When I was young my parents encouraged and well, sort of forced, a lot of sports upon their kids. This was a different time where there was no internet or even the notion of the internet, and we had a ton of plastic toys in a toy room in our house. The idea of sitting inside all day and staring at a screen was something we couldn't even fathom and a lot of this was because cartoons were on for a couple of hours in the afternoon and the rest of the programming was something that me and my siblings probably found boring compared to running around outside and doing physical activities.
Because of this encouragement from my parents, myself and all of my siblings tended to do very well in sports. Two of us got Division-1 college scholarships and all of us were considered one of the better players on most of the teams that we got involved with.
When I was around 12 years old my family did something that I had no choice in and at the time I took very well. We uprooted and moved a thousand miles away from all of our friends and family to a new city in a new state. My father had gotten promoted and that was that. How we kids felt about it was not part of the equation.
I was just the right age when this happened because at 12 years old you haven't yet started the awkward social stages that come along with high school and it is pretty easy to make friends at that age. I used to do it all the time.. Speaking of which.. .what happened? Making friends now is nigh on impossible.
Anyway, when I started at the new school I didn't know anyone and during recess I walked up to a group of boys that were playing American football and wanted to go through the selection process where a captain (usually the most popular and athletic kids) choose their own team. Nobody had any idea if I was going to be any good at all but since we only had like 40 minutes of mucking about time after lunch, the process went pretty quick and I soon found myself on a team
I proved myself to be an asset rather rapidly. What started as a single pass to me turned into regular inclusion, and by the end of this single game I had established myself as one of the key players out there. By the 2nd time we played, I was being selected first or second round. A few months later, I was one of the captains because I guess it was thought that it was unfair to have me and one of the already nominated captains on the same team.
That felt pretty good and I ended up being respected and wanted on all sport games that were ever done during recess.
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just a random pic of a kid with glasses playing. The real kid was actually a pretty good player too, and a very sensible child with good parents
There is one day that really sticks out with me though and that was the day that I was fouled during a game and actually stood up for myself even though I was the "new kid in town." It wasn't a fight so to speak, but the guy that was guarding me had committed "pass interference" in a pretty blatant way. I probably went a bit far with my explanation to the guy and said something like "if you so much as touch me once the ball is in the air and keep me from putting my arms up for the catch, it is pass interference."
He protested and we carried on without a fight and just moved on to the next play. He didn't continue harassing me in the same way on pass plays though.
The next day, I thought it was very grown up of this fellow 12-year old to approach me in the hallway and tell me that he spoke to his father about the rules of football and his father said that I was correct. He apologized to me. Even though we laughed it off and remained pals I look back on that day and think that this was very grown up of him and that he must have had pretty awesome parents. I never did ask him if his parents made him say that to me or not, but here we are, more than 30 years later and I can still remember his bespectacled face even though I only went to that school for a single year.
I think that this playground situation kind of shaped me as an athlete though. From that point forward I had confidence that I could turn up and just play with whoever and be able to hold my own and this would become the norm for me.
I ended up doing very well in American football as well as soccer football until my Junior year in high school where the two coaches of both teams, who both wanted me, said I should choose one and focus exclusively on that instead of trying to play both. The coaches kind of agreed that my weight and height was better suited to soccer-football and I am glad we had that chat because once I started focusing on a single sport, I really started to excel at it and this eventually resulted in getting the attention of college scouts. I am forever grateful to those coaches who had my best interests at heart.
But I also will remember that fateful day on the playground at a new school that was instrumental in me getting the confidence to take chances in sports. I think about how my life could have been very different had seemingly minor-appearing things been slightly different. If we hadn't moved and I hadn't been forced to come out of my comfort zone and try as hard as I could to impress the other kids, would have I ever tried for the greatness that I eventually achieved? It's impossible to say but I do remember that day very well even though it was a very long time ago.
Seemingly unimportant things can really mold us as athletes or just as people in general, and for me that one day in the schoolyard really shaped me as an athlete for the remainder of my teens and 20's.