For all my life, soccer has been the game I loved to play the most. When I was about 5, I started playing in the indoor YMCA league on Friday nights. If you have ever watched a 5-year-old YMCA league, you may have noticed that it was not the prettiest soccer you'll ever see. There would always be kids running in circles doing cartwheels or talking to their parents. Not very often would you see players actually 'playing' soccer, but it just so happens I was one of those kids who wasn't satisfied till I scored at least 3 goals.

These YMCA leagues went on for only a few more years till I was 8, which is when Travel soccer started along with a less committed, Saturday soccer league called Lebo Cup. There were 3 leagues that made up Lebo Cup, third and fourth grades, fifth and sixth, and lastly seventh and eighth. I played all six years and won the final tournament three of the years. The teams I was on consisted of mostly all my friends since my stepfather and my best friends dad were always coaches together. Because the games were on Saturdays, I was also allowed to play in a Travel league which was comprised of one to two practices a week with a game on Sunday. The games ranged from 15 minutes away to almost 2 and a half hours away. In order to play on this team, there was a try out which I anticipated every year because the Travel season was the most fun soccer that I had played up to that point in my life. For the Travel league, there was an A, B, and C team. Every year I tried out I made the A team up until I was 14. That year I tried out and thought I played well, but I guess I was wrong because the letter that I had received stated that I made the B team. Although I was very upset, I played the whole season and performed very well. The following season, which would be the last year that I could play Travel, I guess I played like my old self and made the A team once again. That year, we went to the final tournament of the year, Edinboro, and we won it all.

The next stage of soccer in my life was high school soccer. I had been looking forward to this my whole life, although I would have to go through dreaded preseason. For two weeks before the season started, we had three, two and half hour practice sessions a day. During the morning session, all we would do was run and do dribbling work. In the afternoon session, we would run for 15 minutes, then begin with dribbling, then move into passing and shooting games, and then at night we would play in actual game situations. As a freshman, I made the JV team, which was an excitement for me. I did not think I would make JV mainly because my then, 5'4" 135 lb frame, didn't help my game much. But my hard work paid off and I played in every game of the season and finished with 5 goals and a few assists. At the end of the season, the Varsity coach usually calls up 3 players from the JV team to help out with the varsity team for the playoffs and maybe even get in a game or two, which was kind of unlikely. Surprisingly, I was one of the call-ups so I got to travel with the Varsity team, who that year won WPIAL’s, which is a section of teams all from Western Pennsylvania. Although I did not play in any of the playoff games that year, I still got the gold medal that the rest of the team received.

The following year, which was my sophomore year in high school I made JV once again and was the captain of the team. The season went well; we went 14-5. I was called up to play on Varsity for a few regular season games. My junior was also a fun one. I made varsity and started as the right marking back every game of the season. In the playoffs we made it to the WPIAL finals but lost to our hometown rivals USC.

Last year, as a senior, was probably the most fun soccer that I had played in my life. Going into preseason, we were not ranked in WPIAL's. Our local newspaper didn't even believe we would have a winning season but we proved them wrong. As a senior captain, I helped lead my team to a 14-9-2 record, which doesn't really show how much we excelled. Against every team, we put up a hard fight. We played the number one team in the league twice. The first meeting we lost 4-1 but in the second game we tied 1-1. We made it to the playoffs but lost 3-1. By making it to the playoffs, we prove many people wrong. After the season, I was voted to the All-Section team by the coaches in our section.

Some people might not believe that last year was a success, but if you watched the games, you would see how far we came from the beginning of the season to the end. I am greatly going to miss playing soccer for a Mt. Lebanon team and I wouldn't give up playing for a team again for anything.