Madeline Wilson '18 Recruiting Profile

    The description in the "Personal Statement" box tells me to tell the reader what makes me different from other recruits. Well, reader,  you may be looking at my personal statement and be thinking "whoa, this is really long." Yeah I like to write and write and write and explain why I'm different. But it narrows down to this: I am the hardest working person you will ever meet. I have a passion for my grades,  my pole vault, and my future that is different from all the other recruits you see and this is why.

    From and early age, sports have been a part of my life and so has hard work since the two go hand in hand.  I especially know what it's like to work hard at something. The first sport I ever participated in was gymnastics.  Now, if you see my height, I obviously do not look like the "gymnast type".  Even when I was younger I didn't have the gymnast build.  I was tall and lanky.  But I loved the sport with all my heart.  At the beginning, I was terrible.  My mom will tell you otherwise, but I was really bad at first.  I could barely stay on the beam, I would always fall on bars, I'd crash on vault, and I wasn't very good at dancing for my floor routine.  My coaches never really had much faith in me, so I just had to "figure it out" for a lot of stuff.  They usually focused on the really small and really fast girls.  But that never stopped me from doing the sport I loved.  I just worked harder and harder to get stronger and faster, and to stay with the girls who already had those abilities naturally.  By level 7 year, the team was narrowed down from nine people to four, me being one of them.  

By this time, my strength had been on the uneven bars.  But in one month, I grew three inches which caused me to lose my dismount.  This was TERRIBLE.  But all season, I worked to gain it back and the day before state,  I got it back.  At state, I did the routine flawlessly receiving a score of 9.8, which resulted in me becoming the Level 7 State Champion.   All of my hard work had finally paid off and I was so proud of myself.

My level 9 year was my last year, sadly due to a knee injury.  But by my level 9 year, a team that was full of 9 talented girls was narrowed down to one: me. T he girl who couldn't even stand on the beam without falling had made it all the way to level 9 by pure hard work, and a pure love for the sport.

    After I "retired" from gymnastics my 8th grade year, I trained and competed distance in track and cross country.  I loved those sports too!  I made it to Junior Olympic Nationals in the 3000m and made it to the Indiana Middle School state 2 years in a row in cross country.  7th grade year, I joined IN/USA swimming in the winters to stay in shape for running.  In 8th grade, I decided to swim full time.  Swimming was incredibly hard.  I had no idea what I was doing and most kids on the team had been swimming since they were 3 or 4 years old, so I was obviously a little behind.  But, I worked extremely hard and by my freshman year, I was able to swim my 100 backstroke in a time of 1:02, which lead me to the State Finals as an alternate.  I still swim today and my backstroke time my sophomore year is now at 0.59. My junior year on the swim team has been the best year of my swimming career. As a team captain, I was able to learn that a true leader inspires her teammates and always puts them first. She cares about her team's goals more than her own personal goals, and in doing this, I was able to reach far beyond our teams goals and my own personal ones as well. I competed in IN State Finals in the 50 fly in the 200 Medley relay, and the 50 free in the 200 free relay. 

    Even though I love swimming, I still didn't get the rush of adrenaline that I always got when I was on bars.  So one day, I went to a HS track meet  and decided "I'm going to pole vault."  That's really all there was to it.  I just needed something to do so I could fly again.  So, I did.  

At my high school, I don't have a coach, so I am self-taught with YouTube videos.  I didn't have my turn all of my freshman year, but I got 10 feet from a 4 left approach. I also went to state both my freshman and sophomore year. Freshman year, i didn't clear a height. But sophomore year, I cleared 11 ft.  But to me, the height isn't why I pole vault.  I pole vault because I have an absolute love for this sport.  Many athletes don't want to go to practice but I LOVE to go to practice!  I just love to jump and fly, whether its 11ft or 7ft.  I love to work hard at this sport.  I would put all my time and energy into it if I could, but being in the Honors and AP courses and maintaining a 3.8 GPA makes it hard to do so, and that's my number one priority.  Now, I have joined the Spottsville Monsters Track Club, received some coaching and I have pole vaulted 11'1"  this year as a sophomore.  I have also begun training two times a week in my old gym with my former coach where i practiced gymnastics skills so that I am able to keep up my gymnastics ability in order to succeed at pole vault. 

    Working hard has always been a part of who I am throughout my entire life.  This is what makes me stand out from all the rest.  I have a passion for working hard that most kids don't have.  Whether its pole vault,  swimming, or grades, I have learned something from all of them.  If you don't work hard, you don't succeed.  You don't have to be naturally gifted at something to be good at it.  Yeah, it helps, but hard work gets you farther.   I always shoot for the moon and I do whatever it takes to get it.

I am currently going into my junior year of pole vault. I have yet to compete in any meets, but I know that it's time to start thinking about college and what I believe I can accomplish there not only in sports, but in academics as well. I believe I not only have the talent to compete for a college team, but the character, work-ethic, and leadership skills to make an immediate impact on your program.   As a two-sport varsity athlete, I know that I have what it takes to be a hard-working leader on your team!