When I touched a field hockey stick for the first time, I had no idea the sport would 

become a four-year passion of mine, or that I would be captain for two years. I didn’t 

know I would use that stick to whack the ball past the goalie, scoring the first goal of 

the season last year. In that fateful game, I dribbled the ball down the field, passed it 

to my teammate, who then crossed it back to me, before I tapped it into the goal.

However, in the fast-paced game setting, my teammates thought she had scored the 

goal, not me. At first I felt cheated out of my glory, but later I realized the goal wasn’t 

for myself, it was for the team. That day I learned not only how to be a field hockey 

player, but also how to be a team player.