I can’t describe my euphoria when I hit the perfect corner; nail a last-minute, winning shot or play a weighted through-ball that splits the defense, reaching a forward sprinting to the net. These soccer memories remain long after I take off my cleats and attempt to bleach the blood and grass stains from another pair of once-white socks.

Perhaps, it is not so much the beauty of perfection, but that of long-waited accomplishment after sacrifice, that allows the dedicated athlete to extract priceless memories from mere success. Competitors finally have confirmation that their losses — their time, their money and, occasionally, their physical well being — were worth it.

Student-athletes, for example, trade study time for half-hour drives to and from practice. They throw away summer beach vacations in favor of sweaty, musty gyms. After foregoing sleepovers for team practices, it seems obvious that they would choose conditioning over a favorite television program. Sometimes, these choices even include missing traditional holiday activities because there happens to be a tournament over Thanksgiving break or a track meet on New Year’s Day.

Besides spending valuable academic, family and leisure time on sports, these athletes drain thousands of dollars into equipment, coaching, uniforms, travel expenses and the like. Oh yeah, that’s thousands of dollars per year. 

To give a simple example, one high school club team that I considered joining required a $500 non-refundable deposit to secure my roster spot. Then, they asked for $250 a month for coaching fees, along with another $150 to pay for training facilities, practice and playing uniforms, in addition to miscellaneous equipment charges. It was definitely time to whip out the Master Card.

Of course, these payments don’t take into account $200 cleats, $35 shin guards, gas money back and forth to practices and games (up to two hours away from my house) or x-ray, hospital and rehab expenses after injuries. Now I don’t wonder why scoring the winning goal is so priceless.

In the end, all this dedication does not guarantee that some prodigy, who relies solely on natural athleticism, or “sports politics” will not knock players out of their starting positions or beat them for first-place trophies. Athletes can never know if or when their big break will come; they cannot predict when a career-ending disaster will strike.

The athlete takes great risk in pursuit of personal improvement and victory. After listening to horror stories about playing in hail or breaking their noses for the third time, most probably believe that dedicated athletes are crazy. My response: We might be, but the reward is worth it.