Do You Play Any Sports?

By Justin Chen, Parkway Central High School, 2003 Graduate

It's the beginning of fall, and I'm sitting in the office of my High School guidance counselor. While typing up something on his computer, he asks, "So Justin, do you play any sports?"

Of course I play sports, so I answer with a typical, "Uh, yeah."

"Oh, do you play tennis?"

Time out. Of all the sports offered at my school, why would he suggest that I play tennis? Perhaps because most Asian athletes he has met have been involved in that sport. This of course leads to the question: Why do most Asians play tennis instead of other sports? You'll have to look elsewhere for the answer, because I don't play tennis.

Until my senior year, I was a soccer player for my High School in the fall. For my first two years, I played Junior Varsity. Practices usually lasted for a couple of hours immediately after school. Games, too, occurred right after school, but they ended up taking much more time than practices. Because I didn't get home until about 6:00pm, I was at a severe disadvantage academically. To compensate for my loss of time to do homework, I had to go to sleep at later times than normal. Unfortunately, I soon had to take naps after coming home from school because I would be too tired from staying up the night before. This was not fun, but soccer was worth enough to me to keep on this crazy sleep schedule.

Well, it was worth enough until I started playing Varsity my junior year. The first problem was the length of the practices; they were, on average, much longer than Junior Varsity practices. Secondly, there were many more games, including extra tournaments and the district playoffs. Games started at night, usually around 7:00pm, and also took up more time. These problems, added with a harder academic schedule and other personal reasons, made me realize that it was no longer any fun to be a part of the soccer program. When something you do for fun isn't fun anymore, you should probably quit. Still, I finished the season with the team because I had made a commitment by joining in the first place.

Aside from soccer in the fall, I ran track for my school in the spring. I started out my freshman year as a sprinter/hurdler, which I was decent at but not stellar enough to score any points for the team. I was also playing club soccer at the time, and I soon discovered how exhausting it was to play two sports competitively during the same season. My body couldn't take the work, and as a result I strained one of my leg muscles early in the season. I, foolishly, ignored the injury, kept training, and luckily got through the season without aggravating the strain. Through all of this, I once again had to sacrifice sleep in order to have time to do homework and study for tests.

At this point, all I've had to show for soccer and track are a strained right quadriceps and a severe case of sleep deprivation. In other words: not much. The turning point came at the Patriot Classic meet, during an event that I wasn't even supposed to run.

While the team was changing in the locker room before we left for the meet, the coach announced that he needed someone to run one of the legs in the 4x800m relay since one of the original runners had to drop out. Since I wasn't running anything that day (it was a 2 day meet), I told him I would do it. We finished close to last in that race, but it didn't matter. My time of 2:19 was the fastest of any freshman that year, and with it I earned a spot on the JV 4x800m team. Ever since then, I've been an 800m runner for the school and have consistently scored points for the team.

During my sophomore season of track, I started training with the distance runners instead of the sprinters. The workouts were considerably harder, but I discovered something amazing about distance running: anyone can be good at it! Of course, natural talent still matters, but one can overcome the barrier of having little talent simply by training harder than the ones who do. Distance running, in my experience, is a lot like getting high SAT scores and good grades in school. Intelligence and talent are never as important as how hard you work.

And I worked hard. With my heavy academic schedule and other extracurricular activities, however, I was unable to train in the off season as often as other runners. I managed my time as well as I could, and, by the time my junior season of track started, I was one of the top returning runners on the team. The hard work paid off when I, along with 3 of the other top distance runners, broke the 4x1600m relay school record. Our 4x800m team also made it to the sectional meet, finishing 5th and just failing to qualify for state by 2 seconds.

With all my success in distance running and my general unhappiness with the soccer program, I decided to run cross country my senior year. I discussed this with the soccer coach, and he understood that I wanted to focus on my running and thanked me for letting him know about my plans in advance. I worked hard over the summer and went on regular 10-mile runs to train with the cross country elite. My first and last cross country season was very satisfying. I finished in the top 15 and medaled in every race until the state meet, where I finished 85th. My state place wasn't that bad, considering that I was running against 2 Kansas City teams that were ranked in the top 5 in the nation. At the conference meet, my 7th place finish earned me a spot on the All-Conference first team. Life was good, and college applications were starting to look much stronger.

Because our track team lost 3 of the 4x800m runners to graduation last year, the only way I could score points during my senior year was by running in the individual 800m run. Although I raced successfully in that event in my sophomore year, I had never raced head-to-head against the top individual Varsity runners from other schools before. It was hard to get used to the new level of competition at first, but my coach and I eventually figured out a racing strategy that fit well with my running style. In the end, I somehow managed to qualify for sectionals individually and earn first team All-Conference honors by finishing 2nd in the conference meet.

It's never too late to start playing a sport. I began playing soccer when I was about 6, but it was distance running, which I first started when I was 16, that brought me success in the end. Of course, starting young will give you a clear advantage over others. Everyone knows about youth soccer leagues, but not many people know that kids starting at age 6 can run in regular track and cross country meets by joining a club team. For potential distance runners, I would suggest joining the St. Louis Blazers track club (http://home.swbell.net/bp3434/blazers.html). If you start training with them at an early age, I guarantee you will be a star in high school.

Playing sports in high school provided me with some of the best moments of my life, and I have no regrets. But that's just me; sports are not for everyone. The truth is: the key to success is in perseverance. You will not work your hardest at something if you don't have a passion for it. So if you absolutely abhor sports, don't let yourself be forced into doing them! If, on the other hand, you have the "eye of the tiger" or are even just a little bit curious about how good you can be, I encourage you to try a sport, even if it is tennis.