Michael Pinkstaff

Ever since I was a child, I was always intrigued by sports and the idea of a team. I have been on many teams throughout my childhood athletic career and I would have to say the most enjoyable for me was lacrosse. The team atmosphere that I found on my lacrosse team was unlike any other while I made life-long friends and found great coaches to look up to. It also helped me to become a better student and thinker due to the way the game is played. Being a freakishly tall, skinny adolescent like myself, traditional sports such as football and baseball did not come as naturally to me as the sport of lacrosse did. I found that while playing lacrosse, there are so many different ways to run through a play or deviate a certain strategy that I immediately became attatched to the sport. I related to this variable way of playing the same way that I go through my life in that I am always looking for the next best thing. The fast pace of lacrosse is also what intrigued me upon first entering. The game never has stoppage time minus time-outs and the end of a period. This physical fast pace combined with the mental sharpness that I acquired and perfected by playing lacrosse still help me out even in all aspects of life today. One particular game during high school was a back and forth contest the whole game that I will never forget. It was the first round of the state playoffs and my team were the definite under dogs in the match up. We trained extremely hard that week and went into the game with a high sense of confidence and hope to beat Chattahooche high school. For me personally, I had been in a scoring slump of some sorts having not scored any goals in the past four games. I told myself before we walked onto the field that this could be the last lacrosse game I ever play and that I would not walk off the field without having given it all of my effort and mental capacity. During the constant scoring between us and Chattahooche high school I was able to score two goals and two assists that were crucial in our 11-10 victory that advanced my team to the next round if the state playoffs. After we won our home crowd of fellow students and peers rushed the field to celebrate with us. The elation and high spirits directly after this game allows me to say it was honestly one of the greatest experiences of my life.