Growing Up Playing Lacrosse
From growing up doing athletics, overcoming problems and struggles, and taking the next steps leading to success.
Starting Out
Since I was 10 years old, I have never heard of the game "Lacrosse". It was when I was in the 4th grade when I first picked up a lacrosse stick. I knew nothing about the game whatsoever other than you have to throw and catch the ball. As time went on and I studied the game I got better and better as time went on. Growing up I played Football and Baseball. So, sports definitely were not new to me. Knowing what I knew at a young age what it took to become good at a sport took a lot of time and effort. So, I translated that into the game of lacrosse. After a few years of really training for the sport, I absolutely fell in love with it. When I was bored, the first thing I would do is pick up my lacrosse stick. As I got into middle school and the competition got better, I continued to strive in the sport. As a 7th grader playing up on the 8th grade team, I knew it would take some extra effort just to be able to keep up with the older kids. But once I figured that out, I not only played with the older kids, but I excelled at it. I was the leading goal scorer on the team and also led the team in faceoff percentage. Once my 7th grade season was over, I was invited to play on team Ohio and travel to Virginia to compete for a national championship. The next year, I got better and better. I made the All-Ohio team again and continued to get better the older I got.
Through the Struggle
My first year of high school started and I was super excited to play on a high school team. There was better competition, better players, and took a lot more work than I have ever experienced before. I had a great preseason ready to start the regular season. We had our first scrimmage, and it was absolutely amazing. I had thought that it was going to be the time of my life and could not wait for the regular season to start. It was 2 days before our first game when our coaches told us we would not have a season because of Covid-19. I was absolutely devastated. All that hard work and dedication was thrown out the window. But I never quit, I went to the gym every single day for months on end. By the time my sophomore season came, I was more than ready. I continued to excel and get better and better as the season went on. By halfway through the season, I had earned a starting position at midfield. I enjoyed lacrosse so much and knew that I wanted to play in college. So once my recruiting process started, I was visiting schools almost every week. Where by the end of my Senior season I picked a School landing at Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio. Once I got to mount, I was living the dream playing lacrosse in college.
Overcoming
This experience has taught me many things in life. It taught me to never give up no matter the circumstance. If there is a hiccup in the road it's never a reason to quit. My favorite part of everything is that in the end, it all worked out the way I wanted it to. And I fully believe this is because I worked around the hard situations. This is going to continue to follow through with I want to do as a career. When all said and done, I want to look back and know that I lived my life with no regrets. Whatever job I take in the future I will do the best I can possibly do and whatever tries to stop me, I will fight through it in the end because the end goal is what really matters.