Christmas break:

During this upcoming break during Christmas, I have a lot planned. The first couple of days I am going to relax and maybe meet up with some friends and chill. After that I am going to start working out with my trainer. My workouts are every morning and they are very intense. After my workouts, I go home and sleep. Later in the afternoon, I go to the field and get a workout with the soccer ball. The reason I like working out in the mornings is because it shows the discipline you have but also you have all day to do whatever you want. The thing I am most looking most forward to during the break is on New Years Eve when I am going to my cousin’s insane condo in NYC and he is having a big party. Going back to school after this break is not going to be fun at all and is going to be a stretch. However, I am looking forward to committing to college during those days, which will be very exciting and give me something to look forward too. 

Break:

Over Thanksgiving break I did lots of fun activities. The first few days I slept in a lot and caught up on the sleep I missed while being at school. After that, I went to NYC to go to my grandparent’s house for Thanksgiving. I really enjoyed seeing my family and catching up with them. On Thanksgiving day I went into the city with my friend and went shopping and just walked around the city. Even though it was very crowded and hectic, it was still cool to experience that type of environment because where I live is nothing close to that. I personally don’t enjoy the city because there’s so much going on and everything is so fast paced. The Thanksgiving meal was one of my favorite parts of the whole break. I ate so much food, and all of it was so good and tasty and it was even better because I got to be with family and friends and enjoy their company because I don’t get to see them all that much.

Championship:

This past weekend, my team won the New England and National championship for Prep Soccer. We ended up winning 6-2 and it was an experience I will never forget. At the beginning of the season, we started off playing well and everyone was very confident in the group we had. As the games went on and we kept winning, we realized we had a group of guys that had the quality and potential to do some amazing things. When the final whistle blew in the championship game, I was so happy and relieved. I knew that it meant so much to my teammates who had been here for previous playoffs games and lost. The feeling of all my teammates being happy and ecstatic was such a good one. I loved seeing everyone smiling and laughing, because of all the bumps and all the things we had gone through as a team together the whole season. 

Yesterday we had our first quarter final playoff game against Westminster. We started off pretty weak but still managed to score a couple goals in the first half, while also conceding one. In the second half, we played a little bit better but still had some moments that didn’t look too good. During the game it was freezing when you weren’t moving or doing anything, so that really motivated me a lot to keep running and stay active and engaged in the game. At the end of the game, we ended up winning 7-2. It felt good to win and move onto the next round in the playoffs but the team still knows we have to win more games to reach our final goal. Our next game is Saturday against Williston, which is a prep school right next to where I live back home. It will be a good feeling to win that game then move onto the Championship game and play in that. I’m looking forward to it and know it will be a good run.

This weekend on Sunday was a big day for our team. We played Putnam Science Academy, which is  nationally ranked, but just below us. It was going to be our biggest game of the year and we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game like most of our previous matches. We started out well and moved the ball and had some good chances going forward, but we couldn’t score. We kept on going and still couldn’t find the back of the net. At the end of the first half it was tied 0-0, and we knew we needed to find a way to score. The second half started and it was like a replica of the first half. It was good and nice looking soccer but no team could seem to find that one chance to put the ball away. Everyone on the field was tired and you could tell that it was going to be a fight to the end. With around 5 and a half minutes left we got fouled on the left side of the field in Putnam’s half. We took the free kick and the ball went to the back post and one of our players headed the hall down and across the box and hit the far post and the ball went in. 

Thanksgiving break:

Over Thanksgiving break I plan to do many things. My number one thing that I am looking forward to is eating good food and being around friends and family. It’s always a good and fun time of the year and is always one of my favorites. I also am going to enjoy working out with my trainer during that week to keep my fitness up because my season will be done by then. I really like working out with my trainer because he knows my limits and my comfort zones. He always pushes me harder everyday to keep getting better, which requires you to step outside what you mind thinks your limits are. I have noticed I have gotten bigger and stronger and faster working out with him and doing drills. In addition to that what makes this break even better is that when we get back from Thanksgiving break; we go back to school for a couple weeks then we have Christmas vacation. This really helps out a lot and is going to be greatly appreciated by me.

Soccer season:

This soccer season has been fun so far. We started out the year playing well but we weren’t fully organized and didn’t play very well as a team. It is normal for a team not to play well together at first because the team isn’t used to each other yet and still needs time to gel. After about our fifth or sixth game, we really started to play as a team and looked like we have been playing together for months. We just had our 13th game of the season this year against Kiski, which is a team from Pennsylvania. We won 4-0 and that win made us 13-0 on the season. Although it is nice to be undefeated, the season is not over yet and those wins mean nothing if we can’t perform against these tougher teams that we have on our schedule for the last stretch of the season. I am looking forward to playing in these big games coming up and staying undefeated and at the end of the year winning the New England championship as well as the National championship. 

I love fishing. I go all the time in the summer and whenever I have free time. I got introduced to it as a young kid and it stuck with me. There is just something so peaceful and fun to be out on a boat on the ocean. The first time I went, I caught a huge striped bass and ever since then I have been addicted to catching big ocean fish. My friends and I go all the time on our boats we have. We will wake up at about 4am and be out on the water usually at around 4:30. We will be on the water all day and into the night, fishing and laughing and having a good time. Even the days when the fishing is slow and we are having no bites, it’s still fun to be on the water. The amount of fascinating and amazing things I’ve seen while being on the water is incredible. Later on in life when I am retired I want to be on the water as much as possible. I am hoping to buy many boats and live by the water so I won’t have to do so much driving. 

The worst part about injuries is sitting out of your competitions and games if you play sports. It sucks seeing your teammates and everybody else out there and you can’t be with them. Although mostly there aren’t many positive aspects to being injured, the experience  can teach you a lot. I have been injured before for an extended period of time that kept me out of football and it was the worst feeling. It taught me the love I have for the sport, even though I wasn’t playing for such a long time. In addition to that, it helped me really focus on school work and other important things that I had going on in my life, because I had so much more time on my hands. Coming back from my injury was also very hard because I had to regain my fitness and strength, which was quite difficult. Overall, though getting injured is crappy, it can open up a lot of new opportunities and visions that you hadn’t had before and you realize what is truly important to you.

Juventus: 

This week was very exciting for me. I love watching my favorite football team play and they did that this week. I support Juventus which is a top team in Italy in the Serie A league. I have been an avid fan of Juventus since I was a kid because most of my family lives there and my family also has a house there. Juventus played on Tuesday against Bayer Leverkusen (German team) in their second game of the Champions League group stage. It was a very fun game to watch because there is so much quality on the field. Juventus ended up winning 3-0, which I am very thrilled about and that also puts the team in the top of their group in Champions League play. The next time Juve plays is on Sunday against another big Italian team called Inter Milan it will be a very good game but I know Juve will win.