Stay Humble, Hustle Hard: You win or you learn

Athletes spend countless hours watching film, training and working out to improve their craft and
master the game they love. Although every athlete strives to be the best player they can be, no athlete
is perfect. No matter how much time an athlete spends to prepare for their big game, sometimes things
happen on the field that nobody expects. Soccer, like life, is unpredictable and is best approached with
a good attitude and a willingness to learn.

When college coaches recruit their athletes, they look not only for ability and athleticism on the field but
for individuals who are coachable. This is something that I learned through my own recruitment process.
While it may sound like a simple request to be coachable and teachable as an athlete, adapting to the
demands of a college sport is sometimes more difficult than it sounds.

Traveling almost every weekend for games requires a team to quickly familiarize itself with different
playing surfaces and locker rooms, abnormal practice times, and to find some level of comfort in
generally uncomfortable situations. While part of being a good player is being prepared, there will
always be a need to adapt to new situations, especially when traveling on road trips. This includes
eating, sleeping and doing homework on a bus and being expected to perform at the highest level
possible while hundreds of miles separate you from your home and your family.

The demand to be a coachable and adaptive athlete exists right on our home turf at Nicholls State
University as well. Head Coach Mac McBride joined the team one year ago which forced me to start all
over again my junior year. Besides having to learn new skills and techniques from a brand new coach,
the soccer team has had to bounce around from our game and practice field, to the football turf, to an
indoor practice location over the last two seasons due to flooding and bad weather. At this point, we are
trained to expect the unexpected in any situation and to make the best of it.

Teachers require their students to be receptive and actively engaged in learning the same way coaches
do. There are many traits that are shared among students and athletes as well as teachers and coaches.
Even the best of students and the smartest of people make mistakes and don’t always earn a perfect
score on every test they take. If a student fails an assignment, there is an opportunity for them to learn
from what went wrong to better prepare themselves for the next one.

The lessons I’ve learned on the soccer field and in the classroom have helped me be more capable of
adapting in everyday life. While I’ve experienced the ups and downs of college life both through soccer
and academics, these small trials have helped me come to terms with the uncertainty of life itself. Three
years ago, I had no idea I would move away from home and leave my family in Florida to pursue a
degree and soccer at the collegiate level, but with the uncertainty came success and growth. In the
grand scheme of things, we can’t be prepared for everything that life throws our way and we won’t win
in all aspects of life, but above all, we can always learn.