A Naive Athlete

Crossing ankles and taking names, from a young age I was fast. Blowing by my opponents on the court and on the fields, I was good at the sports I played. Spectators would watch me play and ask my parents “Does she do track?”. Being from a small school, track was not offered to me until high school, so I played soccer and basketball. The ball was one of the only things that could slow me down because the ball would always fall behind me. I was the type of player that you could count on to outrun someone, but not exactly someone you would trust with the ball.

I awaited my whole freshman year for track. I knew that track was going to be the sport that allowed me to break free and run unconstrained. Unfortunately, I was going into track blind as I have never ran track, I have never even seen the rules. Everyone seemed to have the upper hand on me; I realized quickly when the coach gave out our workout that read “800×4 @ 75%”. While I was doing the math problem in my head, everyone else started running. I knew I was behind in my skills, but I was prepared to work my butt off to catch up.

I was new to it all but, I quickly fell into the role of being a triple jumper after the coaches evaluated me. Now this was uncharted territory for me; triple jumping was nothing close to running. I felt as if I had gone back to the starting line, no experience and no knowledge once again. After a few practices I started getting the hang of things. When it came down to my first meet, I was nervous for all kinds of reasons, but my goal was to not be last. To my surprise, I did pretty well, placing around the center of my opponents. Not being last made me think, “Do I have the potential to be first?”.

After finding my way through my first meet I now felt as if I have caught up to the people around me. I knew how practice worked and the papers my coach gave were not math problems, so now I can focus on what I want; winning.

My second and third meet was groundbreaking for me as I was breaking my personal records as well as qualifying for M.V.C’s. I started to get higher on the rankings and even made my way up to second. The girl that placed first, she was my competition. My coaches have scared me straight about how good this girl from Winthrop is, “Strong jumper.”, they would say, “She was number one last year.” they would remind me. Unknowingly they painted an image in my head of this unbeatable person, like a mountain that is unclimbable.

Coming into M.V.C’s I had in my mind that I could not beat her, but I can keep breaking my personal records. With a strong drive in my head and a powerful force coming from my body I gave that meet all I had. As I sat waiting for the results to post, I was proud of myself, as I had just finished my best meet yet. My coach interrupts my boasting as he informs me that I have taken first in the M.V.C triple jump event by over a foot. I became speechless, I beat “her”, I beat the unbeatable, not just by a fluke.

At practice the next day, I was walking down to the track when a stranger stopped me. He said he was from the Sun Journal and wanted to interview me because of my performance yesterday. I was stunned, I had just beaten someone that was so highly talked about and now I am the one getting interviewed. He asked me about when I knew I wanted to do track and how I liked it, but then he asked me about the Winthrop jumper and how I felt beating her. I told him and I quote,

“She’s really not that good.”

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This was my big mistake, I had called one of the top jumpers in the state “not good”. I had not meant it like that, I meant that she was not as unbeatable as everyone said. I didn’t mean to say she had no talent or that she was nothing compared to me.

Sure enough, the next day my interview was in the newspaper. There was a giant picture of me in the front page of the newspaper with an article located underneath. I was so proud of myself for making it as far as I had with it being my first year in all. However, I called my competition “not good”. In fact she was good, she was one of my biggest competitors; especially going into states. I could not believe how bad that looked for me being a first year competitor in track telling the veterans that they are “not good”. I made a big mistake, I still had to face her in states.

At states I pulled through and beat her again. No one talked to me about the article almost like everyone else dropped it, but it was still in my mind. After that article was released I knew that if I were ever to get interviewed again that I could not bash anyone else’s skills or talk myself up. I was naive, new to getting interviewed, and I had said the wrong thing. I knew I could not do that again.

Two years later I got the chance to redeem myself when I got interviewed for soccer. The game was a blowout and I had to tell the interviewer my thoughts on the game. Instead of saying “The other team was good” or “that they did not play as well as us.” I had matured and talked about how well my own team was doing. I talked about how happy I was to be on a team like us, I love how we never giving up in hard situations and giving it our all.

I’m very proud of where I have come since my first interview and how much I have learned from it. I know that I was just a naive athlete and not out to get anyone, but I learned my lesson about what to say in my interviews and what to keep out of it. I am glad I could learn from my mistake.

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