The whistle blows, the ball starts to roll as the second playoff game of the club season begins. Game after game determines how the next hours of my life will be spent, but now it is all about this team and this game. 
The parents cheer and jeer from both sides, but the only people I can hear are my coach, Fred, and my trainers, Matt, Mark, Jim Chad and Kevin. My trainers have been the most influential people in my life since I began training with Sports Quest three years ago. They have not only affected my soccer life, but also my spiritual life and academic life.
Since Sports Quest is a Christian soccer training program, the trainers have taught me how to integrate my religion into my daily life. I had never thought of praying after practice or before a game until I started with Sports Quest. I have learned to pray to get through hard times and to thank God for the good times, because of the trainers’ teachings. For example we pray after practice, before and after games; mostly we ask God to protect us from injury, to heal old injuries, to help us overcome difficulties in school and to help sick family members.
Jim, Matt, Mark, Chad and Kevin taught me how to push myself to my limit; they taught me how to challenge myself on and off the field. Mainly Kevin trains my team twice a week for one and a half hours and he comes to watch our games on Saturdays and Sundays. All the trainers traveled to Beaumont, Texas, to encourage us and the other teams as we competed in playoffs. Their dedication to working with us, making us better, and to the sport in general has inspired me to take soccer more seriously than I had in the past. Every practice has a focus either on an offensive aspect of soccer, such as finishing, or on a defensive aspect, such as positioning. Kevin instructs us on a drill or two that the team works on for forty-five minutes to an hour. Most of the drills involve earning points, which pushes each person to work hard so they can do less fitness, the more points we earn the l
ess fitness we have to do at the end of the drill. For the last half an hour of practice we scrimmage the other under eighteen girls team or the under seventeen boys team, where the team is expected to use the skill practiced in the drills. The trainers inspire me to work towards always reaching for my full potential as a soccer player. I have improved my soccer skills so much under their program that I even won the most improved award on my school’s varsity team in 2003. It is easy to learn from the trainers because I can watch them play together on their competitive adult team; they set a good example for me and all the other players.
The lessons Kevin has taught me about soccer have carried over into other parts of my life. While training many teams, Chad, Kevin and Mark are still in college; I think that if they can keep up with everything and still put one hundred percent into training, then I can deal with school and sports too. Although all the trainers take soccer seriously, they still have fun playing and teaching us on the field. I hope that soccer never becomes something I dread. I strive to be able to play at the same level as they do every time I go out on the field, and also to enjoy myself every time I play. This has helped me learn to also enjoy school while still taking my studies seriously.
I would love to have the chance to teach or play soccer as my job, or anything that would put me closer to the game as an adult.
