Listen to my follow up interview here...

Intro- this is Rachael interviewing Dale Xander on her personal essay

Rachael: Do you think the losses at the tournament helped you in the long run? and why?

Dale: I think the losses at the tournament helped us get some of the emotional and physical problems out of the way. And since it was before the season actually started we were able to sort out some positional issues and strategic moves that we did between players, and new strategies for different plays and such. It also helped in the emotional aspect, as in the losses let us get out al the extra stuff, the junk that we don't need in our daily life or in a soccer game. It was a lot of fun even though we didn't win. I just hope it will help us as much as I think it will.

Rachael: You said that you think goalie is a position "that is getting more and more important as we [your team] continue to improve". Why is the goalie more important now than it was before?

Dale: Before the goalie was just someone who stood around waiting for the ball to roll to them. Now the goalie is expected to go out there and make that last second save.

Rachael: It seems the moral of the story is going against the grain for the better good of the people around you. How do you think this utilitarian effort helped your team?

Dale: If I hadn't stepped up we probably would have lost dramatically. I mean we lost, but it wouldn't have been something we could have learned from, cause our goalie would have been so deficient. Since I went to the extra camps during the summer, and I trained. It gave me that extra edge even though I hadn't;t been trained as a goalie previously to be able to make that dive, that save. I found I can punt farther than I used be able to. And I honestly wish people would step up, and sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Even though you wouldn't think at first it would make you happy, in the end it does because you see how much you are helping out other people. And how much your help makes them happy.

Rachael: Do you think learning how to play goalie helped you learn how to be a better soccer player all around?

Dale: I believe so, definitely. I also realized that it may make sense to have our forwards and strikers play goalie during practice sometimes. Just because then they get to see what the goalie is thinking, feel what the goalie is feeling. Which might give them just that extra little edge to score. In my case its helped me see what other people are having trouble with. And I can normally coach them into fixing it. And then sometimes I'll start doing whatever they were doing wrong, and I'll be like this is what so and so was doing, I know how to fix this.

Ending- this is Rachael clocking out from Freestyle High

(If you want to go back to my essay page and text please click on the essay button on the left.)