More Than Just A Sport by Rebecca

More Than Just A Sport by Rebecca - November 2019 Scholarship Essay

Being a student-athlete has its good days and bad days. Some days I’ll wake up at 4am for swim practice, go to practice, go to school, go to swim practice, do homework, and then finally get to sleep again. Those are probably the hardest days. The days that make me (and all of my classmates) wonder why I’ve dedicated so much of my life into one sport.
My club swim team is much different from my high school team. My club team has won nationals many times and is one of the biggest programs in the state. On the other hand, my high school team has about 25 people and has never come close to winning a state championship. When I joined the team in seventh grade, the state team was 3 people, myself included. My senior season, we took 15 people to state- the biggest team yet. So how did we make that jump from 3 people to 15? I’d like to think that I was a part of the change that occurred on the team.
Being one of the fastest people on the team means that people look up to you. Being an eighth grader and having seniors look up to you is a weird feeling, but it’s one that I quickly got used to. I helped build the team by recruiting people to join the swim team. I helped coach and teach different techniques to the people who had never swam before. I led the team cheer and taught it to the new seventh graders. I was team captain for my junior and senior season. Leading has quickly become second nature to me thanks to the leadership position I was given by this team.
So what does my extra-curricular activity have to do with the whole student body? Simple. When I joined the swim team, my high school barely even knew that there was a swim team. Now as a graduating senior, I’ve helped to create a name for the swim team and I’ve helped bring us the most state qualifiers and the most points in school history.
Not only have I helped the swim team, but the team has helped me. I’ve met people that I never would have met otherwise. I’ve learned valuable lessons on sportsmanship and leadership. It’s easy for somebody to lead a winning team, but a true leader can lead any team, no matter the talent. This team has helped me realize that anybody can be a leader, no matter how young.