I walk into my first softball practice sophomore year and it is not the same coach that I had last year. I was afraid I would lose my position or my varsity spot or even my love for the game. Thirty seconds in and I have realized that none of that will change. It is just like when I started last year and he has a love for the sport and the team just as much as we do. He tells us we earn our spots and that nothing is given. I came to know him as a father figure I came to know him as my favorite person in the school.
Mr. Dick becomes my encouragement, my self-esteem, my want to learn, my need to be better. He becomes the person who I look up to the most. He teaches physical education and health but not to me. To me he teaches strength, determination, and hard work. Mr. Dick was my coach so to walk into practice as a pitcher with not much experience and him to tell me he wants me practicing everyday I knew I was determined to be good. He wanted me to do my best and work hard for it. He pushed me when I wanted to give up. There was girls who I thought were much better pitchers but it turns out to him I was the best. Even if he was lying to me it still meant the most because no one else had ever made me feel like I was good at something I loved. Since being a pitcher is the hardest position because everyone stares at you and waits for you. Your pitching can determine the entire game and that’s a lot of pressure. But to know that somewhere on the sidelines someone is cheering for me knowing I can do it feels so good.  He is encouragement to always do your best and never less.
About 10 games in and I was beyond angry because my pitches are going up, down, left, right, and anywhere but straight. I just wanted to give up its 80 degrees up there on that mound. Then it feels like 90 degrees every ten seconds swinging your arm with everyone waiting on you. I am crying because I am so out of breath and so thirsty but I can’t leave my mound or give up on my team. They need me and Mr. Dick is just yelling from the side “Come on seven you can do it number seven throw it down there.”. And then the encouragement sets in and I know I can do it I know I can’t quit. I come off the field after a rough inning and he tells me it’s alright your doing your best don’t quit now. Just push harder. That is exactly what I do I push as hard as I can to make myself better.
Now I am a junior and I aid for Mr. Dick, which means I help him with his, other classes. He is able to connect to students better then any teacher I have ever seen. He is willing to be the person that you need to help you learn. I see him be the listener, or the instructor, or the screamer when he has to. But what he does is teach students amazing things. Mr. Dick has learned that with me he must be my encourager the person who makes sure I don’t give up when I want to or when I’m feeling weak. He knows that each person is different and that he must adjust to how people learn. That is something he is so good at is just being that person that you need him to be for you.
See Mr. Dick isn’t exactly my teacher for a class but he has taught me more about my actual life then I think any teacher ever could. I tell him when things are not okay even at home and I tell him about school and my classes. He gives me that sense of being proud of myself and who I am. He makes me feel encouraged to do better no matter what is happening. To do better to be better to live better anything I want to be then be it better then before. I have learned that never giving up and doing bad is better then the feeling of giving up and never trying harder. Some teachers aren’t the ones that can teach out of books but the ones that can teach you about who you are yourself. Mr. Dick has taught me who I am and who I want to be and what I love to do.