Baseball

So  far  throughout  my  life  I  have  played  three  different  sports,  Baseball, Football, and  I  Wrestle.  I  have  been  playing  sports  for  about  7  years.  Each of these  sports are  very  important  to me. Some  of  the  things  that  I  have learned  in  sports  make me a  better  person  and help  create  different  life skills.  I  am  very  passionate,  and committed  to  my  sports.  I  often  travel  and go to different places  to  compete. It was very  enjoyable. I  started  playing baseball  Because  at  that  time  baseball  was  my favorite  sport.  I also  wanted to  try  it  out  because  my  dad  played  when  he  was younger.  I  started playing ball  right  after  I  turned  8. I  first  started  playing in Vancouver  Washington. That  is  where  I  lived,  and  where  I first  started  playing baseball  before  I moved  back  to  Estacada.  My  first  year  my  coach  was  a  man that  I  had never  met,  and  It  was  odd, because  as  a  little  kid  I  Was  taught  not  toobey  strangers.  (I still listened but it was very odd). During  my  first  year  of baseball  I  got  hit  in  the  head  with  the  ball. That  resulted  in a concussion. Oh goodie the sport that is supposed to be the safest I ended up getting injured. Just wait this isn't  even  my  worst  injury  from  baseball. After  being  hit  by the baseball it caused me to build  a  fear  of baseball. I was always afraid of the ball and didn't want to get hit by the ball. After a while I stopped being afraid of the ball, and learned that pain is something you must go through to become stronger. I have made so many awesome memories and friends playing baseball. I didn't go to public school or play any sports so I only knew a few people my age from church. So once I started playing I tried to become friends with everybody I met. Some kids were not as nice as I wished but I made a couple new friends. After  I  moved  back  to  estacada  I  started playing  baseball  again  and  I decided  to try  to  play  up  a  grade  so  instead  of  playing  with  5-6th graders I played  up to  the 7-8th  graders  team. This  helped  greatly  with  my performance  in  baseball  and  I  really  enjoyed playing  with  the  older  guys. This  was  also  the  year  that  I had  been  injured the worst out of all of my sports. At  this  age  in  baseball  you  are  allowed  to wear  metal cleats  which  help  with  your  traction. But  My  unlucky  self  got  stepped  on  by  a  pair  of these cleats  when  sliding  into  home  plate  at  practice. I  stood  up  thinking that  I  had  just  got  kicked  and  my  knee  was throbbing then after  about  30  seconds  my knee started gushing blood  it  was pretty gross It  was  quite  a  gash. here  is  a  picture  from  my  injury:  It  took  quite  a  while  for  this  injury to  heal  but  eventually  it  did as  all cuts  and scrapes  do. After this injury healed I had to work twice as hard as everyone else to catch up. This taught me multiple Lessons, like how to Overcome adversity. I also learned how to fight, and work harder. Even when I'm Fatigued and want to give up and quit. I learned not to give up even in harsh conditions. Another great lesson that my Dad taught me was "proper practice promotes proper performance." This lesson comes up in many different scenarios in life. It comes up often in School, Sports, Work, and it even comes up in our everyday hobbies. This taught me to keep working hard and trying to perfect whatever you are working to improve. This is a lesson that had a big impact on me. It also comes up when I try new sports. After my 6th grade season of baseball  I went on to play in 7th grade also,  getting to play with my friends from the last season and also more of my friends my age, and grade. This year was probably my favorite year of them all. This was a great performing year for me. I had many great hits, and some amazing plays in the infield. One of my favorite memories of This season was our tournament against sandy. It was the bottom of the 7th inning Estacada ahead 6-4 nobody on base and I was pitching. The first batter who stepped up and was very confident. I struck him out with 3 amazing pitches. The second batter stepped up to the plate ready to face me. I then ended up striking him out also with 4 pitches. Then as the last better stepped up I started to get nervous because he was the best hitter on their team. I threw the first pitch to him and it was a ball. My heart started racing. I threw to second pitch and it was a hard hit right at me. Then it started to feel like everything stopped right in front of me. It was like slow motion, I reached out hoping that I had caught the ball. Then I looked down in my mit and saw the ball was in my mit. I then started thinking, Dang Nehemiah you caught it the team just won wow what a great inning. After the catch I heard the umpire yell "that's three outs Estacada wins." I heard all of the Estacada fans yelling and cheering. I turn around and see my teammates started running towards me; they were all jumping with joy and yelling with excitement. It was a great game. After the game we had a BBQ and celebrated. Our team went on to place 3rd out of the 12 teams in our league.The next year was my 8th grade year. This is when the Coronavirus took away my last year of youth baseball, my last season of middle school ball. I was very angry when my parents got the call that the season was canceled I was devastated. I am now playing baseball for my High School as a backup varsity and a starting JV Player. We get five weeks of games and have three games a week. So far we are undefeated and getting ready for our next game .                                    

Football  

I started playing football for Estacada back in 6th grade. At first I never wanted to play.I was scared of getting hurt, then about a week sign ups closed I decided that I wantedto play Football just like my dad. After about the first week of practice I loved the sport.The season just gets better from there. I made a few new friends and I was super happy about that. After a couple of weeks in practice we were allowed to practice in gear. It made practice more challenging but also made it so much more fun. I was excited butnervous about tackling the next week. The day was finally here, my first day of tackling.I was so excited, we started with correct position and ways to tackle safely, Then afterall of the talking we started with light popping. Coaches said they wanted to see technique first, and after the two days of technique we got to start tackling. After tacklingand being tackled, I loved it. The next week it was Thursday "hittin day" as coach calledI was ready to hit and prep for our first game of the season in two weeks. I was goingup against my good friend after we ran through our drills a few times, it was time for  head on head tackling. I went up against my friend again and he was running theball. I got low in a good stance and we hit, I tackled him. He dropped straight down.After I stood up he didn't, so I was wondering what was wrong. He was calling for thecoaches, yelping in pain. I felt so bad, Later that night I got the news that I broke hiscollar Bone. I was extremely upset. I kept beating myself up about hurting my friendbut my dad, who was coaching my football team too. Told me that it was just part ofthe sport. It was the day before our first game we were practicing preparing mentallyand physically. Everything was going great. Then... We were running drills and our quarterback was tackled and he out his arm out to catchhimself before falling to the ground. After about 10 seconds he started screaming in pain after the coaches got him to sit up, they could tell his arm was broken before he even got looked at by the doctors. We were all super scared and shook up. It was the day before our first game. One of our receivers Broken Collar Bone, and now our quarterback out.So we had to have our starting running back move to QB. We were ready but extremely Worried at the same time.            

The Next Day…It was a warm saturday morning the game was scheduled for 11:00 am, and we wereready to go. We stepped into the stadium full of Family, friends, classmates, and people who just enjoyed watching the sport. We played a very tough game.The final score being 32-26 Colton with the win…After the game the team was sad of course but we actually did really good for not having our starting QB. The rest of the season went amazing. We persevered and poweredthrough the challenges and finished the season with a record of 10-2. We went on to play in the playoffs winning our first game, but losing the second. By a verytight score. I learned so many things that year. After that season I went on to play again in seventh grade the next year. That season did not go as well as the last. Our team didnot have as much of a connection like the year before. There were some new people on our team this year which wasn't bad. But let's just say that these people were not asskilled. Our season went horrible. Through the whole season we only had two winsour team did not perform nearly as well as the year before, there was one goodgame that we had against Gresham. We destroyed them causing them to forfeit. Therewasn't much that I learned from this year. But I was proud of myself for beinginspirational to my teammates. They always looked up to me or encouragementeven if they were older than me, they would still look up for support, and someone tohype them up. Next came my 8th grade year, It was the beginning of the season and Iwas super excited about getting to play to with my fiends from our 6th grade seasonwe started off with a very good couple weeks of practice, we were all very excited forOur first game is next weekend. The last week of practice before our first game wentvery good and we were performing like a kick ass team in practice. The weekend came so fast I was in the car on the way to Molalla, thinking about how I am going to do in our first game. I got there, and we Started warming up. Then the warm up timer hits zero. I'm Strapped up ready to go, It's game Time Baby! We went out and put a beat down on Molalla, we won 48-18 We played an amazing game and we were all very excited. We ended up finishing our regular season with a record of 9-3. Then we moved on to the Playoffs. We played against the Reynolds Youth football team. Most of their players were bigger and stronger than us.In the first half of our payoff game, one of our wing backs broke his arm, and later in the third quarter our quarterback was hit in the head and had to be taken out of the game.  Most of our team played harder than we had ever played before. We played a very hard game and fought hard even with two of our most valuable players out of the game, and we ended up losing 28-22 in a very intense game. We ended the year off as a very strong team, and very close friends. We had a small group of freshman play football this year and only four of them werefrom my eighth grade team. One of them being me. I tried to earn a spot on the varsityteam but didn't make it. I worked super hard to start on JV, and I ended up getting the starting spot on JV. I was very happy about it, We had a couple weeks of practice Thenwe scrimmaged Gladstone after the varsity game. We lost the scrimmage by one point.we played them again a week later, we destroyed them. We had a very well playedgame and ended up winning 36-6. About a week later we against Rainier and ended uplosing 6-0 after that game we finished the rest of our practices for that week. Then later that weekend The JV team got a message from our coach saying that a player from Rainier tested positive for Covid. So that resulted in our team having to quarantine. That meant I couldn't go to school, we had to reschedule several games, and I couldn't leave my house. Two of the three teams that we had to reschedule with decided not to play us that made our team extremely mad. Once we were finally aloud to come back to playing we had one hour and a half practice before our last game of the season.We were not able to prepare for our last game in one day. It was the day, Game Day,time to finish off the season in this last game Esacada vs Crook County. We fought hardBut lost the game. Even though we lost we were not mad, it was still a fun game, andwe had a good season. During our 4 hour drive home we celebrated for how hard weworked and pushed through challenges for not practicing in almost three weeks. We ended the season 1-2. Now I am playing other sports and training for the next season. 

Wrestling

I have been wrestling for about four years now and it is my favorite sport of all. One because it trains you to be tougher mentally, and it also challenges you physically. Another great thing about wrestling is that it doesn't matter how big or small you are. You only wrestle people your own weight,  you dont have to worry if someone is bigger or smaller than You. You only wrestle people your own size. The reason I started wrestling is because my buddy kaden said it really helped with all the other we play, and it makes stronger and it is a competition to see who is tougher. When I first started wrestling it was odd, I've never participated in a sport that shapes you as a person as much asWrestling does. You learn so many things on how to train your body and your mind. Youlearn to work as hard as you can for something. My league season did not go very well,Which I expected because it was only my first year wrestling. Toward the end of theLeague season middle school season started. I instantly signed up for the team, this isWhere I started to cling to the sport. I had so much fun on this team, I also earned my Nickname that has stuck and I am still called to this day. That name was  TicTac, I got this nickname because I was by far the smallest kid on my team. I also learned my favorite moves from the coaches that  year. My season went very well. I almost finished the season undefeated my only was from my now best friend Caleb Rinard, it was the Last Duel of the season I was about to finish my 6th grade year undefeated, we were     dueling sandy and the dalles, I had wrestled 2 out of my 3 matches for that day, pinned one kid from sandy and one kid from the dalles. The last match for my weight class that Night was, Me vs. My friend Caleb We wrestled a very hard and close match. He ended up winning the match in double overtime 4-3. Ever since that match me have wrestled against each other and never gone under double overtime. At the end of every middle school season they have the regional qualifier, which is a tournament to see who moves on to state. Because of how many people there were that year they only took the top 3places to state,  I wrestled my first match against somebody from LaGrande, It was a very close match but I lost 5-3, Because of that loss I had to wrestle through the constellation  Bracket. Next I wrestled a kid named johnny that used to go to Estacada, and most of my team knew him and cheered him on over me, they even told him all of my moves, so I got in my head before the match and I got super nervous. I stepped on the mat looked to my Corner and nodded my head at my coach, I walked to the table, checked in clarifying That I was Nehemiah Gaul. I shook the refs hand turned and shook my opponents hand,and I was ready to wrestle. The match started and as soon as the whistle blew I shot onTook  him down and scored 2 points. I was ahead 2-0 we scrambled for45 seconds, Johnny ended up escaping, which earned him one point, Then the whistle was blown.Round two, it was my choice on how to start but I deferred the choice to johnny. Hechose top because he thought he could throw me around, I escaped and took him down again,  which scored me 3 more points, the score being 5-1, I cut him. Which means I  let him stand up and score a point, then he instantly shot. It isn't against the rules but it shows super bad sportsmanship. I instantly got away and shot again, now the score is 8-4. Then the whistle blew. I chose the bottom starting position. I did a move called a switch. That's where you pop your hips out from underneath and escape. This scored me 2 points. I decided I didn't want to keep scrambling so I locked him up in an arm bar and pinned him. The final score being 10-4 me winning by pin. I was super excited. I then went on to win my next three matches. My last match was coming up, I stepped out to wrestle the 3rd and 4th place match. I fought a very hard match but ended up losing 4-6. I placed 4th and did not get to go to state but I was proud of how my season ended as a first year.  I wrestled again the next year as a seventh grader,I did very well, This was also the year that I started wrestling for a club that I still wrestle for to this day. The club's name is All Phase. They are one of the best clubs in Oregon and I am very lucky to wrestle for them. Joining this club was such a big step for my abilities and skill levelI went 25-1 at the duels. After the duel season it was time for regionals again, I wrestled very tough My first match I lost to a kid named David, he pinned me in a move called the chin whip. It was a very cheap move but I worked for him. I was pissed, I just lost to somebody that I knew I could beat. I wrestled back and beat everyone I wrestled. I ended up having to wrestle David Weathers again for 5th and 6th place, I lost sadly but it was a very close match scoring 4-3. I took 6th place and got to move on to state. Statecame along, and I wrestled horribly. I went two and out. Which means I lost two matches and was removed from the bracket. I finished off  my seventh grade year as a great wrestler, I couldn't wait for the next year. But before the next season I had my  other sports and during the off season for wrestling, I busted my ass to overcome the chin wip.  I knew that I had been put in it multiple times. So for hours a day I would work on having better form, and more power so the next time I wrestled David I would not get put in a chin whip. Next came 8th grade, my last year of middle school. I was super excited, in 8th grade I was made the captain of the team, I wrestled pretty well that year also. It was a little tougher because I wrestled up weight so I could challenge myself. During regionals that year I had the biggest bracket that I had ever wrestled in. I won my first 4 matches, then I lost to a very good wrestler and it was a very good  match. then I wrestled my next match and won then not even ten minutes after, I had to wrestle again. I was still worn out because of the previous match. Then I lost another match due to being so tired. I placed 5th in regionals and got to move on to state again.But this year in the state tournament was totally different. My first match was rough. I ended up having to wrestle the 2 time champion during my first match. After that something clicked. I knew I needed to step it up. I went to check the bracket and I saw my next match. I started bursting with excitement, my next match was David weathers.I was nervous but also ready to go. I stepped out on the mat, shook his hand and I was ready to go. I shot immediately, he tried to chin whip but I defended it perfectly. I scored 2 points for the take down. I turned and exposed him to his back and scored another 3 points. I decided to let him up, I shot again and took him down and scored another 2 Points. The score was 7-1. I cut him, took him down again, and scored another three because of back exposure. I kept wrestling hard and scored another 3 because of back exposure. The score being 15-2   I cut him took him down again, and the match was Over. I won by tech. Which means I scored so many points that the match had to come to an end. I stood up, shook his, and the refs hand got my hand raised for the victory and stepped off the mat and shook my coach and the opposing coaches hand. I went to hug my dad, who was jumping with joy. I mean who wouldn't I mopped the mat with that kid. I walked to the bathroom and as soon as I stepped out BOOM! I had to wrestle again. I was shaking because I didn't want to lose another match because people rushed because they wanted to get home. I sprinted to the mat I was supposed to wrestle at and wrestled hard. If I won this match I got to wrestle for third place. At state they take the top three places to the Reno worlds tournament which is the best wrestlers in the world. The other guy wrestling for third was somebody thatI had already wrestled previously at another tournament, and I knew that I could beat him. I started wrestling  and I was scrambling. I ended up getting taken down. He scored 2 points because of that. Then the first round was over. The second round came and it was his choice. He deferred the choice to me so I chose bottom so I could try to score a point for escape. The whistle blew and I exploded up and scored 1 for escape. The score was 2-1 For the rest of the match we scrambled and scrapped trying to take each other down. It was  the third round and he chose both of us standing in a natural position so he could try to take me down and score two points right there. I didn't let him score. But I also fought hard to score myself. There were 10 seconds left on the clock, I took a beautiful shot and had him up on my shoulder and I took him down. I covered his hips and the whistle blew. I looked at the ref and he said the take down didn't count because my opponents foot was out of bounds! I was devastated. I dropped to the mat both out of disappointment and beng drained of all my energy. I walked off the mat in tears. I busted my ass for three years straight and went out like this. I was pissed, at both myself and the people running the tournament for making me wrestle back to back. I left the tournament with the 5th place medal. I was happy about how I did but I was also very upset. I went back to my hotel and I grieved for the night but the next day I went down to watch the 1st and 2nd place matches one of the people wrestling for first was one of my friends. Who I trained with often. He was wrestling the kid that wrestled in my first match. My friend won the match and left undefeated for the whole season. It was fun to watch, but I knew that some year that would be me  winning first place. That was the end of my eighth grade year. Then covid hit. I had no place to go train or workout so I started working out in my room and running often to stay in shape. Now I'm a freshman getting ready to try out for the varsity team at 106 pounds. I will take that spot!       

I Love it

I am not an arrogant person  but I dont think some people my age  know what it's like to work until your body needs to stop until they meet me and a few of my  friends. We bust our asses until we can't even walk. We work till we start puking. It is all worth it. It makes me stronger. Not just physically but mentally. The feeling of a hard earned victory is amazing. After losing to someone multiple times and working hard to overcome and beat them is hard not many people can do it. But I did, I stepped out and made a fool of the person who beat me two years in a row. The toughness of overcoming an injury and getting right back to work. Or even making a new best friend. That's what it all worthwhile that's why I Love sports so much. That's why I decided to share my story. So other people may know what it's like. Or hear about working hard from someone their own age. I am Nehemiah and I hope you enjoyed reading my story.