression that if I was playing that I could have had the ability to have scored and bring victory back to the c-town. This situation helped in creating this anger I had for the sport, but I brushed it off and kept paying the hardest I possibly could at practice and during our film session. In the end of the season, we were playing troy high school and I suppose coach had seen all of the hard work that I had been putting into my soccer career ,and he decided to throw me into the game with about 20 minutes left in the game. I tried to channel all of that work that I had put into my soccer into a solid 20 minutes of play time.
During that 20 minutes I had managed to score one goal and help by assisting in another goal, resulting in a 3-2 victory, I had never seen my coach more happy in the entire time i've ever known him, the face that he gave me as I practically crawled off the field was the single most encouraging facial expression that anyone had ever directed towards me. that was an amazing feeling to say the least. To know that I was the person to help create that feeling, was just a feeling that I will never forget until the day I die. After experiencing this actuality, I was faced with the absolute need to make a child feel like that someday, the way that he had made me feel on the occasion  wanting to be a coach some day to have that connection with another individual.
The wisdom of coach Curtis is very deep, in the aspect that when he lectures our squad every single person looks as if they had just figured out the meaning of life inside themselves ,and most simply put it's an absolutely beautiful piece of art if you ask me. I look up to that man as a father and I because of him I want to help create that sense of joy for other people.