Project 1: Sports Memoir
Going for Goal
I was simply excited to be a part of a team. It was one of my first games, and at twelve years old, every one of them felt like a life-altering event. My biggest supporter, my dad, drove me to my recreational team lacrosse game. As a sixth grader, I was the youngest on the team and felt a bit of what I would now classify as imposter syndrome. Yet, that only made me want to prove myself and my abilities more. I began playing the sport as a defender, as running is my least favorite part of the sport, and this thereby limited it. I would typically get playing time for a decent amount of the game, but many of the older girls were known to be the “starters” and lead the team. One of those girls was our goalkeeper, who I had known for most of my life and looked up to in a lot of ways. When I approached the field on this particular gameday, multiple players were missing. In my mind, it was not a big deal, as we had a solid number of girls on the team. After a few minutes though, it came to all of our attention that our goalkeeper was not there. We had no backup goalie and therefore no plan.
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Everyone looked around at each other, not wanting to be the unfortunate soul that would take one for the team. I remember thinking that one of the older girls would have to step up, and thus I would be safe from the immense pressure that would undoubtedly come with the goalie position. The team warmed up as normal, as everyone seemed to forget the looming problem overhead. We ran our lap, did our partner passing, and got into the usual drills, with no goalie to stop any of our shots. Ultimately, wecould have turned the goal so that the triangle side faced out, thus making the net a somewhat smaller surface for attackers and midfielders to score on. Yet, that does not prove to be highly effective in a game setting, so no one bothered suggesting it. Instead, we silently hoped that our goalie would appear.
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About ten minutes before the game, we huddled up to discuss the next course of action. The dreadful looks on everyone’s faces crept back, and seemingly out of nowhere, everyone’s gazes fell on me. At that moment, my heart began to race, and my forehead felt hot. I knew exactly what was about to be asked of me, though I wanted nothing more than to reject the proposal. Someone had to step in, but really, I was thrown in. My coach asked me how I would feel about going in. I had never even picked up a goalie stick. Maybe it was being a good teammate, people pleasing, or a mix of both, but just ten minutes before the game, I agreed to go in net. The goalie equipment belonged to the team, not our goalie, so “conveniently”, I was in gear with about five minutes to spare. I tried to practice passing with the new massive stick, but the large pocket caused by throws to aims straight at the ground.
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The referees blew their whistles, signaling the captains to go participate in the coin toss and start the game. I ran into the goalie crease, subtly shaking, but beginning to get more excited. As the first draw was taken, the other team obtained possession of the ball. It was all a blur as the midfielder came sprinting down the field, getting ready to make her shot. I watched the ball release from her stick with a mighty follow-through. I moved swiftly to the ball and somehow saved the shot by catching it in my stick. I wanted to scream out of happiness, but instead, I made an adequate pass to one of my defenders who moved the ball down the other side of the field, getting ready to score on our rival team. The game flew by, and I still remember my save percentage, a respectable fifty percent, stuffing three out of six shots. Upon the final whistle blow, my teammates rushed to come hug me as we celebrated our win. This game pushed me outside of my comfort zone but actually led to me permanently changing the position that I play to this day. The other goalie and I began sharing playing time and I soon purchased my own gear. Time flew by, and fast-forward eight years later, I am a goalie for Florida State University’s Women’s Club Lacrosse Team. I am beyond grateful for the gift of playinggoalie that was given to me eight years ago.
Rationale
My purpose in this memoir is to detail why it is important to show up for your team and take risks. Ultimately, the reward outweighed the risks in this instance and made me a better lacrosse player and teammate overall. I wanted to convey a compelling and inspirational story from my own personal perspective. The goal was to show how a sixth grader would feel scared but excited with a hint of hesitation at any given moment. My primary audience includes lacrosse players and young athletes. My secondary audience includes parents and athletes of all kinds. Overall, anyone reading the story should be able to take away a heartwarming feeling. I did not encounter a specific challenge when writing but aimed to encapsulate the emotions I felt during the experience of playing goalie for the first time. I had to put myself in the shoes of twelve-year-old me. I hope that audiences learn to try things outside of their comfort zones and encourage themselves as well as one another. I want people to feel happy upon reading the memoir and view it as a story of what can happen when your instinct is to say “yes” instead of “no”.