A Soccer Story Essay Example for Free

A Soccer Story Essay Snow fluttered to the ground as Jane pulled her gold jersey closer to guard against the blistering chill. Although the miniature goblins and ghouls had just collected their annual treats, winter was already wrapping its bitterly cold hands around her. The soccer field shone, glistening from the already melting snowflakes. Even though championship game had not yet started, the Warrior stadium overflowed with rows of eager fans, enthusiastic to be watching such an important soccer match. The line of girls marched up to the slushy field to meet their adversaries, the Panthers, shivering in their gold soccer shorts. Jane could see the opposing team glance warily at them as if the game was just a waste of their time. In every heart burned the desire to win, to achieve a task never before accomplished. The Lady Warriors were on a mission: to beat the Panthers for the first time in school history. The first forty-five minutes of the game went uneventfully; both teams attempted to score, but the soccer ball was shuttled around the field like a ping-pong ball, aimlessly with no sense of direction. As they battled against their opponents, the harsh and brutal wind attacked the athletes. They had to win. They had to beat the cold. They had to beat the best team, and they had to get even. Whistle blaring, halftime was declared, and the team trudged back through the icy grass, disappointed. The winter chill was barely felt as their unspoken frustration took over. The team circled together and listened to their coachs encouragements. The shrill whistle sounded once again, and the team charged back onto the field, feeling the motivation to win, remembering Coach Smiths last words: Theres nothing you girls cant do. Jane was inspired and she rushed on the field, playing like a maniac. Suddenly, an ear-splitting crack was heard and for a second, there was silence. Perhaps her excitement blinded all other senses, but Jane only remembered seeing a blur moving in her direction before she collapsed on to the snowy field, head throbbing. Head bowed down in defeat, Jane could not bring herself to look up at the crowd surrounding her. But a solitary clap  emanated from the row of spectators, and as she lifted up her tear-streaked face, her eyes locked with those of her optimistic team mates. Unsteadily, Jane stood up and the stadium resounded with cheers. The game commenced promptly; the clock was ticking with no time to lose. Then, the words, the assertion, that made Janes fists clench, a single statement uttered by the rival coach: That girls weak, one charge at her, and shell be down again. That girl was Jane, the offensive player, the unnerving forward, and she was enraged. Stinging pain from where the ball made contact with bare skin was quickly forgotten, even as the ugly red marks remained. The biting wind whipped strands of hair in her face, and Janes eyes squinted in the icy coldness. But her mind was defiantly set: she was on a mission to score. Adrenaline rushed through her bloodstream and her heart pounded rapidly as she rushed down the field. Jane swiftly maneuvered the ball with exact precision, imagining the moment the ball would enter the opponents goal. It was amazing how much satisfaction one solitary act could reward a person. One moment the white jersey of the defensive girl was coming at Janes way, ready to charge and steal the ball away. At the next instant, the sky was looking quite beautiful, sun shining, as the ball sailed swiftly into the white net. The whistle sounded shrilly and the multitude of onlookers erupted with excitement, the Warriors had defied an age old tradition, defeating the long-standing champions. The accomplishment, the pain-it made Jane triumphant that day. Against the odds, the underdog emerged victorious on the battlefield.

Trafficking from Africa to Europe :: essays research papers

Morocco’s slum swarm with desperate African refugees risking their lives to go to Europe. The human smugglers are their rescuers - because all legal roads to the European Union end blind. In this essay I will look in the situation on the Straight of Gibraltar and see how the smugglers work. This summer I went from Tangier, a harbor city in the north of Morocco, to Ceuta, crossing the border from Morocco into Spain. The control was extremely tight and it took a very long time to get permission to enter Ceuta because we went through passport check 3 times. Around us, there were a high fence, which was impossible to jump over, and there was police everywhere, also in the sea where they were constantly on patrol. It was really strange to go from a poor, messy place, cross the border and suddenly be in the European Union. And even more strange to look back and imagine all those refugees and poor people behind us, for whom to enter Europe is their biggest dream, though they aren’t getting permission to cross the border because they have a passport from the wrong country. In the slum district of Tangier most of the refugees begin their risky journey to Europe, crossing the dangerous Straight of Gibraltar. This place is also where the Moroccan mafia works and a lot of money is being earned. A human smuggler can in one night earn $ 10,000, which is more than a yearly wage for a Moroccan fisherman. But the work can be very dangerous. Many of boats have gone down because of the strong currents in the straight and because the boats are always extremely overloaded. If you ask a human smuggler, this is not what they are most afraid of. As a result of the European Union’s police cooperation, the Spanish coast patrol has increased the hunt for illegal Moroccan sailors and the punishment for human smuggling has been increased. If you get caught in smuggling people, you will now get 2 to 3 years of prison in Spain and even more in Morocco. Before, it was only Moroccan refugees who crossed the straight, but today people come from very distant places such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Mali and other West African states. The price they have to pay is $ 1000 for the 14-kilometer-long journey, but the smugglers only get one-third of that amount. The rest is for the Moroccan mafia which job it is to make the contact to the Africans and organizes the trips.

Speech of Advocacy Rhetorical Situation Proposal

The problem I want to address in the speech is that whether colleges put too much stock in standardized test scores. It’s an actual exgience because colleges are currently relying a lot on standardized test scores as a base for their applications. 2. The teenage community is the most directly affected by the exigence. 3. Most people do seem to generally agree that the exigence exists because the people all have been attempting to get into colleges and have gone through the pressure placed on standardized test scores. 4.The values threatened by the existence of the exigence is the actual performance of students in general, not just under pressure and relying on one test score. Role of the Speaker 5. This exigence interests me because from young, I’ve always had to study and prepare for standardized tests. In China, tests represent whether we get into a good middle school, a good high school, and a good college. We can be the best in our class, but without scoring high on the placement tests, we’ll never get into a good school. The same was here, in high school, junior year was all about testing and studying for the ACTs or the SATs.There was too much pressure placed on just the standardized tests. 6. My relationship to the community was not affected because I am a teen and I have gone through all these placement tests. Role of the Audience 7. I believe all my audience has had exposure to exigence, they’ve all experienced the pressures of tests during their high school years because we’re all here today because of in part to standardized test scores. 8. Their relationship to the community is still not affected because we’re all teens who have taken these tests. 9.I believe they’ll agree with my perception because they’ve all been through the pressures of the standardized tests, and whether they scored good or bad, I believe they’ll all agree that standardized test scores are being placed too high in a pplication standards. 10. There is really nothing we can to minimized the exigence except to protest to the government and ask colleges to change the way the application process is. Speech 11. I’ll use a causal order for my speech, because then I can hit the cause and effect of each of my points as I talk about them. 12.The main points in my speech will be to talk about the pressures of the tests on the students, the high placement the colleges place on the tests, and how students who are straight A students may have just done bad on the tests, and how the tests also places pressure on the students own academic work. 13. It’ll be most effective for my audience to just agree with my position because there’s really not much that can be done in terms of actions for the topic. 14. I will ask them to agree that this exigence exists and that we’ve all be affected by it. 15. My goal is not to advocate action but to advocate agreement.

Gender Roles and Homosexuality in Sports - 1796 Words

Gender Roles Homosexuality in Athletics As society progresses, homosexuality becomes more prevalent and people become more comfortable with the subject of sexuality. Homosexuality is something that has dated back to Greek times, but just in the past 50-100 years has become more common; not that homosexuality did not exist, just that more people are becoming more comfortable and coming out. Gay and Lesbian people are all around us, weather it be the work place, schools, and specifically athletics. Many coaches, players, and athletic directors are gay and are becoming aware of the double standard and homophobia that exists in the heterosexual world, most commonly at the collegiate and professional level. Homophobia is the†¦show more content†¦The advocate, an exclusively gay magazine ran a cover story entitled â€Å"Inside the NFL Closet†. It examined the masculine culture of the NFL and came to the conclusion that coming out while in the NFL is â€Å"Too impractical due to life on field and endorsements.â €  In contrast popular male athletes that are un-married or who don’t always have a girl on their arm have to defend their heterosexuality. For example, Cowboys ex- quarterback Troy Aikman was constantly questioned about his sexual preference due to the fact that he is un-married. Also MBL catcher Mike Piazza was constantly reference in the media as questionably homosexual, again just because he is not married. When magic Johnson spoke out to the press about his health and admitted to having HIV, he immediately stated that he is not gay, just because HIV is stereotyped as a homosexual disease. The consequences of coming out are immense. Firstly there is always the fear of alienation from one’s team, especially in men’s athletics. Males tend to have a more difficulty time accepting one’s homosexual because it threatens their own masculinity. Alienation often leads to separation of a team and separation of a team and coaching staff. As an openly gay coac h in college athletics is makes one’s job much more difficult. If a coach were to come out it would be a lot harder recruiting players, and getting parents to be okay with sending their child to a coaching staff that was openly gay.Show MoreRelatedGender, Discrimination, Harassment, And Discrimination1421 Words   |  6 Pages Introduction Homosexuality is defined as forming sexual relationships with members of the same sex (Blonna et al 2010), and for decades now, the societal attitudes towards homosexuality have varied, from casual integration through acceptance and then to repressing it through law enforcement and judicial mechanisms (Gregory 2004).. In recent years the concept of homosexuality has become a controversial topic amongst the sports community. 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