Athletes often hear the advice, “Follow your dreams,” from a coach or a parent. Ambitions vary between athletes’ minds; some aspire to make it to state, others to reach their personal best, or maybe to have an unforgettable season with their teammates. Through every practice and game, athletes develop dreams and missions for themselves and as a team. Maintaining goals helps athletes keep on track and motivates them.

Mackenzie Pass, senior soccer player, cross country runner, and Valkrie, is prepared to make sure her long term target is accomplished for her senior year.

“If you apply goals it allows you to always want it better,” said Pass. “Having goals is dedication; it shows you want to play. For soccer it’s a big senior group and we have been playing with each other for four years now. It has always been the goal for this season to be our year. Our long time goal has been to build up this team over a course of all four years.”

Nikola Kuljanin, senior soccer player, reflects about how important it is to keep expressing his personal and team goals throughout the season.

“We constantly remind ourselves of where we want to be and never settle for anything less than that,” said Kuljanin. “Goals are very important and motivate us to put everything on the field every time we are out there.”

Some athletes play by an expression their coach uses, some even write it down to help them stay focused. The football team used the saying “WAO,” which stands for “We Are One” this year. The girls’ basketball promotes, “Never Settle” on their posters, t-shirts, and as their team motto for the past seasons. Coaches communicate these goals in the beginning of the season to motivate their players.

“For my freshmen team, my goal is to make people better so that they are ready for the Junior Varsity or Varsity level,” said Riley Kontek, freshmen girls’ basketball coach. “I want to take where they are now and move them to the next spot. The goal for the girls’ basketball program is to play cohesively as a team good enough that we can get past our goal from last year, which was getting to the regional finals. This year we are pushing to win a regional final.”

Just about every sport lends itself to the possibility of injuries. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), high school athletes account for an estimated 2 million injuries, 500,000 doctor visits, and 30,000 hospitalizations annually. Even though athletes have to face the possibility of getting injured, it doesn’t stop their goals from being accomplished.

“You take the right precautions before practices and games (stretching) to make sure we don’t obtain any self-inflicted injuries,” said Kuljanin. “You go 100 percent. Focusing on getting injured can be detrimental to earning the right result for our team; you can’t go in with that attitude.”

According to an excerpt from “Fundamentals of Sport and Exercise Psychology” by Alan S. Kornspan, The goal-setting process helps athletes understand where they are currently and also where they want to go.

“If you don’t make goals for yourself as an athlete you lose the drive,” said Pass. “Making goals is necessary because you aren’t playing just to play.”