One instance where I participated in a successful team was when I ran cross country when I was a freshman in high school. At fifteen turning sixteen, I was very much out of shape and had a terrible diet that consisted of hot Cheetos and sour patch kids. At that age, I don’t think I realized how serious of a problem it was becoming, but my dad always tried to politely suggest that maybe I start running cross country with my sisters after school every day. I always just shrugged it off though. One day, he came and picked me up from school and dropped me off outside of my sisters’ high school, where they were outside running cross country practice. I looked at my dad and said, “I’m being forced aren’t I” and he simply said “Yes”.
So, I started going to the practices every day with my sisters and I hated every single moment of it. Everyone was already friends and I wasn’t as quick to open up as I am today. I was always the last person to finish the two-mile warm up and I had no motivation to get better at running. Not even my track star sisters could convince me that I would become better at running. So, time went by, practice after practice and I came up to my first cross country race. The entire day I remember not caring that I had a two-and-a-half-mile race ahead of me. Seeing me devouring everything in sight, my dad came into the kitchen and said “Sweetheart, don’t you have a cross country race today?” and I said “Yeah. so?” and he just shook his head and walked away.
Fast forward to getting on the bus with the other girls and seeing everyone so excited for this race. I just sat quietly in the back with headphones on not socializing with any of the girls. I was so tuned out I missed coach Bradley’s motivational speech he makes every bus ride. So as all the girls got off the bus in a very excited manner, I got off the bus with no emotion. My coach just looked at me, shook his head, and walked away.
When I saw his face, I knew I wasn’t even going to try to attempt to finish this race. He saw all the girls warming up without me and I assumed, that was the last straw for him. He rounded up all the girls to come talk to me.
After apparently looking for me for “20 minutes” the girls and coach Bradley found me towards the end of the race. He pulled me aside from my friends and sat me down with the girls. Then one by one, all the girls started talking about how they struggled when they first started running just like I did. That conversation made me feel very secure and safe with these girls, they made sure I knew that they knew what I was going through. They also shared with me all their struggles they had with Coach Bradley and how he gave all the girls this talk when they struggled. He then introduced me to the junior varsity coach and said that she would be working with me one on one on certain days and other days with the other junior varsity girls. That showed me how organized this team was. Even though coach Bradley was the head coach, he still had coaches under him for specific skill levels in the sport (varsity, junior varsity). When she scheduled out times for us to run just the two of us and for us to run with the rest of the girls, that showed organization as well and that she was determined to get me up to par with the rest of the girls. The last thing my coach said to me was how this sport takes commitment, and this fact I could see on the first day of practice. I could barely get through that two-mile warmup and there’s going to be a few more weeks I couldn’t keep up with everyone, but that’s how everyone started. He also explained that it’s the practice we do every day that’ll make me a stronger runner, I just had to commit to going every single day. And after that talk, I did. This successful team I was a part of convinced me that I was able to accomplish things that I never could see myself doing and I acquired life skills that I will hold with me for a very long time.
Successful teams 