You have to put in more work than what is expected if you want to move up. I learned this lesson early on in organized sports. I was involved in organized sports ever since I was four years old. My parents put me in soccer, basketball, and baseball as a child, though I started to focus on soccer as I got older. I love soccer and always have. I grew up playing it, hearing stories of my dad playing it when he was in El Salvador, and watching my dad playing his Sunday league games. One of my earliest dreams was to become a professional soccer player. I dedicated a lot of time to the sport. I thought this was enough, that I just needed to do what I was told for my future to fall into place. Boy, was I wrong!
Everything changed when I got to high school and tried out for the varsity team. It was a whole new ballgame and I wasn’t ready for it. I did well on the junior varsity squad during my freshman year and earned a promotion to the varsity squad during my sophomore year. Even though I didn’t break into some regular playing time, I figured my time would come. Unfortunately, my junior year came and went with me still on the bench. Senior year was going to me my year. I just knew it. I put in all the time asked of me and knew I was good enough to play.
It all came to a head in the first game of the season of my senior year. The coach asked me to warm up during a crucial point of the game, and I was excited and ready to go. I can still remember the pain I felt when the coach asked me to sit back down a few minutes later. For the rest of the game, I fought back tears of anger and disappointment. After the game, the coach took me aside to talk about it. He said he appreciated the passion I had and acknowledged the growth I had made over time. At the same time, he reinforced his responsibility to field the best players on the team at any given time. While I had grown a lot, it wasn’t enough for this team.
“Why wasn’t my growth enough?” I asked myself. One of my teammates helped answer that question on our way home from practice the following week. “What do you expect?” he asked me. “Most of the players on the team spent all their free time playing soccer or training in other ways.”
While I was doing everything I was asked to do, my teammates were going above and beyond. They played pick-up soccer every chance they got and sometimes played on 2-3 teams at a time. This is how they engaged with the sport of soccer for most of their lives. It was a painful realization, but I didn’t deserve to be on the field. Getting the work done wasn’t enough. I needed to do more.
That’s something took with me through college and into the workforce. If I want to “get some playing time”, if I want to move ahead, then I have to do more than what is expected.
Next time, I’ll share some strategies you can use to get yourself noticed for greater opportunities.
