ATHLETICS / STUDENT ESSAY
How CPA Athletics
Have Impacted My Life
CARLI CONE
Class of 2018
I
don’t know where I would be right now
without the mentorship and fellowship
I have found in my soccer team. During the
spring of my sophomore year in my Peer
Counseling class, the teacher instructed me to
write down one thing I felt I could not live with-
out. Without hesitation, I wrote my mobility. At
a season in my life where I felt like everything
was crumbling around me, playing soccer and
lacrosse and running track were always healthy
ways for me to decompress and release my emo-
tions. I never liked sharing my circumstanc-
es with anyone, so I threw my energy into my
sports instead of my personal life. It worked for
two years, then everything changed. During the
fall of my junior year, I dislocated my left knee,
and in the blink of an eye, my mobility was gone.
I went from playing every minute of every game
to not even being able to practice. My friend,
Langley, tore her ACL and was unable to play
soccer for our junior season. However, Langley
decided to love our team well by becoming the
team manager. She came early to every practice
and game to set up and stayed late to clean up.
She was the epitome of a servant leader. Lang-
ley never played one minute that season but she
was as much a part of the team as our leading
goal-scorer. When I joined Langley on the side-
lines after my injury, I learned more about how
to be a team-player than I ever thought possible.
Langley beautifully demonstrated grace and al-
truism in the face of adversity. Together, s