I have played soccer since I was six years old. It's safe to say that I absolutely love the sport. Soccer is a part of my heart and soul, and there is not a day that goes by where I’m not doing something soccer related. It could be practicing with my travel team, coaching, playing a pick-up game with friends, or watching a soccer game live or on TV. When I started playing soccer for my high school team, it led me to be more involved in the athletic side of school. I knew all the athletes and coaches. I was captain of my middle school team, my junior varsity team, and my varsity team. As captain, I learned to become a role model and a leader. It was my job to encourage and help my teammates in every aspect. I attribute soccer to most of the leadership skills I have learned.
My passion for soccer has opened the doors for jobs. I work as a soccer coach for a player development program, training and teaching the basics of soccer to kids ages 3 to 10. I am also a licensed referee. These jobs have shaped me into a better person, leader and player. As a lead coach, I’m in charge of mentoring the junior coaches and leading the lessons. When I first started as a junior coach. I was nervous and shy, but my mentor taught me how to coach in a way the kids would understand, excel and have fun.
A few years ago, while playing in an aggressive indoor soccer game, I tore my ACL. This was a major, scary, painful setback! It meant surgery, physical therapy and, worst of all, that I couldn't play soccer for at least one year. There was even a possibility I would never play soccer again! It was a very long process that required time, patience, hard work, and a lot of motivation. There were times when I did not think I would ever be able to get back to normal, back to the physical and mental condition I was in before the injury.
This injury inspired me to become a physical therapist. I know I can achieve this career goal and be proud of how I achieved it. I will always remember the pain and struggles that I experienced, but it has made me so much stronger. I want to help young athletes going through injuries that seem impossible to overcome and teach them how to take care of their bodies to prevent injuries. I want to encourage them to never give up on themselves. I remember how inspired and motivated I felt when I went to physical therapy. I want to give back to this community that has done so much for me, by helping others. Being a physical therapist is physically and mentally rewarding, but I will also get the opportunity to support my community which has supported me my whole life.
If I hadn’t played soccer I wouldn't be the leader I am today. Soccer led me to be involved and take charge, on and off the field. I’m involved in every possible club and hold officer positions too. I’m vice president of my school’s student council and of the senior class, president of 4-H and vice president of Beta Club. Through these clubs as well as many others, I lead and organize school events, service projects, and leadership trips. I was able to gain these experiences and become the person I am today, all because I played soccer!
I remember exactly where I was when Freddie Freeman caught the last out of the 2021 World Series. I was in my dorm room, on the phone with a close friend who was watching it with me. Tears of jubilation flowed out watching the Atlanta Braves hoist the championship trophy for the first time since 1995, six years before I was born. Soon after, I called my family and we all laughed and cried together, knowing that while uncertain of the future of the team (especially Freeman—he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency five months later), we’d at least have this moment.
Sports has a funny way of bringing people together. There’s joy and celebration in triumph like above, but there’s also hurt and disappointment in defeat. It was February 2020, less than a month before the COVID-19 pandemic preemptively ended my senior year of high school. I was competing in the GHSA State Championships for wrestling, a sport I’d picked up in my sophomore year of high school. In less than three years, I blossomed into one of the most dominant wrestlers in my weight class. And today was the day I’d cement that officially, earning a medal by placing among the top six wrestlers at my weight. Or so I thought. After dominating my second opponent for five minutes (high school wrestling matches last six minutes), it was over in a flash. I watched my opponent celebrate with his coaches while mine were in shock. To this day, I don’t know how I walked off the mat, behind the bleachers, and into an empty hallway without breaking down. Along the way, my coach, whom I trusted unconditionally, looked me in the eye and stated, “it’s just a wrestling match.” How could he, of all people, say that? Him, a three-time state champion (who threw away his only non-championship medal), one of the best wrestlers in school history, who watched me grind years of my life in an effort to be successful, say, “it’s just a wrestling match”? After he left to coach my protégé wrestling after me, and before my senior teammates who’d been along the ride all these years joined me in that then-empty hallway, I understood.
Eventually, I made my way back into the arena. I saw my dad, who gave me one of the biggest embraces we’ve ever shared, and I fought back tears once more. I didn’t watch the match until last year, for no other reason than to show my protégé, who was preparing for his own match at the time. That experience, I believe, brought me closer to the people that mattered, and taught me many valuable lessons.
Fast forward a couple years, and my degree is tangentially related to sports and athletics. It’s not Sports Management or Sports Analytics; it’s Statistics. I chose this degree because I like working with numbers, and I like telling stories (as you may be able to infer). The role of a statistician is to use data to tell a story. Maybe even to make an impact or influence decision-making. We’ve all seen Moneyball, I’m sure. While I’ll never be Pete (while Brad Pitt’s Billy Beane is analogous to the real-life general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Jonah Hill’s character isn’t even real!), using data to assist in decision-making and have lasting, meaningful effects is what I want to do in the sports world: I want to give back to the field that shaped me.
