Craig Miller
English 101
Oct. 19, 04
Classification Essay First Paragraph
Running through the woods, its the last 1/2 mile of the state meet, and I feel like im going to die, gasping for air, but I keep pushing. This is what I have been working for all year long. The long 5 mile runs the mile long sprints, the reapeats in lost valley all have prepared me for this day. And being just an average athlete I have had to work hard to get to where I am. I think that athletes in general can be classified into three different groups. There are the true athletes that have a heart and desire to play sports, and are the type to always be on time for practice and never miss a game. There are the natural athletes who are unbelievably good at any sport naturally, who dont even need to practice to be better then the average athlete, and then there are the so called "athletes" who really dont have much skill and usually dont have any desire to be participating in sports, but usually are forced into them or are participating for other reasons.
The natural athletes are athletes that dont really need to try very hard to be good or even better then the average athlete at pretty much any sport that they play. They are just naturally athletics and skilled. One of my friends in highschool, was a natuaral athlete. He was good at everything, he was our #1 cross country runner, point guard on the basketball team, one of the star baseball players, our leading scorer in soccer and in basketball. It seemed like he could just pick up any sport he wanted and natural succeed in it. Dont get me wrong though, im not saying that natural athletes dont work hard. Hard work is what makes them superior over other athletes, but they are naturally talented and usually because of this they are leaders, or team captains, because there ability inspires other people and makes other athletes look up to them and work harder to be as good as them.
The catagory that I consider myself to fall under is the average or everyday athlete. I work hard day in and day out trying to make myself better at the sports i play. Despite all the hard work and training it is impossible for some people to be the best or be better then the, natural athletes. But average athletes usually have very good work ethics, skill and want to be the best that they can. Theses athletes are usually the core of the team, they are the guys that are always competing with each other in practice, they fall in between the natuaral athletes and the "so called athletes". They are usually looked up to for there hard work and determination, even though they may not be the "best" on the team. There are also some kids that to be perfectly honest just "suck" at sports. But however they love sports and try there absolute hardest to do thier best. Because of this I consider them in this catagory.
The "so called athletes" are the athletes that really annoy me. I think that you should only play a sport if you have a love for it or if you desire to play or do that sport. But there are people who will play just to be popular, or are forced by their parents. These people are the type that dont care about the team, or anyone on it. They are annoying they disturb the team practices and sometimes they totally ruin the outcome of an event or game. For example some of the kids that played sports in the highschool i went to just played to be cool and didnt really care about actually doing well in the sport or helping out the team. They were pot heads and druggies who drank almost everynight and were never ready or cared about a game or event that everyone else was all pumped up for and really wanted to play and win.
Overall I think these are the three main groups of athletes, from my personal observations. I was lucky to have such a good cross counntry team though highschool. All the runners on our team were kids that could be placed in the first two catagories of this essay. We all worked together and were very successful in everything we did. We all had similar goals for ourself and team goals as well. However every sport was not like this, in fact having a team that does not have any of the "so called athletes" is very rare. An unfurtunatly every other sport I played had some of these kids and it made it difficult and kind of frustrating to deal with them.
Athletes, there are many types of athletes. There are the the natural athletes who can play any sport imaginable and be better then the everyday average athlete, which is the next "group" of athletes. These athletes are dedicated and have skill in the sports they play but require practice and hard work to become above the average athlete, these athletes usually have a true heart for sports. The last group of athletes are the athletes that are really not to athletic at all or maybe they are athletic and pressured into playing sports when they really dont like them.
