The Undefeated vs Defeat by Hannah

The Undefeated vs Defeat by Hannah - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

It had finally happened. We were going into playoffs undefeated.
My high school field hockey team had an almost completely unblemished record with only one tie, and the rest wins. First place, confidently going into the first round of playoffs, and we could not be more proud of ourselves.
A little background to my team is that we have been an underdog all four years of my high school career and our biggest rival and toughest opponent has been Skowhegan High School. They’ve won a state championship nearly every year for the past 15-20 years, so they have a bit of a reputation. We got closer and closer to beating them every year, until this year when we beat them twice. Beating this team is honestly one of the best feelings and biggest accomplishments I’ve ever had as an athlete.
Now we can flash forward to the second round of playoffs. Just our luck we would be facing the Skowhegan Indians for a third time. Everyone in the school was super hyped up about it, even the town was! This was a really big deal and such an exciting time for the whole community. People had their doubts, telling us, “You know it’s really hard to beat a team three times.” but we could not be phased because we were fearless, fierce, and ready to kick some butt again. We knew this game was going to be hard, but this was insane. I’ve never run so hard, been so tired, or wanted something so badly. Yet my team persisted on, even when they scored a goal, we pushed back and got one ourselves. When Skowhegan got another goal before the 30 minute half was over, we were not nervous because we knew we could do it. Our coaches speech at halftime was nothing but up-lifting. We loved her, and soaked in every word she said. We would again persist. The second half of the game was so evenly matched that it was basically a game of ping pong. Back and forth, sprinting in all directions, but most importantly, no one was scoring any more goals. This key fact was bad for us, and good for them. Although we kept fighting and inched closer to our goal until the unthinkable happened. A foul was called against them in our goal, and we were rewarded with a penalty stroke. This sounds great right? Well heres the problem, I take the penalty strokes and I was beyond petrified. It all happened in a matter of seconds I had no time to think, react, or even ATTEMPT to relax. All eyes were on me anxiously hoping I would tie up the game. I lined up the ball, the ref asked If I was ready, I responded with a half hearted nod, and then asked the goalie. The whistle blew, and I shot the ball with all the power I had, did the motion I had rehearsed to do a million times, and the goalie had blocked my shot.
I have never felt like such a failure in my whole life. I had let my team down, my coach down, and most importantly disappointed myself to such a point I could hardly stand my own being. The play continued on and so did the time. The minutes winded down painstakingly fast, and the game was over. The undefeated, were finally defeated. I hated myself so much. I had a chance to score a goal for my team and coach who deserved a win so badly, but I couldn’t do it. I had failed, and this fail was going to stay with me for a long time.
It may seem a little petty that I’m saying losing a sports game is my biggest failure, but it sure was the one that affected me the most. I cried for days, the tiniest thing could set me off and I was extremely upset. Now it would be a little absurd if 4 months later I was still crying about it, so I learned something from this experience. I learned from my coach the art of persisting and pushing on, even when you feel you’re in battle. That game was so challenging and I was past exhaustion, but my coach ushered my team on to play with all our heart and power. I learned from my teammates how to be so loving, understanding, and how to pick each other up when you fall down so hard. I also learned that winning isn’t everything. Would it have been nice? Definitely. I had never had so much fun or felt more confident then when I was on a field with that team. You can love something so much, and not have the outcome you had hoped for, but that will never take away the best part of an experience. That one penalty stroke was a MAJOR blemish, but it was only one and it could never over power the rest of it. I will fail harder later on in life when it matters more, but I know I will have “teammates” to pick me up, a “coach” to hear wisdom, and an experience and another lesson to learn from.