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Craig Allard Ms. Rauscher WRA 150 31 January 2014 Determination to Succeed Ever since I was a child, literacy has affected my life significantly. It may not be as obvious as one may think but it has been a huge factor of my life. Literacy doesnt just refer to ones comprehension of literature but more or less the ability to understand your surroundings and communicate with the world. It can affect the way you feel about certain things and also lead you to make predictions. Interacting with society and the environment is a form of literacy and always impacts the way you think. I had an experience during one of my hockey seasons on Victory Honda which shows many great examples of literacy. The thought of our team beating Honey Baked was a distant thought to everyone on my team. There was no team ever known to beat them in league play which made it seem like they were completely invincible. Honey Baked was the biggest power-house of a hockey team in the Tier 1 hockey division and annihilated anyone they faced. Our team had played them once before in the season but it didnt turn out exactly how we wanted it. We suffe red a seven to zero loss early on which completely drained our confidence. Getting prepared for our second game against them was potentially one of the most serious events of my life. We had practiced running different types of zone defense that would particularly counter Honey Bakeds offensive plays. I vividly remember driving out to the Hazel Park Ice Arena to watch multiple games they played so we could devise plans to shut down

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their offense and their best players. At this point it wasnt just a U-12 hockey game, but a battle of superiority to every other team in America. Being a twelve-year-old kid, hockey was the only thing on my mind and held all of my focus. This was the biggest game of my entire life and my team was beyond determined to win it. Our coach worked us until we were basically puking every practice to make sure we were physically prepared for the speed and skill of Honey Baked Hockey. Every practice leading up to this game, I remember him saying, Time for us to be number one. And he was right; we put in so much time and effort preparing for this game that we suffer too much disappointment if we didnt win. When the day came around to head out to the arena, I remember feeling butterflies in my stomach packing up my gear. This game meant everything to my team and I, so we couldnt afford to achieve anything other than victory. I loaded my gear into the back of my Dads white work van and slowly got into the passenger seat. Riding to games with my Dad always deteriorated my self-esteem because he put so much pressure on me as a kid and expected perfection. It was difficult to live up to my Dads expectations because I would always make small mistakes in games, which made me feel like a failure on the ride home. As usual, my Dad gave me a speech on the way to the rink, talking about how he wanted me to step it up this game. That had to be his most commonly used phrase. Once I arrived at the arena, I dropped my gear off in the locker room and met up with my teammates to begin stretches. This is where we would set our mentality straight and try to pump up the boys for the game. It was a ritual for us to listen to Linkin Park before every game, so of course we jammed to them as we did agility ladders. To wrap up the stretches, we did the classic Victory Jacks, where we would spell out our team name and scream a letter each

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jumping jack that did. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y H-O-N-D-A, we all yelled together in perfect synchronization. Not only did it fire up the team but it was a great intimidation factor for our opponents, who were warming up near-by. After warm ups, we headed back to the locker room where we continued to play music and get our minds set for the game of our lives. My friend Alex and I would always dress up in our bottom half of equipment and go out in the hall to stick handle with a golf ball and pass around. To my best memory, this is where I really started to feel the pressure of the game and all the expectations everyone had on me. There was a lot on my mind being that young and trying to please everyone with a perfect game. I knew that I had to bring my A game along with everyone else on my team or this game would end up the way the first one did. Alex and I returned to the locker room and listened to the coachs speech. Coach Tim said something along the lines of Tonight, we can make history. We can be the only group of guys to defeat the best team in this league. We can make a statement of how much effort we give and how well we work as a team. I cant remember what he said exactly but it was roughly the same idea. We all had our heads down, getting into an ultimate mental state of pure focus. This was the only thing that we cared about and nothing was going to stop us from putting the puck in the back of their net. We quickly huddled together in the middle of the locker room and screamed out our team chant. It was time for our team to make history and play the best game our coaches and parents have ever seen. Stride for stride, nervousness built up inside us as we headed to the ice. We skated out in a uniform line, trying to look as professional as possible, and quickly skated around the ice for a couple laps.

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The puck was now finally about to drop, so both starting line ups headed out to center ice. The Honey Baked players on the bench all banged there sticks against the boards for the first face off of the game. It made it difficult to for our team to focus but we managed to win the draw. Throughout the first period, we seemed to be getting dominated in every aspect of the game. They were beating us in every one on one battle, had more hits than us, and also put up one goal. It wasnt until the second period were started to play how we had been practicing. We were moving the puck with precision and urgency which helped us keep it in the offensive zone. I had never seen our guys work with such teamwork and determination; it looked as if it could be the difference in this game. It was making the Honey Baked team exhausted to chase the puck all over, so from what I remember they kept icing the puck out of their zone to get line changes. We managed to get one goal in the second period, making the score one to one leading into the third. It was now the final period and the score was tied. All we needed was one goal and outstanding defense to win this game. The period played out for quite some time and nothing was really happening. With one minute left in the game, Honey Baked drew a penalty, giving us a huge one man advantage. We needed to capitalize on this power play if we wanted to win the game, so Coach Tim called a time out to create the ultimate line. We sent out our leading scorers as I sat to watch the power play from the bench. Our center quickly won the faceoff and drew the puck back to point where he then released a slap shot with all of his strength. Everybody in the crowd stood up and watched as the puck found twine in the back of the net. It was almost a feeling of disbelief that we had just scored with less than minute remaining. We

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had a quick celebration and returned to center ice to finish the last twenty seconds of the game. I had never felt so many emotions from a simple game of hockey. Before the game, I was feeling more nervous than I had ever been. The pressure from my Dad and the intimidation of the other team had immensely affected the way I felt prior to the game. All the work we put into practice and training leading up to this game paid off. I learned that nothing comes easy and you need to put in lots of work to succeed. These are all different forms of literacy between me and my environment. I recognized my surrounding and reacted to them which changed the way I felt and thought about the situation. Literacy is very subtle in our lives but impacts the emotions and actions of everyone.