THE FINAL!

Jose Pulido
09-19-2012
We can all say we’ve had a special moment or event that has occurred in our lives. Whether if it was your first day of school or receiving your first car; these are the moments that have stuck with us over time and that will follow us over the years to come. Thinking of the different emotions, tears and hard work that one went through to reach that point in your life is what we all cherish the most. One event that has followed me till this day has to been winning the champion ship with my soccer team. It was difficult for many of us. With only a few months to prepare for our first season, we faced many difficult obstacles staring with mentally, physically and with ourselves.
The year was 2005, I was 15 years old and was offered to opportunity that would change my life in the end. Joining an up coming team with new players and coaches or staying in the team I had been with over the years. The decision ate me up day in and day out. But refused to turn the offer down and I was off to a new beginning to join Oxnard pride. Oxnard pride was founded at Haydock middle school, with a group of my classmates who had an idea to form a soccer team with only the people from our school to compete with the best in the county. Our coach, PE teacher and friend Ralph Garcia who helped us make this possible, believed in us and stuck with us in this unknown quest to be the best.
Sure anybody who says they can play a sport can put on a jersey and play. But the post important thing in being an athlete and playing a sport is being mentally prepared. For any athlete, going to a new team and transitioning to others style of play and adapting to the coaches style of coaching can be difficult.  With our coaches back ground consisting of mostly baseball, first thing was first. Establishing one another’s names and positions. I myself played defense and when being a defender you must be we aware of everything and mentally prepared to go up against the best. At time I began to question myself as well as others did with them selves, as our confident level was not at a high level. Mentally when I was on the field, I wasn’t 100% sure with myself and would enable me to play to my full potential. Manny of us had questions and some doubts in whether we can be successful with each other as well as the other teams. I remember every Tuesday after noon @ 5pm before official practice would begin, we would study film with all us present. The films consisted of much of the top soccer clubs like Barcelona and real Madrid. Watching their style of play and studying their understand was what we tried to imply to our style of play to gain confidence with each other. Trying to apply that top style of play into ours raised questions within ourselves for example, can we play like them?, can play like the best?, can I be the best?. Every day of practice was a challenge for us. Gaining confidence with yourself and your teammates and adapting to each other was difficult. But with only 7 months away from the season opener, we worked hard and stayed focus.
As practice went on with hard training and beginning to find our rhythm and build an understanding with each other. Our nest step was becoming physically prepared. From AYSO league to now playing in our local PAL league was a big transition for myself physically. The PAL league was were most of the top teams in the county played and much were a lot older, faster and stronger than us. Being at the top shape is what I wanted to accomplish. To gain more strength, power and agility was my focus if I planned to perform with the best. With film on Tuesdays, our Wednesdays was our weight room day. Our focus was not to bulk up but to gain muscle endurance. I had never lifted weights nor had ever trained is a weight room. Physically my body would be challenged and pushed to its full potential. After the weight room and also every Thursday our focus was on foot work, speed and agility. In the beginning it was hard, being gassed quick and constantly searching for the nearest water fountain was tough. It would frustrate me not being ale to finish drills. Instead of using this negative energy against myself I used it as motivation. As time went by I felt a change with my body and endurance. I was able to finish through my drills and felt stronger and healthier.
As the days got closer to the season opener be became more achiest, nervous and excited. Proving ourselves to everybody that we can play with the biggest, strongest  teams out there was what we intended to do. First game on the season was a total nervous wreck. We over smaller than our opponent and very intimidated. Our captain Guillermo Cortez gave us a bit of encouraging words before the game and he said “there is nothing to be worried about, we are going to win this game!?. We won our first game, and with so much excitement and joy with in us, we knew we had long ways to go. The season went on and as we worked harder and harder each week, we stayed consisted with our game preparation and continued to win. In the end we ended with a more than satisfying  11-3 record. With a few lost to some best talented teams and a disappointing loss, playoffs were about to begin and we felt ready. Coming in to the playoffs with the top 3 defense and top 5 offence, provided us with a confident boost. Our coach Ralph could not stress how proud he was and how encouraging we were to him. Playoffs were was a win or go home game. It didn’t tak long for us to make a name for ourselves after cruising through the first round and with a 3-1 victory. But semi finals weren’t as smooth sailing as we thought. It was close throughout the whole game. As the pressure sat in on us ;we knew that we had to win to make reach our goal. With a close 2-1 victory over one of the top teams in the league. We knew we were a force to be wrecking with. With joy and smiles in all of our faces we had reached the final.
With two weeks of rest and enough time to prepare well for the final game, we took advantage of this time. Not much changed as our preparation went. We still studied lots  of film and trained hard on the field and off the field. Those two weeks have had to be the quickest two weeks ever. It felt as if we just won the semi final game. That Friday of the final, much of our classmates were congratulating us and wishing us good luck. That Saturday nigh, I could not sleep. Thinking about how hard we all work to reach this point of the season was all that was on my mind. That Sunday morning was a very cold and gloomy day. The sky was filled with clouds and with a bit of chance of rain from the night before. I remember my mom trooping me off at the field as she went to go find a parking place, and walking up to the field and smelling the scent of wet grass. Through the wet and moist filed, I could feel the cold water going through my socks. I came up to field one only to see a crowed full of people on the side lines waiting to watch the defending champs Alianza Fc go up against the under dogs Oxnard Pride. As the game before us ended and as we got to our positions you can see the nervousness in some of the players faces. The game began and the first half was a total nightmare. Being down 3-0 at the half was a total shock and disappointment. The look on our coaches face had a sense of panic. With the encouraging words from our best player Moises he said, “we must keep our heads up!” “ we can still come back and win”. As we all encouraged one another and bummed ourselves up, Alianza knew they were playing a whole new different team second half. The whistle blew and with all eye on us, we all fought to make a come back. Things began to go our way. Goals started  hit the back of the net and our defense was playing better than ever before. Half way through the first half we founds ourselves tied with each other and the impossible began possible for us. Trying to avoid penalties, we applied pressure on the defense trying to score. And with a miracle we scored with only a few minutes on the clock. We all now were playing defense as we tried to hold them off till the final whistle blew. Its seemed like an eternity, and when the final whistle blew we all jumped in the air and couldn’t believe it. Running to one another hugging and screaming at the top of our lungs we are the champs was the most satisfying feeling ever.  Being able to hold that trophy up and jump around with my teammates with joy and happiness is something I will never for get.
For the nest tow years we stuck together and continued what we started. De defended our title as champs and we where now the team everybody wanted to beat. Our recognition grew bigger at the seasons went by. We were offered to stay as a team and join an official club soccer program called Royal Puma Fc, who we would now be representing instead of Oxnard Pride. I learned first handedly that anything is possible. If you work hard to accomplish your goals anything is possible and to always leave everything on the field.