Hey EMC! I was recently approached by a scouting agency for my catching in baseball and I'm already getting scouts from colleges contacting me. After reading all this it got me curious, how many of you guys have made it to college+ level sports?
When I was in Primary School, I was never good at sports. All the other boys would bully me because I couldn't play football properly - I got back at them by being the best tackler in all the class. This more often than not got me punched in the face, but it was satisfying to send some kid flying face first into the ground. Sports Day was always a matter of 'how do I not embarrass myself in front of everyone's parents'; the answer was that I couldn't stop people from laughing at me. When I got into Secondary School; a fresh-faced 11 year old, I was determined to get more into sports. I was going to be a muscular 16 year old, I was going to be a heartbreaker of girls, I was going to be the best footballer ever - all those kids in Primary School would be wishing they never made fun of me. I would force myself to watch every Liverpool game with my dad, I'd volunteer as hard as possible in P.E lessons, and I was determined to become a man by doing 24/7 hardcore grind. I practiced football outside of school with my brother, who also couldn't actually play football and he was also 9 years old so it always ended up with me shouting at him and probably a fight in the middle of the field behind our house. In Year 8 (aged 12), I realised I had a very special talent for dodgeball; likely because I was afraid of the ball beyond any existing measure of justification. I was the last person up in a round: my team of 20 was cut down to just me, and there was balls hurtling towards me from every conceivable angle. I ducked, and I ducked, until I eventually got so out of breath I fell to the ground. More balls ripped through the air towards me, and I was still dodging. I was rolling around the floor, and as I went to stand up I dodged the dozenth ball by bending my body forwards. My amazing feat of dodgeballery was ended when I stumbled backwards after bending my body forwards at a very awkward angle, and a ball hit me in the face, before I hit the ground with a thud for a final time. Out of breath and panting, I opened my eyes; my teacher was stood above me. "Oh my Lord, that was amazing [SoulPunisher]!" he yelled, offering a hand to help me up. "EXTRA POINTS FOR TEAM B!" My team ran over to me. '[SoulPunisher], that was awesome!'. I felt like Superman. For the next few years, my skill was known in my class for Dodgeball. "Everyone aim for [SoulPunisher]," people would say to their teams when we played. People celebrated when they launched a ball into my face and sent me staggering backwards into the wall, and sometimes I even cried in pain due to the velocity at which these balls were being launched into my sensitive areas - only ever noticed once by someone who liked tripping me up in hallways, who took the golden opportunity to point out I was crying to everyone. There was no path in Dodgeball. No way forward. No out of school clubs. No school team. Not even any friends with any interest in it. I dabbled in other things like basketball; my superior height to most, my small and skinny frame, and the bounce in my quick steps gave me an edge for sure, but I couldn't ever get the ball into the hoop. I blame my short-distance eyesight I only found out I had about a year ago, that I'm not allowed contacts for because I don't have to wear glasses for, and so I could not see anything in these lessons. My final dodgeball game came in March 2016. I was fifteen years old. This was the last time I ever played sports. My P.E lessons morphed into revision lessons as the GCSE period broke its dawn, rising high into everyone's skies and dominating our lives for 3 months. I had to remember it well. I had to win. It needed to be amazing. I needed to play in that professional setting, like I was a dodgeball player on live TV ready to win a world championship. My team came last. I'm pretty sure I was the first one out of the game in most rounds. My final round, however, I came up against my arch-nemesis; some springy Italian fella. He was professionally scouted by a football team, he was quick as lightning, and he was skinny in the same way as me. I was awful at football and never played in a club - besides one time I got kicked out for being too bad, and also that summer club I quit because some kid was saying stuff to me so I punched him in the back of the head. But I was springy too, I was skinny, I was everything he was. And my father is half-Spanish, so that makes me a springy Spanish fella. This was a Battle of the Mediterranean. And so from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Strait of Sicily I fought. I think we got confused and teamed up to sack Constantinople a few times too (I was sacrificing my own team to the other team's balls meant for me and masterfully getting teammates to try and get other people out, he did the same). It was a long fought battle - but I hit him. I hit him square in his Italian face. He staggered backwards, he hit the wall, as I had done many times before. I did it. I sacked Rome. I won for the final time. "YES!" I yelled. And that's when it hit me. The ball. Straight in the stomach. I fell to the floor on my knees. I was winded. 'Who did this?' I thought, my world spinning. No. I had to see who had done this. I raised my eyes forward, I lifted my head. I blinked. 'What?' I thought. A girl from my class pumped her fists into the air. "YES! I GOT SOMEONE OUT!" she yelled in celebration. She had been stood there in the corner of the other side of the hall all lesson - that's all I had ever seen her do. My dodgeball career was put to rest by a girl who had never moved out of a corner and screamed everytime the balls even came within five metres of her. And guess what? She was Italian too. And so the Battle of the Mediterranean ended. Tl;Dr: Couldn't play football, dodgeball legend, sacked Rome, the great Spanish Kingdom was defeated by the city-state of Venice in its final battle. And that's my experience with higher level sports.
So you let your career down by a camper? Unfortunate, but maybe you should have continued. In any game irl or virtual, campers always win due to something so dumb, while not playing the game.
I played on a pretty decent level football ( soccer ). But I didnt enjoy the part of being way too serious. So I left the club and went to a team with some friends Do I regret it? Yes I do. But I was young, made the wrong decision. Now I play on one of the lowest levels of football with friends.
I see being with friends as more important than grinding to be the best. Mainly because my friends made me who I am so I think you made a good decision
Never cared about sports that much myself but I would like to give you a tip: don't put all your money on a single horse. Don't stop college, don't stop your education, don't fully give into sports. It can be cool, it could be a nice ladder up above to where you can make a very decent living for yourself but it can just as easily end up in you being good but no one really having any interest in you. And if that happens then it won't help if you don't got a plan B, something to fall back onto. Just my 2 cents.
I agree, I don't think I could ever make it all the way, so I've been focusing hard on sciences in the hopes of making it to UCONN
I was always a fast runner in elementary school, so i joined the track team. I would win most school track events and it was pretty nice. When I got to high school, I joined my town's local track and field club to get professional training. With this training, I was able to win most 100m and 200m races in my region. (at 15, my personal best in the 100m sprint was 11.89 sceconds). As i competed more, i was invited to the provincial championships, and even the national championships. At these events, only the best of the best were present. Instead of winning like I was used to, I began to loose as I realized I wasn't as fast as I needed to be at this level. I then quit my track team as there was no way forward for me, and It was just too stressful to train 5 days a week for something I wasn't good enough at to compete professionally in.
Nope. Only thing I did in high school other than cross country was robotics. Not particularly a sport.
No, the robotics team had quite literally no budget, despite our extreme success. We survived off sponsorships and couldn't afford to do FIRST, so we went with VEX.
I was contacted by a couple colleges for trap shooting. The college I go to though does not have that. It's honestly more of a hobby for me anyway. It would not have dictated my college choice at all.
