Vaughn Stromberg (12) received the puck as he skated down the ice while playing on his youth hockey club team when he was 9 years old. As he got closer to the goal, he could faintly hear someone yelling at him but couldn’t quite make it out. Stromberg passed down to the defenseman, where the puck was intercepted by the opposing team and taken in for a goal. Stromberg’s coach pulled him out of the game and yelled at him. He’d told Stromberg to pass to the center, he said. The coach asked if Stromberg was deaf and sat him out for the rest of the game.
“After that I felt a kind of awkwardness between me and the coach,” Stromberg said. “I thought to myself, ‘Darn, he thinks I really suck. I will never be good at this sport.’ I had tried to be good at hockey for a while before that, but shortly after this incident, I decided to quit hockey.”
Later, when Stromberg was 11 years old, he joined a water polo club team and the same problem happened: he would mishear instructions during a game and his coach would get frustrated with him, in turn causing him to get frustrated with himself. These incidents, along with other times in Stromberg’s childhood when he would mishear someone, led to Stromberg’s lack of self-confidence in social situations and sports.
“When I was around new people, I generally didn’t talk very much because I didn’t want to give off the wrong impression,” Stromberg said. “One of my biggest fears in middle school was being disliked. [Later in high school,] I felt like if I joined and I was not good [as the others], the whole team would hate me and that I would never play and that it would be a huge waste of my time.”
It wasn’t until Stromberg’s friends on his club team told him about how special their team at Westview was that he finally budged.
“[Joining the team] was kind of something that I had to build up to me more,” Stromberg said. “It wasn’t really a single moment. I was always at least a little bit open to the idea, but it still scared me. Something I know about myself is that it does take time for me to get adjusted to things. So, I think around January through March is when I started to realize, ok, I need to face this fear.”
Stromberg said he was so nervous that at times he contemplated turning around on his walk to that first practice.
“I had a gut-wrenching feeling of nervousness,” Stromberg said. “My hands were super sweaty, which didn’t stop until I finally got there and realized that it wasn’t so bad. I thought I might as well just try to do this as best as I can.”
The practice started with weight training, and, although it triggered some negative memories, Stromberg began to slowly shed his fears.
“I definitely realized [that at weights] there are a lot more people that he has to explain things to; I wasn’t the only one, which provided me with a lot of comfort,” Stromberg said.”
He then met the head coach for their water training. The coach was new that year and so Stromberg was again reassured that, just like him, nobody else had any prior experience with the coach. After a week of practices with the team, Stromberg slowly rebuilt confidence in himself and his water polo skills.
This led to the first scrimmage against San Pasqual about two weeks into summer training.
“During the JV game, I had done well and the coach came up and complimented me,” Stromberg said. “He said ‘Oh, man, your defense and some of your shots looked really good, keep it up.’ This really took me back, going from feeling like so many coaches hated me to suddenly recognizing me. It gave me so much more motivation. He then asked me to play for the varsity game. It gave me the confidence to know that I can achieve what I want to do.”
With games and practices like this one, Stromberg felt like things were finally turning around for him. His newfound confidence helped him in social interactions that he used to fear, prompting him to join the 3D Printing Club, Buddhism Club, and Car Club.
“After getting that initial confidence from water polo, I was able to apply that to talking to other people and becoming more open with others,” Stromberg said. “And now, I hang out with a bunch of people, and I am able to talk to all the people in my classes without hesitation.”
From Stromberg’s journey through what he thought would be the worst thing he’d ever have to do, which he said turned out to be the best thing he would do, he said he realized the importance of taking risks in life.
“Life is worth living to the utmost,” Stromberg said. “And that starts with you. If you let your fears dictate too many of your decisions, you’re never going to get anything done. I realize now that there is no need to be scared of taking any risks because life is full of risks. When you do [take risks], some amazing things will happen like what happened to me in my journey.”
