The coronavirus has delayed Chris Cernick’s senior soccer season, but he continues to work hard every day. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
With Washington state schools closed down for at least six weeks due to the spread of coronavirus, we’re offering all Coupeville students a chance to be heard and stay connected.
Chris Cernick is a senior at CHS who plays soccer and basketball.
All my life I always had dreams, but never anything that I stuck to until my 8th grade year.
It was an impossible dream I used to call it.
It was a dream that my heart and soul depended on.
You see I had never really been so deeply connected with one idea, one sport and one dream.
I started playing soccer my 8th grade year due to the help of my dad starting a coed rec team that still runs today.
My dad was my first ever coach and the one to really stir me towards my dream.
I remember the first day of practice he gave out soccer homework and I just laughed thinking if I hate school homework then why would I like soccer homework!
So I went on throughout that whole season not doing the homework and did not do as well as I would have liked to.
Well one day I got bored and decided to try the homework because I had nothing better to do.
To my surprise I enjoyed it and once I started I couldn’t stop.
This is the day I will remember for the rest of my life, this is the day I decided to take on my impossible dream.
After this day I started training every day for up to two hours a day till the end of my 8th grade year.
Then I decided to start watching videos on YouTube and watch soccer games, so I could learn from the masters.
In the summer I started training up to four hours a day and was starting to see huge improvement.
I went from 30 juggles with a soccer ball all the way to 100 by my freshman year, but I wasn’t quite at the varsity level yet.
I lacked game experience and fell under pressure every time I played.
Then my sophomore year came around and I was at 1,000 juggles and fairly confident with the ball, but not enough for varsity.
I played JV instead and scored two goals in one game and was one of the only players to score at all in the entire season, along with Jonathan Partida, who scored one as a defender.
That game was the first JV win in a long time and it was finally where I came out of my comfort zone a lot more.
It came at the end of the JV season and to my surprise Coach Nelson wanted me to move up for the playoffs.
I played a few minutes in each of the games and was just happy to get the game experience.
During the next summer I was determined to make varsity and I knew the only way I could do that is if I found some game experience.
So I started playing with adults in Oak Harbor who at the time were quite a challenge.
I would go every Tuesday and Wednesday of my junior year and still manage to practice about two to three hours a day.
My junior soccer season came and I finally had made that next step up by not just making the varsity team, but starting as well.
At the end of the season I had two goals, one assist, and a lot of fun.
After this season, I decided that the next step up would be college level soccer, and with this I knew I had to start making sacrifices.
I quit my job and stopped hanging out with my friends as much to devote all I had towards my dream.
I joined a select team in South Whidbey and met a very inspiring coach who had been a semi-pro.
I learned a lot of things during that short season and became a completely different player.
While doing this I was still putting in 2-4 hours a day and when I didn’t have practice I started putting in from 6-10 hours a day.
Fast forward to my senior season and I am ready to play college and just a completely different player all together.
If you saw me last year to now it is like a night and day difference. My confidence is at another level as for my skill, strength and speed.
Then the virus comes in and I think of it as just another obstacle in the way of my dream.
You see without sacrifices there can be no victory.
I see this sacrifice as just another opportunity to push me towards achieving my dream. I’m putting in the work and practicing eight hours a day over this brief obstacle that keeps me from my senior season.
My whole life I have had people tell me my dream is impossible and to get with the so-called program of life, but here I am now putting everything into this dream because I believe it is possible.
I may not be the best, but I guarantee, there is no one on this Island who puts in as much work as I do.
That’s the difference between a pro and a semi-pro.
In order to do something impossible, you have to do what others won’t.
Some people say I don’t have a life because all I do is practice, but in order to achieve greatness, you have to sacrifice who you are for who and what you will become.
Anybody who has told me my dreams are impossible have already given up on their own and these people who once had dreams are not living life, but are slaves to their own lives.
Soccer is my passion and it’s what gets me through my life, so I’m going to continue to take the impossible route then just settle for the easy comfortable route.
I will live my impossible dream.
