Community Audio Speech

Link to audio:  https://www.mediafire.com/file/o7lzjo694swrti8/New+Recording.m4a/file

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Imagine you worked all summer for a spot on your high school sports team, only to see your name in blue ink next to the roster. A few minutes after that happened to me, my good friend Austin and I were called back into the coaches office. We were then told that the blue marker means the coaches want us around, just not enough to put us on the full roster. 4 years later this proved to be the best thing that ever happened to my hockey career, but at the time, it was the worst. I felt like an outcast. It almost felt like I had an all access media pass, but wasn’t actually a part of the team. Looking back it taught me that if I ever wanted to be able to say I truly played for Benet hockey, I would have to work twice as hard as the guy next to me. The following two years were arguably worse, if you can believe that. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “how could it be worse than not actually being on the team?” Well, as much fun as being able to say I play for a second varsity team as opposed to JV, we were not cut out for the varsity level in either year. The one positive was that I finally felt a part of the team. A huge negative was that my coach and I had a rough relationship. I felt I deserved much more ice time than I got, and I constantly got yelled at for no reason. It got so bad that I almost quit. I decided not to with the hope of making the top team my senior year. My senior year is what made me excited to show up to practice again. I made the top varsity team finally and we were really good. However, tryouts that year were extremely stressful. They determined whether or not the last three years would be worth it. We ended the regular season 17-1-2, only having lost to the team we would eventually face in the finals. We came into the Kennedy Cup best of three final hot with a huge 3-2 victory against our rival, providence. We lost the first game 4-1. After only scoring 5 goals in three games on the St. Ignatius goalie, we were demoralized. Game 2 was the most fun I’ve ever had in a hockey game. For almost the entire game we were losing 0-2. Just imagine the trophy being wheeled out, the other teams scratched players getting dressed for the celebration, and a quiet home crowd. With 6 minutes left a fellow senior and good friend of mine, Nick Lynch, takes a bad penalty. We killed it off and right after, my captain, Anthony Klos, scored our first goal of the game. The crowd exploded and we had a sense of hope. I was on his line that shift and our coach told us to stay out there. About 30 seconds later I tied the game. The crowd erupted and we had all the momentum in the world on our side. Again we stayed out there and again our captain scored, giving us the 3-2 lead. Whenever the game is brought up my dad always says we snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat. We scored an empty net goal, with a final score of 4-2. We celebrated hard, but knew we still had to win one more, and at their rink this time. This game was not like the others. It felt like both teams had their jv goalies in net. Both teams went back and forth all game. One second a team feels like they’re gonna pull away with a lead, and the other team ties it right back up. The place was packed and the fans were screaming all game. With the game headed to overtime, I was extremely nervous. After only a few minutes of overtime, Nick Lynch scored the game winning goal. After working so hard for something that seemed all but hopeless at times, I finally had achieved my goal. However, my last high school hockey game was over. I would be moving on from the community that I called my second home, and that gave me my best friends. The bittersweet moment of saying goodbye made me realize that community means so much more than I ever knew. Now I turn the conversation to you. What communities are you a part of, and what would life be like without them?