This is the transcript of a speech I gave to a
group of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders (and their
parents) at an Athletics Banquet at my middle
school on May 20, 2004.
Many of you may know my sister, Ellen, who graduated
from here last year. She told me that she frequently
was frustrated when teachers recognized her as
"Nathan's sister." Those of you with older brothers
and sisters who went to school here may feel the same
way, so tonight I am proud to say that I am here this
evening as Ellen's older brother!
I barely recognized the school when I saw it this
evening. The new library and gymnasium make this a
much bigger and nicer place. I still haven't found
the nice cafeteria with the hot meals-but I'll keep
looking. On the other hand, after 3 years of eating
college cafeteria food, I'm not sure that I would want
to wish a cafeteria on you. You may just want to
stick with bagged lunches and Riviera pizza!
I'm honored to be speaking to all of you tonight, and
would like to thank Karen Requa and the Medford Lakes
Athletic Booster Club for hosting this event tonight.
I know you would all like to get home and watch at
least part of the Flyers game (at least I know I would
like to), so I will do my best to be brief.
I have been actively involved in sports for over 15
years. I love playing sports for the exercise, for
the teamwork, and for the challenge of competition.
Ever since playing on my first soccer team here in
Medford Lakes, I have been especially captivated by
the game of soccer.
I have played on many school and traveling teams,
including the team here at Neeta School. Today I am
the goalkeeper for my college's varsity team at
Swarthmore. Soccer has been a big part of my life up
until this point, and much of who I am today is the
result of my involvement in athletics.
As an athlete, I have enjoyed a number of successes,
including competing in the championship soccer game in
my 8th grade year here at Neeta, being named to the
All State Soccer Team in my senior year at Shawnee,
and after my junior year in college, becoming the
first player from Swarthmore College in several years
to be named to the All Centennial Conference Soccer
Team and to the Regional Academic All American Soccer Team.
My soccer career has not been all success, however.
To the contrary, I have experienced many
disappointments and failures. Believe it or not, my
failures or disappointments may have outnumbered my
successes. I expect that all of you at some point in
your sports careers have experienced disappointments
or what you at the time thought were failures. If you
have not, you will.
While I have always welcomed and enjoyed the
successes, time and time again it has been my
failures, instead of my successes, that have driven me
to succeed, and that have helped me grow as an athlete
and as a person.
Several times in my soccer career I have begun the
season as the starting goalkeeper only to lose my
starting position. The most recent of these happened
during my sophomore year at college.
Under a new coach, I began the season as the starting
goalkeeper, but after playing poorly in a few games
and then subsequently separating my shoulder, I lost
my starting job to a freshman. Even after recovering
from my shoulder injury, I struggled to earn back my
starting position. Each and every practice I gave
everything I could, but consistently my coach elected
to keep me on the bench for games.
Obviously, I was very frustrated by my coach's
decision to continue starting the freshman goalkeeper
over me, especially since we weren't winning and I
felt I could help turn things around if I were on the
field. I never stopped believing in myself and what
I could do on the field to help my team.
Ultimately, I was given the opportunity to start
several of our final games during my sophomore college
season, and I thought I had played well. However, the
sweetness of this small success was quickly soured
when my coach decided to sideline me for the final
match of the season against our rival school,
Haverford College.
Following that season, for a short time, I had serious
doubts about whether I should continue playing on the
college soccer team, especially considering the
demands of my astrophysics college major. When
weighing the pros and cons of remaining on the team, I
asked the advice of several of those closest to me,
and more often than not they advised me to quit the team.
However, while their arguments were persuasive, I
decided that I was unwilling to concede defeat by
quitting. If my soccer career was going to end
prematurely, my coach would have to cut me from the
team, because I refused to let go of the game that I
have loved so dearly and for so long without a fight.
In the summer prior to my junior year at college, I
trained very hard with the goal of proving my coach
wrong and becoming the undisputed best goalkeeper on
our team. When he benched me in the previous season,
my coach often cited the strengths of my freshman
teammate, which just happened to be the weaknesses of
my game.
I knew that if I was going to succeed in proving to my
coach that I was the better candidate for the starting
job, I would not only have to improve on the weak
areas of my game, but make them the strengths of my
game. To make them my strengths, I had to practice
constantly.
We often perceive professional athletes as individuals
who possess great natural talent and who do not have
to practice or work on their game-related skills to
be successful. Indeed, there are many good players at
the professional level who do not actively work to
maintain and improve their game.
The great players on the professional level, however,
are those who constantly work to improve their game,
who make their weaknesses the strengths of their game,
and who strive to be the best players they can
possibly be. Of course, I am not a professional
athlete, and I am not blessed with great natural
talent. I have always had to work very hard to succeed.
Yes, I was a good goalkeeper in high school and in my
sophomore year in college, but I was by no stretch of
the imagination a great goalkeeper. I knew that in
order move more toward the great class of athlete and
thereby win back my starting position in college, I
would have to work harder than I had ever worked
before. And that is what I did.
Last summer, I worked on my game a little bit each
day, and when soccer pre-season arrived, I was the
best goalkeeper I had ever been. Much better than
when I was an All State goalkeeper selection at
Shawnee. Much better than I had been in my first two
years of college. As a result, this past season, in
my junior year at
Swarthmore, I won back my starting job during
preseason, and helped lead my team to more conference
wins than we had in the last five years combined,
including a shutout victory against John's Hopkins
University, which was ranked 13th in the nation at the
time. Following the season, I was honored with selections to
the All-Conference Team, the Regional Academic
All-American Team, and the team MVP award. I was also
selected by my teammates to be one of the Captains of
the team. By far, this past season was the most
successful I have had in my entire life.
I tell you this story not to parade my own
accomplishments, but to demonstrate that it is
possible to rebound from the low points in your
athletic career and in your life. In fact, these
low points are what should drive us to succeed. As
the great Michael Jordan once said,
I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have
been entrusted to take the game-winning shot and I
missed. I have failed over and over again in my life
- and that's precisely why I succeed.
Certainly, you are never guaranteed success in sports
or in life. Even if you approach the game with the
attitude of being the best player you can be, you may
never win any awards or championships. In fact, most
of you never will.
However, I can promise you that if you approach
athletics and life in this way, you will grow both as
an athlete and a person.
I can promise that if you never compromise your
dedication to improve your play and yourself, you will
never have any regrets.
I can promise that if you refuse to accept defeat
by quitting, you will go through life knowing that
if something does not work out it wasn't because you
didn't try hard enough.
Finally, I can promise that if your resolve is
unwavering in the face of failure, you will enjoy the
most satisfying career and life possible.
Now, I challenge you to go out into the world and live
out the promise, and become the best athletes, no, the
best people you can be.
Thank you for letting me be with you here this
evening.
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