“You cannot put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” This quote from the greatest swimmer in the world, Michael Phelps, motivates me to consider sport as one of the most important aspects of my life. In fact, sport has played a major role in who I am today. Sport teaches me to never count myself out, no matter how hard the challenges I’m facing might be.
As a child, my ambition was to become a soccer player. By the time I was in secondary school, I found myself interested in sports more eagerly. The first sparkles of my interest initiated when I saw a documentary on how sports and education can be connected. The documentary showed that individual students who participate in sports are less likely to be hostile or antagonistic toward other students and also involvement in sports appears to enhance a students’ academic aspirations, investments, and achievements. Because of these, I felt a deep passion to pay particular attention to sports in order to be successful and healthy.
On a cold day in the winter of 2008, the unpleasant muscle injury pushed me away from sports physically; however, even this horrific shock did not cause me to push sports out of my mind. During my treatment period, I thought about other aspects of sports, including refereeing and coaching.
Seeing how passion, management, and decision making come together in a soccer referee, I knew that this would be the right path for me to involve myself in the other face of the coin. Also, my seven-year experience of playing handball at a professional level led me to continue my activities as a coach in this fabulous sport. Besides soccer refereeing and handball coaching, I teach swimming for teenagers. The most priceless experience I learned in my refereeing and coaching activities was to manage resources and time, efficiently.
Although I am currently busy with my research projects, I continue my sports activities. I am also interested in investigating how science can improve sports.
After attending graduate school, I started my sports career as a player at Penn State University Handball Team in fall 2014. The team participates in The Northeast Team Handball League (NTHL), and USATH Open National Championships.
