The Interview & The Banquet

Just wondering, did you all like my John Grisham-like title?

So...last night I had my congressional interview for the nomination to West Point from Congressman Robert E. Latta. I was not nervous at all until about 2 hours beforehand. I started to worry a lot. When my father came home around 5 o'clock I was all dressed and ready to go. He decided that he was going to take me. My interview was at 6:15 and I didn't have to be there until 6 o'clock, so I had about an hour to wait, brood, worry, and just get more nervous in general. We left around 5:45 so we arrived about half an hour early. My dad started quizzing me in the car and helped me prep for the interview for about 10 minutes or so, and then we prayed together. He could not have done anything more helpful for me. The interview went very well and actually ended early.

After the interview, we took off to go to my soccer banquet which started 15 minutes before. We arrived while everyone was still eating and parents were still going through the line for the first time, so I jumped in and ate with the team. After dinner coach thanked the parents, the athletic department, the school, the school board, etc. Then he proceeded to introduce the team and letter winners. Everyone that he called before me had won 1 or 2 letters. This was my 3rd varsity year so when he called my name I got a plaque as well as my letter.

After passing out letters he started to hand out special awards. The first award he had was Rookie of the Year, follwed by Midfielder of the Year, which I had thought would be one of our outside midfielders. He proceeded to describe the winner and what he'd done all year and so on and so forth. It turned out to be me which was a very nice surprise. I really had not expected to win any awards so it was an extra-nice surprise. Coach went on to hand out the other awards, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, Most Improved, Coach's Award, and MVP. He was describing the MVP which I didn't think I had a chance at because I had already won the Midfielder Award. I assumed that one of the other seniors that hadn't won anything would receive MVP. As coach kept on with his description I started to think that it might be me. The moment I knew that I had won the award was when coach said, "And this player stands tall on the field, high above any other player." So I ended up winning 2 special awards.

As I was walking back to my seat from going up to receive the award, coach told me to stay up in front of everybody. He started talking about the next award that I won which was Academic All-Ohio for mainting a GPA above 3.7 all 4 years. (That means I'll get my picture up on the Athletic wall in the High School.) After I got back to my seat coach called me up again with our sweeper and goalie. He handed all of us medallions and told us that we had been voted by the coaches in our district for All-District awards. Our goalie received 1st team All-District and our sweeper and I received Honorable Mention.

The last award/honor that I received coach forget to mention. I was named along with 2 other seniors from the team to play in the All-Star game next week. I realized this when I read it in our packet that we received that listed all the letter-winners, and special award winners etc. I called coach when I got home to ask about it and as of right now, I do not know the date, time, or location of this game, but I am extremely excited to get to play in it.

That pretty much sums up everything that happened last night. Well I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed the banquet last night.