darrien vigil '16 Recruiting Profile

Number Eleven

Bottom of the seventh inning of the first round High School Baseball Play-Offs. Tied ball game. One out. Runner on third base. Number eleven at the plate. I wonder what number eleven is feeling; What is he thinking? All the distracting noise surrounding the batter as the anxiousness from the coaches, the team and mostly the batter himself increase. The pitcher starts his pitching windup the field becomes silent for a few seconds. Number eleven notices the inside curve ball and decides to take advantage “Crack!”. The ball is hit perfectly to an empty gap in the field and the runner scores to take the lead. I wonder what number eleven is feeling now?

I am number eleven. At this moment in my senior year I think back to my first year of baseball I ever played. “If you believe it you can achieve it.” A very well known quote that my pee-wee baseball coach told a group of four and five year olds stuck with me and helped shape me to the person I am today.

That playoff game my senior year is a perfect example of “If you believe something you can achieve it”. I believed I was going to make the perfect hit and I did. I made the nine opponents on the field, the fifty plus people in the stands and ten to fifteen more people in the opponent dugout waiting for me to mess up to take the long bus ride home early. Even though our team did not win the whole tournament it was by far one of the best memories of high school.

I have always played basketball since I was young but it definitely was not my favorite sport to play. Others tell me that it is not my sport because there is not enough physical contact. For that specific reason my junior year I tried wrestling for the first time. It was probably the hardest thing to do mentally and physically. There were times I wanted to quit. Also being my first year wrestling against some state qualifiers was especially challenging. The quote “When you fall you get back up,” Was literally my motto the entire season. After a few weeks of training, cutting, and dieting I started to get the hang of things. Even though I would go to bed without a real dinner, even though i would practice for three hours a day it was worth it because I was becoming more experienced and more familiar with moves and how to defend them. I was no longer the practice dummy and then that is when things started to change and become fun. I cannot say I was the best wrestler not even a good wrestler since I didn't win many matches, but when I won my first match I immediately gained confidence and was so proud of myself. In wrestling your one on one so there is nobody you can blame or point fingers at. So when I walked off the mat with my first victory I felt so proud of myself because I did it. I worked to get there, I cut to get there and winning for myself motivated me even more to stay committed. The end of the season came quickly and honestly I cannot believed I lettered in my first year of varsity wrestling. For myself, trying new things is for the best.

These two experiences challenged me into believing in myself to achieve goals. Also trying new things for the better are the reasons why I am the way I am. These experiences showed me that if you are committed and you put your mind to something you can be unstoppable. Without these challenging moments I experienced that I adapted to and eventually overcome I would not be who I want to be and most of all I would not be successful.