What Harker Heights athletics has meant to me

to play the sports I love and much more

Over the past four years at Harker Heights High School, athletics has not only been a hobby of mine, but has been my lifestyle as well. Athletics has influenced my character by instilling the values of teamwork, and leadership. Personally I can not imagine my life without sports. At the age of three I was already kicking around a soccer ball and begging my parents to let me play on a team like my older brother did, they eventually did and thats when I fell in love with the sport. Time went on and soccer became routine, I would shuffle from school practice to LoneStar Soccer Club practice, four days a week.

It was not until I entered Harker Heights when sports began to influence my character without me even realizing it simply by instilling the values into my life. I learned the value of how to be a team player and the true definition of teamwork when I ran Varsity Cross Country my freshman year. I learned the value of teamwork from running along side six other girls who we all depended on each other to do our best- to win for our each other. Numerous meets were spent cheering each other on to simply do their best for our team. Without each others support we would not have been successful or felt the need to compete and go into the next "gear" (as Coach Taylor would say) for one another. This was the first time in all my years of being on numerous teams of how much each individuals' work and support contributed to our teams successes.

Senior year I was given the opportunity to be one of two captains to lead the Varsity Soccer team, a program I have been a part of for four years. This was an opportunity to challenge myself along with my teammates everyday to push the team as a whole to be better. Being a captain led me to be able to demonstrate the ability to be a leader. There were multiple games after we had lost that I would have to reassure everyone that a loss does not define us but the way we react does. However being in a leadership position also meant I had to lead by example, academics were very important to me personally as the team as a whole. If my teammates were struggling in a class I would always offer to help them study and help them get back into a better position.

Harker Heights athletics has not just been a time for me to play the sports I love but also have taught me many valuable lessons along with long lasting memories. As I reflect on my time spent at Harker Heights it will not be the countless hours spent in classrooms that I will remember but instead it will be the short season where I got to spend it with the people that mean the most to me; my teammates and my coaches who ultimately have became my family over four years. These values that have been instilled in me I will take with me throughout college and onto my future endeavors.

In paragraph one remove the words "of mine" and "as well." Remove the comma after teamwork and place a comma after Personally. Remove the word "did" placing a period after brother. Capitalize T in They. The last sentence of the paragraph to "In time, soccer bacame routine with practice after school four days weekly".

In paragraph two the first sentence should read something like "Upon entering Harker Heights, sports began to influence my life while also influencing my values".......

Change I learned the value of to Teamwork skills were learned from running.........change "simply do their best" to simply do the best......change to "numerous teams learning the importance of working and supporting thereby contributing to team success."

In paragraph three begin the sentence with "In my senior year"........I had to lead by example with academics being of importance....

In paragraph four, but has also enabled me to learn many........change where I got to where I had the ability to spend time....The last sentence could read "these values have been instilled in me and will be used throughout my college career and future.........