Daniel deRoos

UWRT 1101

Mr. Arnold

Literacy Narrative - Soccer

Growing up with two older siblings has always had an effect on my life through the form

of competition. Most things that we did together growing up, was playing sports. I have an older

sister, who’s 18 months older than me, and an older brother, who’s 4 years older. Being the

youngest, I watched them play soccer for many years and learned from the mistakes that they or

their teammates made on the field. When I started to play, back in 2001 when I was 4, I was a

fast learner because I self-taught myself by going to siblings games and watching them play. I

loved the idea of scoring goals instead of saving them. I started my career of becoming literate in

soccer by playing the position of striker. When on a team, I would have as much fun as I could,

and score goals one after another. The reasons that I scored so many goals was due to playing in

the yard against my defender siblings who were better than me at the time. I learned from the

mistakes I made dribbling or running by them. I pushed myself to be better and stronger than

them thanks to competition. I have always like the idea of coaches and other players knowing

who I am on the field. There was once a game where a coach told a player to never leave my

side. I ended up scoring 3 goals during that game because I pushed myself to keep scoring and

show the coach that it will not be that easy.

My teammates also had a positive effect on me through competition by becoming friends

with them. Through becoming friends, this allowed me to work alongside them nicely and end

up with a win. Having excellent communication on and off the field with my teammates let me

play at a level that seems to me as unstoppable. Their willingness to communicate with me made

my gameplay so much better and enhance my skills and thought process to play the sport I love.

My dad was the biggest reason that I have become so advanced and literate in soccer.

Through coaching and support along many years I have played, he has never left my side. My

dad has been involved directly with my soccer teams for club soccer for my entire soccer club

career. Being a coach or manager for my team he has been there to support me and my team no

matter what. As well as being my coach, he also helped to coach my sibling’s soccer teams.

While he helped them to develop their skills, he help me more because I have more of a natural

ability for any sport compared to them.

With my dad coaching my soccer teams over the many years I have played, he has taught

me many skills and techniques to better my game for the sport. Hours upon hours of running,

sweating, and repetition of drills, my skills have been honed to the best they can be. When my

dad was in high school, he was on the soccer team there as well as baseball and basketball. He

taught me everything that he learned as well as working alongside me to work on my first touch,

weight of a pass, and to be unselfish with the ball. I have become literate in soccer with his help.

There is no one I would rather have to push me harder and farther than I have ever gone before.

Being the coach’s son was always something that I was very aware of when he coached me.

Normally in the experiences that I have seen, the coach’s sons or daughters are below the

average level of play, but are still on the team because their parent coaches the team. I strived to

be the best one on the field to be the exception to that thought. While I loved my dad being

coach, it pushed me to become greater and to never be thought that I was only on the team

because of my father.

Along with being a great coach, my dad was always a huge supporter of my school career

for middle and high school. I played middle school soccer and high school soccer for the

maximum number of years I was able to play. With 6th graders not being allowed to play any

sports, I started in 7th grade and progressed all the way to a senior in high school. My dad came

to every one of my games that he could, if his work travel schedule did not overlap. When I

scored or did a really good play, my coach would cheer and congratulate me, fans would clap

and cheer, but my dad was always the loudest and the one I heard most of the time. With his

cheering, it made me better by trying harder to score again or make another good play again and

again to get the cheers of the fans and my father. After my games, we would talk about how the

game went and what I did well, and what I did not do as well in. This exchanging of information

and communication between my father and I was a time that we really bonded.

In order for me to have become literate in the sport that I love, I needed money. That’s

where my dad pulled through for me by helping to pay for soccer cleats, jerseys, bags, tape, and

accessories for soccer that I needed. For me it was hard to become literate if I did not have cleats

or shin guards. My dad has invested a lot of money for me to play soccer over the 14 plus years

that I have been playing. Being able to buy a new pair of cleats when the ones I was using busted

or tore, or driving me to and from practice as well as games, and the time he used for helping me

to advance my skills was the best thing he could do for. He gave up so much time for me to be

happy and I’m eternally grateful for all he has given up.

My physique has allowed me to create opportunities to hone my skills and better myself

and stand out amongst other players. Endless hours running around neighborhoods and along

streets built my cardio to be very good. I have always enjoyed running because it would keep me

healthy, but also let me blow off steam by giving me time to think about situations. I was/am in

great shape which makes me happy and strive to enjoy life without having to worry about a

weight problem. By working out, running or walking, I have been healthy for my whole life.

With me being healthy a lot compared to being sick, I can practice and play more soccer and

better my skills by performing more drills or playing scrimmages against friends, family, or

teammates.