College Admissions Essay: My Life As A College Athlete

In life, you encounter many situations and people that aid in molding you into the person you are meant to be. When these instances in time occur, we may not realize it, but looking back they made a huge impact on our lives. For the past four years, I have been a member of the Navarro Runnin’ Lady Panthers Basketball Team, and while the sport itself taught me many lessons and skills I can use to be successful, there was one coach that managed to do the same.

I could be considered a hidden figure because I am a multi-faceted individual. I have a passion for learning and recalling information. For example, I have been the team captain for my Black History Quiz Bowl team which competes for 6-8 hours, Jeopardy style against other schools. I initiate contact with my school advisers and study groups outside of school hours. Other academic talents include continuous A-Honor Roll, scoring 5/5 in every subject for the state End of Grade testing. I was selected as the highest academic achiever in the 4th grade, thereby receiving honors and recognition at the UNC and Duke Football game as “All Star Achiever.” My next hidden talent surfaced as I attended an amazing summer camp at Clemson University. I built

Goals to be accomplished A time in my life when I attempted to fulfill my goals was to play Varsity Basketball as a freshman. It all started when I was 13 years old. I played basketball for Mead Middle School and when I made team and it was close to the end of the season and the Varsity girls from East came to watch us play and I wanted them to notice me.

Growing up all I ever wanted to be was a professional football player, my dream was to make it into the NFL and repay my parents for all they've done for me. My whole life I was told to find something I love to do and stick with it, that's when I knew that football could be my free ticket out of Hawai’i. As my knowledge grew, I started to realize the struggles college would put my parents through financially, and that's when I decided football was the way to take care of that all. But as a kid, you don't see the full picture and you honestly never will, but all I knew was that I hated school and loved to play sports. Growing up I've always had people tell me to take care of my school work and be a student first. As a kid, you understand what

How did Roger Banister break the 4 min mile? How did Dennis Kimetto run a marathon in 2:02:57?

The age old question has been brought up significantly in the past couple of years and can be considered a national controversy. The answer is you can’t downright pay college athletes due the NCAA “amateurism” ruling. There are many plausible ways to compensate these athletes that are bringing in more money than the school knows what to do with. The NCAA has billions of dollars that they mindlessly shell out to programs for “updated equipment”, locker rooms,gear, etc. Also the NCAA says they pay for schooling for the athletes and that is enough, however not every athlete at a given school gets a “full ride”, or even half. This leads us to the main problem.

Our school was never very good at sports and only about five girls would be cut. I was jittery the day that the varsity roster was to be posted; I wanted nothing more than to be part of the team. After classes ended, I walked to the athletic board, where the varsity roster would be posted. I anxiously scanned the list for my name. I scanned it again. As my eyes ran over the page a third time, my heart began to sink. I hadn’t made the team. I was one of five girls who were cut from the varsity team. In a daze, I went to practice. Instead of focusing like I usually did, I went through the motions. The five of us who made up the junior varsity team had a separate practice with the assistant coach. After the sting of failure finally faded, I began to work harder than before. I showed up early to practice and stayed late every day. Every weekend I spent at least two hours on the field practicing. I was determined to make the coaches regret putting me on the “JV” team. As the season ended, I didn’t stop working to become better. Any day that was not too cold, I could be found on the field. When spring came, I joined the soccer team, hoping to improve on my endurance and speed. Over the summer, I spent at least two hours every day running and practicing. When the field hockey season rolled back around, I was ready to show off my skills and make the varsity

For the first time in our small rowing club’s history, we made it to the finals in what was our biggest regatta of the season. Unfortunately, our boat came in dead last...by a lot. We felt bad enough, but the last thing I expected was the outburst by one of the veterans. Having only a few months of rowing experience, I assumed his yelling at us was directed at me and my novice teammates. The scenario of confronting him was running through my head. By the time we stacked the boat back on the trailer, the thoughts myriad of thoughts through my mind were spoken. I spoke in a tone that my teammates have never seen before. I even surprised myself with how I stood up and defended myself and the other newer members.

Basketball was once the love of my life, 10 years of it to be exact. When I stepped into a gym, it felt like home. It occupied all of my time, and my greatest memories will always be ones from the court. Unfortunately, during the season of my freshman year, I was introduced to a game that was nothing similar to the sport I had dedicated my life to. The fact that my last name is “Moore”, I personally was instantly set up

As I kept on persevering and trying to get better, I realized that I had some talent in basketball. I began scoring more and more, and finding that me playing basketball wasn’t a burden instituted by my parents, but rather an outlet of enjoyment. Although not all people play basketball, the lesson and extremely useful skill-- perseverance -- was preeminently the best thing I learned at Terman. Ever since that one 6th basketball grade season, I have tried to apply that skill to all the challenges-- which has lead me to make the “A” team in 7th grade, and to start on the “A” team in 8th grade. I would never give away my valuable time at Terman-- it has given me a welcoming, positive learning environment as well as teaching me what I feel like is the most important skill in life, perseverance. We should all take away a sense of persevering and utilize it in our life. Thank

I attended all training sessions and spent a great amount of time playing basketball since the thrill of winning games, of becoming better pushes me forward. I believed my efforts are worthy, since I had the advantage over other players in speed and keen awareness, and I trained harder than others every day. Basketball was the only thing on my mind. Then the time came to assemble the official school team to participate in formal basketball games. I thought for all my efforts

As an individual I love staying active, socializing with others, being dependable, and keeping busy. Playing Basketball for Flour Bluff ISD, since the seventh grade, has granted me the opportunity to achieve all of these goals. For some peculiar reason I have consistently felt that I lacked experience of which my peers had, and that I would never be able to acquire it. Soon after I started playing I became intimidated of my fellow teammates and worried about the time I felt I lost, due to beginning so late in my childhood. Without fail, I always feel a sense of accomplishment after making it through tryouts every year and as I approach my final season, it has become clear just how much of my life was devoted to Basketball, that I truly love it and how I am thankful to be a part of something much more than just a team.

Instead of feeling pressure to conform as a student at the University of Georgia, I have found that being in college has made me value the importance of a higher education more so than I ever had before. During high school, my primary goal was to play well enough to receive a football scholarship. At that time, my focus was not on academics. However, since I've arrived at the University of Georgia, my entire concept of the value of a college degree has slowly changed. Rather than seeing just football in my future, I can now picture myself as a football player with a college degree. Consequently, instead of having a negative impact on my personal growth, college has helped me broaden as a person.

Being in an American school begins a student’s search to find who they are considered in the system. From a nerd to a punk, many academic ties are also involved with this identity. The one group of students who get the most academic ties with his or her extra-curricular activity is the “jock”. As having the title as a jock, a child learns that many people look at someone who plays football or basketball doesn’t have the ability to learn as fast or as well as someone who just studies and doesn’t have extra-curricular activities. Studying this topic is not as stressed as it should be, even when many programs claim to get more physical activity in students. The articles that have been reviewed were testing whether the athlete gets good grades

One rainy night in November, I arrived to the church gym for my first basketball practice of the season. As I walked in the doors creaked and you could smell the gym floor. As I already heard the basketballs hitting the ground, bouncing up and down. My friends Brittany and Destiny walked in right behind me through the door. That was when we realized we were the only girls surrounded by all guys. As practice came to a start we began to run, it felt like we were never going to stop. Up and down the court as we ran suicides, you could hear the squeaking of shoes as we went from the next line back and then on to the next. Before we started scrimmaging, the two captains were boys. Brittany, Destiny, and I stood in amazement as we were the last three standing there. You could see by their expressions they didn’t want any of us on either team.