A Road Less Traveled: My Journey to Now, Part II

**This is Part II in a series of posts titled “A Road Less Traveled: My Journey to Now”. Please read all of this as I lay it all out there and take you on the journey; my own personal story to say, that has made me the coach and person I am today..

Be sure to check out Part I first to get a handle of where we’re at now up to this point..

After pretty much struggling in most sporting endeavors I tried, I had zero clue to where I would fit in. Let’s give you a quick run-down of some sporting adventures I took up and ultimately failed in…

1.) Youth Soccer- I think I scored a total of 4 goals in all my years of playing (I think 3), with 3 of those goals coming in the last game I ever played in.. Not very coordinated with kicking a ball around a field, not my thing. No biggie.

2.) Little League Baseball- Had the worst batting average both years I played. Couldn’t hit a ball to save my life. I think I got lucky a couple times and connected but never got more than a double probably. Struck out nearly every time I went up to bat; pretty much afraid of getting hit by a pitch after a wild pitch my first year hit me square in the face. Ouch…

3.) BMX/Roller-Blading/Skateboard (aka the “Extreme” Sports) – All of my friends were into it, so naturally I took a liking to it- or so I thought. Deep down I despised skateboarding (I was bad at it), riding a bike wasn’t in my favor (fell off my bike multiple times, including once where I split my forehead open pretty bad, enough to where I had to visit the ER. As far as “blading” went, I grew out of it.. I did have fun playing roller-hockey (outdoor hockey on roller-blades) but it was just a rec-league activity and I pretty much grew out of that after a season or two.

4.) Bowling- I nearly forgot about this, but YES, I was a competitive bowler for 2 years . Me and two of my really good friends at the time were all pretty good at it, so we joined the local youth league. I actually was OK at it, too. Pretty fun, and still have never beat my best score (185). I like to just bowl for speed and throw the ball as hard as possible now, haha!

Despite all of these happenings, I still LOVED to be outside, move around, climb trees, jump over things, run, etc. P.E. was actually fun for me, while most of the kids in my class hated the thought of it. I was always a very competitive type of kid and would race others, play pick-up football, basketball, kickball, etc. I was NEVER the dominant kid on the playground, but could hold my own.

Then came that defining moment I told you about in Part I. It was the annual county-wide track and field competition between many of the town’s elementary schools. I don’t remember how many were there, but they split us up into age group and ran probably 20-30 heats of races to accommodate all of the kids. This was my 5th grade year (10-11 year olds).

I remember lining up for the 40-yard dash against some of my friends (I think my twin brother, Jeremy, was in that race too). This was the first time ever being in an official race with a starter, finish line, lanes (painted on the grass), and awards to the winners. I was very, very nervous. The gun went off and I took off as fast as I could.. As I started running, I could feel my friends pass me by. The last thing I remember was coming in dead last. What an awful feeling. I was a pretty shy kid, so facing my friends and family after something like that was the last thing I wanted to do. So I did what I knew best; hid from my problems. I cried for who knows how long. Looking back at this, it’s pretty sad to see how a young kid could take something like that so serious and to heart, but I can’t stand losing.

It was THAT moment that really changed me; I remember feeling that loss and how bad it felt to get beat by the other kids. I never, ever, ever wanted to feel that way again.

Once I got a little taste of failure, the work ethic took off.. It was the beginning of 7th grade (middle school) where I really came out of my shell, out of what seemed like NOWHERE. It was like someone had turned a switch!

Stay tuned for Part III where I go into details and when I finally found my own place in the world of athletics. I can tell you for certain that this was “my time”!!

See ya,

John