It has never been easy being in the limelight, especially for a sport. For athletes there is already an unprecedented amount of pressure placed on them by themselves; not to mention from parents, coaches, and teammates. This pressure, when it goes unchecked, can lead to greater problems. I am a soccer player and have been since I was seven years old. Throughout my many years of experience, I've come across every type of player and coach. With these experiences come the good and the bad. Just like with anything, the more terrible moments stick out in my memory and truly shape who I am. I found a passion for coaching this past school year after recieving the opportunity to coach at my high school. I feel that it is so important to change how coaches treat young athletes and change the stigma around athletes mental health. My experiences have allowed me to connect with young athletes and understand their struggles. I am no longer fighting for just my mental health but for athletes everywhere. I have utilized concepts taught to me in classes related to my coaching minor. Concepts like tone of voice, team bonding, and overall comradery are my main focus. I also utilize my safe space training to allow athletes to feel comfortable coming to me with heavy topics. I frequently bring up ideas like mental health, anxiety, and pressure to my players so they understand how their words and my words can affect them and their teammates in the future. Lastly, I allow open discussion about feedback for me and my coaching style.

It has never been easy being in the limelight, especially for a sport. For athletes there is already an unprecedented amount of pressure placed on them by themselves; not to mention from parents, coaches, and teammates. This pressure, when it goes unchecked, can lead to greater problems. I am a soccer player and have been since I was seven years old. Throughout my many years of experience, I've come across every type of player and coach. With these experiences come the good and the bad. Just like with anything, the more terrible moments stick out in my memory and truly shape who I am. Let's being the story with my first ever soccer coach, my Uncle Mike. What began as a whirlwind of learning and growing quickly turned to screaming and unkind words. A person whom I admired and shared many Christmases with became a person I feared. At just seven years old I would cry before going to practice and had such severe butterflies in my stomach that I thought I would throw up. I now realize that I had anxiety about a sport and a person I was supposed to love. In the seventh grade my family made the decision to switch soccer clubs and cut ties with my uncle and his family. This choice did not come lightly, but came after a season that left me no longer wanting to play soccer. With this switch I found many coaches I loved and who helped me grow and become mentally stronger. However, I was experiencing a new form of bullying. Not from my coach but from my teammates. I was not invited to team dinners and activities. I had one friend on the team and dreaded the days she wouldn't attend practice. I still do not truly understand what set me a part from the rest, but as I grew into myself in high school things began to change. The girls who were mean or had not ever spoken a word to me suddenly wanted to be my friends. I was cautious but welcoming to the new found friendships. In my last year of club soccer, my senior year, I had a new coach and all new teammates. Once again I was on a team that didn't want me to be their friend, but this time I also had a coach who disliked me. It felt like the world was against me, and over and over again life was beating me with a sledge hammer. I would be knocked down and get right back up again, but at what point did I have enough? Every day I became a step closer to not wanting to be on this Earth, but then came the final straw. In late October of my senior year I tore my meniscus and ripped the articular cartilage off of my femure. Followed by a surgery, I was physically and mentally drained with little left to give. However, finally, my mom noticed my struggle. Every day I fight the demons in my head telling me I'm not good enough. With the right support system and my amazing college coach I have turned years of tears, anxiety, and hidden sorrows into a love and passion for my sport. Although I still fight for my place on Earth everyday, it slowly gets better. I found a passion for coaching where I want to change how coaches treat young athletes and change the stigma around athletes mental health. I am no longer fighting for just my mental health but for athletes everywhere.

I have always been looked at differently for a feature that makes me noticable in a crowd. A feature that made me an easy target for bullies, but also a feature that made me highly memorable to those who knew me; my firey ginger hair. In middle school, no one looked at me sideways because of my hair, but then came high school. I had not known a bully until my freshman year, and I honestly did not know how to handle their words. However, when I did not know what to do, there was one person I could turn to for answers; my grandmother. Growing up, she had experienced much of the same taunting as I, and had found an outlet to ease her troubles; painting. In high school, I took a liking to painting, much inspired by her talent and guidence. I was able to portray our stories and myself in a way that only those with an artistic eye could decipher. My artistic abilities gave me an outlet to counteract the words the bullies said to me. A canvas and my brushes gave me a way to immerse myself in a different world, much like reading a book. I intend to exit college with either an art or dance minor, in order to give other teenagers and students an outlet to their surroundings. The arts, in all its different forms, give students a place to be free and express stories and memories without fear or conviction. Although my overall major is currently sports and exercise science, I intend to continue coaching both dance and soccer for young adults. Both sports provide an outlet for athletes, especially high school students, to find people similar to them. The sports provide a community of like-minded peers, brought together by a common interest. And even if my career choice or studies change I will forever be bonded to the people who gave me a safe place and an outlet. For in these places I was and am not judged, only loved. In these places I found an environment that was uplifting and exactly what I needed to escape from my troubles at school. Being a coach for both dance and soccer has provided me the ability to counteract the words of coaches and bullies that brought me down. I have created teams with a coach and teammates they can tell about their troubles. I have taken all my experiences, good and bad, and created an environment in which I would have wanted to participate in growing up.

It has never been easy being in the limelight, especially for a sport. For athletes there is already an unprecedented amount of pressure placed on them by themselves; not to mention from parents, coaches, and teammates. This pressure, when it goes unchecked, can lead to greater problems. I am a soccer player and have been since I was seven years old. Throughout my many years of experience, I've come across every type of player and coach. With these experiences come the good and the bad. Just like with anything, the more terrible moments stick out in my memory and truly shape who I am. Let's being the story with my first ever soccer coach, my Uncle Mike. What began as a whirlwind of learning and growing quickly turned to screaming and unkind words. A person whom I admired and shared many Christmases with became a person I feared. At just seven years old I would cry before going to practice and had such severe butterflies in my stomach that I thought I would throw up. I now realize that I had anxiety about a sport and a person I was supposed to love. In the seventh grade my family made the decision to switch soccer clubs and cut ties with my uncle and his family. This choice did not come lightly, but came after a season that left me no longer wanting to play soccer. With this switch I found many coaches I loved and who helped me grow and become mentally stronger. However, I was experiencing a new form of bullying. Not from my coach but from my teammates. I was not invited to team dinners and activities. I had one friend on the team and dreaded the days she wouldn't attend practice. I still do not truly understand what set me a part from the rest, but as I grew into myself in high school things began to change. The girls who were mean or had not ever spoken a word to me suddenly wanted to be my friends. I was cautious but welcoming to the new found friendships. In my last year of club soccer, my senior year, I had a new coach and all new teammates. Once again I was on a team that didn't want me to be their friend, but this time I also had a coach who disliked me. It felt like the world was against me, and over and over again life was beating me with a sledge hammer. I would be knocked down and get right back up again, but at what point did I have enough? Every day I became a step closer to not wanting to be on this Earth, but then came the final straw. In late October of my senior year I tore my meniscus and ripped the articular cartilage off of my femure. Followed by a surgery, I was physically and mentally drained with little left to give. However, finally, my mom noticed my struggle. Every day I fight the demons in my head telling me I'm not good enough. With the right support system and my amazing college coach I have turned years of tears, anxiety, and hidden sorrows into a love and passion for my sport. Although I still fight for my place on Earth everyday, it slowly gets better. I found a passion for coaching where I want to change how coaches treat young athletes and change the stigma around athletes mental health. I am no longer fighting for just my mental health but for athletes everywhere.