Sweat dripped off of my face as I rounded the last corner. I could not believe that I had done it. I had finally made it through one horrendous week. The event that I am talking about is called “Heck week.” Heck week is the one week out of the year when girls who are in ninth grade or older try out for the Lone Peak girls soccer team. It goes for five hours a day and expands over the course of one week. It is called Heck week because it is very strenuous and extremely tiring.

Last year was my very first year to try out for the Lone Peak soccer team. To tell you I was scared would be an understatement. I was more than scared, I was terrified. I really did not want to go through Heck week. Despite this, I was still very excited and very determined to make one of the three teams. Because my will was as firm as a mountain, I went outside every day and practiced soccer. I was a machine with gears that churned non-stop for almost my whole entire summer. My day would start bright and early at 8:00 in the morning. Two of my really good friends and I would pile into my big ugly van and head down to the high school. Once we got to the high school, we would either go for a run with all of the returning players or play a pick up game. We usually went from 8:00 to 10:00. When I got home from the high school, I would go out into my own backyard and practice for at least another hour. I would do anything and everything with a soccer ball at my feet. My parents were very supportive and if I needed some help, they were always there to give it. Yet still, it was very hard to practice on my own because the summer heat was so hot, I was very tired from already having a full practice, and I wanted to hang out with my friends. Despite all of these reasons, and the fact that sometimes, I just really did not want to do it, I still practiced. Because I practiced and worked out daily, by the end of the summer, I was ready. Ready for anything that Coach LeHargue could throw at me. I was ready for the week that would showcase my skills and my speed. I was ready for Heck week.

My strong will which led me to practice every day, helped me to become better as a player, and it also whipped me into shape. Unfortunately, this was not the case for many of the girls who came to the tryouts. Many girls just showed up on the first day expecting to just breeze through the tryouts and make the team without putting any effort into it. These girls were in for a real surprise!

On the first day of tryouts, there were around seventy girls. As the week went on, I noticed that more and more girls did not show up for the next day of tryouts. The people who dropped out had a good reason to not come back because most of them were really struggling with how much running and how much playing we did. The week of tryouts was very strenuous and I watched as many girls battled through their sore muscles, battled with their breakfast that was constantly threatening to surface, and battled with one another for a spot on the team.

If you got to come back to tryouts the next day, you had made one of the cuts. To find out if you had made the team, you had to survive the tryouts until Thursday, which was the second to last day of tryouts. Monday through Wednesday inched along slowly as I grew more and more anxious as to whether I made the team or not. Thursday finally arrived and I got to go look at the list posted on the door to see if I had made one of the teams. Expecting the worst, I solemnly made my way to the sign. I searched for my name on the freshman and sophomore team list. It was not there. In utter panic, I searched for my name on the Junior Varsity list, thinking that I would not find it. I searched and searched until all of a sudden, there it was. I can remember the feeling I had just then. I was so happy that I had done it. I, Savanah McGrath had made a Lone Peak soccer team! I felt like I could do anything. Now the only thing I had left to do was to survive “Fun Friday.” The last Friday of Heck week is the worst day out of the whole tryouts. It is the first day that you get to meet with your team, but it is also the hardest day. I will never forget the moment when I finished my last sprint of tryouts. I was so proud that I had made it through the week and was on the Junior Varsity team at Lone Peak High School.

The only way that I made it through Heck week was because of my determination and perseverance. Last summer, I learned some very important lessons. I learned that working hard for something really does pay off. I also learned that you need to be prepared for the challenges that you face. Life is full of many challenges but if you will just try to work through them and put the effort in to fix them, then the outcome will be good.