Missing Piece

Since I was four years old I have always been playing sports non-stop. I started off playing soccer, baseball and hockey. I quit baseball after a about 2 years because I got bored playing it easily. I continued with soccer and hockey until I was about 12 years old. When I was 12 though my soccer career sorta took off. I was playing everyday of my life. I played so often that I got heal spurs by age 13.

I was playing on two teams by the time I was 13. I would have about 3 hours of practice 5 times a week. Then the days when I did not have practice with those teams, I would have practice with a private trainer for two hours. I loved to play. When I was fourteen years old I played on the freshmen soccer team (JV9). I started in every game. We went 14-1 that year and won the league. The as a sophmore I played JV. My JV won the league again posting a 15-1-1 record. It was great with so many great times. I started in about 50 percent of the games. Throughout those two years I played on a travel soccer team too. We would go all over the place for games. I remember going to massachusetts just to play one game or new jersey. It was a regional league.

Then it finally came time for varsity. I was eleventh grade. The team started off the year with a bang, but being we were a new high school we did not get any respect. We knew in our hearts though that we were the top team. The first game of our varsity careers we won 7-1. We did not play a strong team, but it did open eyes being it is very unusual for a team to score 7 goals in a game. We began to role, we had a comeback victory over a team that was ranked 12th in the county. We then hit a little bump. We lost 2-1 to the team ranked number one in the county. It was okay though. We out played them, but we were unfortunate. We wound up ending the season 12-1-1. It was good enough for the number 6th seed in the county tournament.

The first game we played we won 1-0, we did not play that well and we missed a penalty kick but we moved on. The number one seed got upset and we played West Islip and dominated them 4-1. The next the game though was very intense. They had one of the players in the region on their team and they led 1-0 with 2 minutes left. Our goalie punted the ball up though and our foward controlled it he dribbled through three defenders and buried the ball in the lower right corner. This was enough to send the game to overtime. In over time we had corner and I took the corner. It was second overtime actuually. I hit high and deep across the box. It hit my teammates head and was buried in the top right corner. That was it it was all over. We advanced to the county title game. There is no better feeling than being in a pile on with your teamates after winning a big game in front of your home crowd. We then went on to win the County Championship 2-0. It was one the most exciting things to do in sports. I loved lifting that trophy and kissing it. I'll always remeber that day. If only I could relive my soccer career. I miss that competitive edge.