My name is...  

My full name is Delia Rose LoSapio. 

Before every club soccer game we have check in with the refs who call our name and we give our number (they do this to make sure we are who we say we are). In the last 5 years I've done this about 90 times and I would say that out of those 90 times 75 times have resulted in my teammates laughing at the ref's attempted pronunciation of my name and me correcting him/her. The attempted pronunciation usually reflects the area we are in and the culture, race, and background of the ref attempting to pronounce my name. I never get mad when people don't pronounce my name correctly, whether it's a ref, a Starbucks Barista, a game announcer, or a sub. If I got mad at everyone who pronounced my first or last name wrong I'd always be mad. I just correct them and move on.I don't let my name define me because it's not all of me, it's just what people call me.

I've only met a few people who share the same name as me so I would say it's safe to say I have a unique name. Honestly I'm not sure why my parents chose my name, but I know they had a few names picked out but when I was born they decided that I wasn't any of those so that's how I came to be Delia. Rose was my Great Grandmother's name on my Dad's side of the family. It's also my cousin's middle name on my Dad's side of the family. They chose that for my middle name to pass down a family name. My last name, LoSapio, is significant to me because it reminds me of where my family is from. Every summer until high school my brother and I went to New Jersey and spent a month with my grandparents. We called it Camp LoSapio, anyway one summer my grandparents took us to Ellis Island and we were able to find our name on the wall from when My Great-Great-Grandmother came from Italy through Ellis Island. My last name reminds me of my large Italian family, the great food, and the fun giant family reunions.

                                                       
                                        http://blueprintbasketball.com/there-is-an-i-in-team-but-no-need/

This image highlights the fine line of being an individual in a team setting. The way I see it there are
 2 types of individuals on a team. Type 1, who is the "I hidden in the A-Hole", or not so hidden as they are usually easy to spot, the individual that blames everyone else when things go bad but is the first to take credit after a win. Then Type 2, who is the I that you don't see when you look at TEAM. The individual that does the work but is humble when they win and when they lose they own their mistakes but recognize that it is a team game and often 1 person isn't responsible for a loss. A team made up of Type 1s is not fun to be on, is divided, and generally unsuccessful. A team of Type 2s is fun to be on, united, and is as successful as they can be.
This is the team I won State Cup with last year. We were a team of Type 2's. We won because the team came before the ourselves.

As a goalkeeper and captain I am an individual on my team. My position is the most individualized on the field out of the 11 positions. My teammates don't go to the same trainings I go to during the week (I go to 2 gk specific and 3 team, they just go to the 3 team), they don't have the same warmup, they don't have the same role on the team, and they don't even have the same set of rules on the field. As a result I have to work extra hard to show them that I put in just as much work as they do so that I can take as much credit in a win and an equal amount of credit in a loss as they do (not more). I am very much the I that doesn't exist in team when it comes to the image above. It took me a little while to get used to being in the individualized role on the team. I took loses personally when I shouldn't have because I listened to people blame me for goals that I reflect on now and see that the ball had to get through 10 other people before me.

The most individualized part of soccer is PKs. Just me and the girl shooting. I'll never forget the time we tied the final game of a tournament and went to PKs. We lost, but then long story short we did them again because the ref messed up. We lost again and I took it very hard personally even though we finished 2nd place it wasn't first and I felt like it was my fault. It wasn't, because PKs are meant for the shooter to score but I still felt like it was my fault. After the game my teammates kept coming up to me and apologizing for not scoring and that showed me that even in the most individualized part of soccer we are still a team.

P.S. Best movie quote about team and individuals. Start at 2:20 and go through 2:36