Davis Clark

One aspect of my life that has shaped me more than anything else is my experience playing lacrosse. I started playing in the third grade after playing just about every sport before that. I played almost everything: baseball, soccer, football, basketball. I never was able to find any real enjoyment out of those activities. For each their own reasons, I decided to stop playing those sports and try something new. My first day of fall lacrosse started about as bad as it could have. I showed up late, forgot gear at home, and even worse didn’t know a single thing about lacrosse.

A few weeks went by, and I finally got the hang of the sport a little bit. I would go hard in practice, work on my passing and ground balls at home, and overall put my best effort into getting better. My coaches noted that I had been doing much better and actually started to pick up the game. As a third grader, this was one of the most impactful things I could have heard. Kind, encouraging words from someone you respect goes so much further than those same words from someone you do not know or look up to. This made me want to keep playing lacrosse, as no coach had given me these kinds of compliments before.

Fast forward to high school, I started playing summer lacrosse and really improving as a player. I was able to start on my team freshman through senior year after hundreds of hours of hard work and motivation to be the best I can be not only for myself, but my teammates around me. Through playing lacrosse, I learned that nothing beats hard work, and that words of encouragement can do so much good for people you care about.