Reflection: ISAC Boy's Soccer

DIRECTIONS: Within two weeks of completion of an activity, attached a typed Reflective Essay with this form to your CAS Coordinator. The reflection should be in essay format with a minimum of 150 words in length. Make sure to attach this page to your reflection essay. Your essay should explore your experience. Consider the following questions:

 Describe the activity. What did you do at each stage? Include dates where relevant.
 What did you hope to accomplish by this activity? What did you actually accomplish?
 What difficulties did you encounter? Did you feel at any stage that you were failing to
achieve what you wanted from this activity?
 What did you hope to learn from this activity, about yourself, about others, or about
academic subjects? (For example: self-confidence, modesty, curiosity, objectivity, new
skills, determination and the ability to meet challenges).
 Did anyone help you during this activity? If so, describe the help given.
 How will you provide thoughtful consideration, such as planning, reviewing progress,
reporting on this activity?
 Does this activity lend itself to reflection on outcomes and personal learning
 How did you record what you have done for this activity? Please provide evidence that you have actually done it.

           This year's 2011 ISAC tournament was a blast. Having home court advantage really helped. I learned many different lessons throughout the course of this year's soccer season and especially the ISAC tournament. During the Christmas break, I was actually kind of worried about ISAC since all I did everyday from about 4 pm to 7pm is play basketball (first at the street courts, then at Brian's house.) However, I did go to 2-3 soccer practices on the last week of the Christmas vacation. When we got back from the break, it was hard. We ran the hill workout, ran through the stations, ran sprints, and other conditioning exercises. It was tiring, but I worked hard since I figured, since I didn't have as much skill as my other teammates, at least be faster and stronger than them, right? After the first week of practice, we headed up to manila to challenge BISM in a friendly match on Saturday morning. We beat them 9-1, with 2 goals from myself. On the afternoon, we faced the Aguila team. They were older, faster, and more experienced. Most of their players were in college, and two of their players were in the Brent Manila APAC team. We lost 6-2 if I can remember correctly.
           The following week, starting Thursday, was ISAC. I was getting really hyped up for it, and I took the last 3 days of practice really seriously. When I got home after practice everyday, I even did an upper body workout on my door gym just to get myself really fit for this tournament. On wednesday afternoon, I met my hosts and took them home. They were really friendly and I got along with them well. Later that night, I played basketball at Brian's house with around 40 other participants who were also there (most were just watching.) There I made a lot of friends and got to know a lot of people prior to the start of tournament the next day. The following day, ISAC had started. We made our ISAC pledges, met some more people, and saw how the other teams played, both girl's basketball and boy's soccer. Our first game was at 10:20 am. We started warming up at around 9:30. To my surprise, I wasn't nervous at all. In fact, I was really really excited to play in front of the home crowd. The game was intense, we were up 1-0 until the last 2 minutes of the game, where miscommunication and inattentiveness tied the game 1-1 due to a penalty shot. It was disappointing, but we had to keep our head up for the next game. Our next game was against Brent Baguio, at around lunch time, and it was a FUN game. We won the game 3-1, with one goal from myself via header. Although it was a great game, we were really tired as it was crazy hot during that whole game. Our last game that day was against FAM. We didn't play our game, no one was communicating, our team was pretty dead. Luckily, our captain, Chris Park, saved us with a last minute goal. It got us all excited, and we started trying harder, but it was too late to win the game. We drew the game at 1-1. I was really tired when I got home, but I wanted to be a good host, so I brought my guys out for dinner and met up with some friends, and met some new friends from the BSM team. By the end of the night, I felt really close to the whole BSM team which was really nice. I had a nice good sleep that night, and the next day I didn't want to lose a single game. That morning at around 8:30 am, I could feel the intensity and the determination from our team. I felt like everybody was in the zone, and focused including Javier, a close friend of mine, who I would normally joke around before every game. We took our warm up seriously, stretched, and prayed before the game. Our game against SISC started at around 9:10. We got the lead early, our defense was incredible, and we fought for every 50/50 ball. I really wanted to play as my excitement was feeding off my teammates goals, and when I finally got in. I wanted every ball. I told Chris to give me chips and long passes so I can make my runs. After a few missed attempts, I finally got one on goal. I felt so good, it was energizing. The whole crowd was roaring, and I saw my dad watching, which added on to my energy. After a couple of minutes, I got another goal via a cross from Chris. It hit my chest and rolled into the goal. It was epic. After that, I scored another goal, and had my first hat-trick in my life. It was a GREAT game and we won the game 8-1. In the afternoon we had another game against EIS. It was a match that everyone was looking for as we have been rival teams since the ISAC tournament was created. It was an intense match, but due to a bad call they scored a goal via penalty kick and we lost the game 1-0. It was a disappointing game, but we had a good fight. We had to forget about it and focus on the next day: the Semifinals, and hopefully the Finals (Note: The next day we didn't have our captain, Chris Park to play with us). That night I took my guys out again and met up with more people. Every night I brought my guys out, I met more and more friends. The next day was crucial. We had an easy game in the morning against Brent Manila, with a commanding lead of 9-1. I had one goal. Our team tried hard to conserve our energy since we knew we had to face EIS or BSM in the Semi Finals at 3 pm. At around 2 pm we started warming up. I can feel that everyone was really serious about this, no one was smiling, no one was fooling around, it was just pure focus. Mr Davis gave us a inspiring speech and we all prayed, I was a little nervous but it was time to show what we got. On the first 3 minutes of the game, my teammate, Don, scored a nice goal. The crowd was cheering and the whole team was ready to protect that lead. Sadly, in the 2nd half, BSM scored a goal on us via penalty kick -  AGAIN. However, we weren't gonna give up. I kept cheering the team while playing and yelling "Pressure!" during the game. It was intense, but in the end the game ended in another draw, 1-1. Now we had to do a shootout, and whoever wins proceeds to the finals to face Brent Baguio (BISB's win was a huge upset for EIS during the 2nd vs 3rd semi finals match.) The shootout was nerve wracking. Peter missed the first shot, but my 4 other teammates made it. Now it was all up to BSM's last kicker. If he misses it, we have another chance, if he doesn't they win. Luckily, he missed it! But sadly, the pressure was on me to make that shot. As I walked up to the ball, my heart was pounding, and I was sweating buckets. The crowd was silent. All I saw was the ball, and the goalie. I took a deep breath, and sprinted towards the ball to take the kick.... I MISSED. The crowd was silent, my teammates were silent, and I slowly walked to my teammates at the center field. We still had a chance, only if BSM's next kicker would miss the next shot. But.... he didnt. BSM moved on to the finals, and we had ANOTHER shootout, this time for 3rd place. We all encouraged Frank, because he felt like he was at fault, but we all told him that it was okay, and that he tried his best. The shootout for 3rd was also pretty intense. We lost cause our first kicker's shot was caught by EIS' goalie, but other than that, all the shots went in. So, the tournament was over for our team, and we ended up placing 4th. I felt really bad after losing, and my stomach felt uneasy, I've never had that feeling before. I felt sick. But after seeing my family and friends, and them cheering for me, I felt alright. I kept blaming myself for the loss in the penalty shootout against BSM, but thanks to my friends, they made me realize that it wasn't and that we had a good run this year. This whole ISAC was a learning experience for me, I learned how to deal with losses and dissapointments, I learned how to focus and clear out my mind of everything except for one thing (in this case, soccer), and I made a lot of friends. In the beggining of this season, I felt quite distant from my Korean teammates, but after ISAC, I felt like I had new brothers who will look out for me and help me out when I need them. Another ISAC has gone, and a handful of new lessons learned to improve my mental, physical, and emotional skills in life.