"A True Competitor": The Highest Compliment

Today I recieved quite possibly the greatest compliment I will ever recieve as an athlete. It was what my coach said about what I had done that day as he adressed the team at the end of the game. It will stay with me forever.

First off, the game. I could tell as i warmed up to pitch before the game that I didn' t have my best stuff. As the game began, well let's just say that I was right. My curve was terrible and my changeup absolute shit. My fastball had decent velocity but I didn't have my best control. They hit the ball very hard early. Fortunately we hit the ball even better so we were never behind in this game. I had thrown 61 pitches through 2 innings however and I was wondering if there was any possible way to throw all 7 innings as I always love to do.

In the third, or maybe it was the fourth, our defense was poor and I had given up 7 runs. The final score was 10-7 us and I did throw a complete game as I had wanted too. After the second inning my arm was sore and after the fourht my body was drained and i had to grunt every pitch just to muster up enough energy to pitch. Every inning from the fourth on my coach asked, "are u okay to keep going?" and even though I never really was I continued to say yes so I could continue fighting for my teammates. I had to dig deep and just fight the whole game, and I am prooud to say I did just that.

I'm not the only one who notiecd that either. Many of my teammates commended me on the effort, and so did my coach. This is what he said about me after the game:
"he willed himself, after that inning when our defense fell apart, he willed himself to go and compete harder and he threw his best innings there at the end. That shows the true competitiveness from an athlete and his performence today was very commendable"

That is one of the greatest complimetns I have ever recieved. To be called a true competitor is just something that makes me so proud because it's the type of person that I love. one who fights and will fight for others as well, no matter what. In sports it's just the will to win, and nobody can question my will to win. As you'll see in my next post, my will to win turns into a willingness to fight for others as well.
A true competitor. Thank you, I'll never forget that.