Mrs. Abrams' Virtual Language Arts Class

“All the Right Reasons”, from the book, Future Stars of America, written by Ron Berman, is my favorite story of the collection because the true story helped me realize how much I love my sports. The main character, Raymond Sarmiento, lives in Los Angeles, California, where he first learned tennis. Someone out of the ordinary comes into Raymond’s life and gave him encouragement. Through his experience, Raymond has traveled sometimes far for competition. Soon Raymond becomes a star of America, for he has worked hard and deserves the title. Raymond Sarmiento is a young tennis player who learned that your dreams can lead you to something you love and enjoy, from the professional tennis player, Andre Agassi.
Throughout his life, Raymond has loved tennis. As a toddler, his parents took him to the neighborhood tennis courts frequently. Watching the ball hit the pavement and the sound of the racket as it hit the yellow ball, was something Raymond enjoyed. His parents eventually bought him his own small racket which he played with all the time, forgetting all his other possessions. When Raymond was six, he had become quite a tennis player, still needing experience. Many tournaments were won by Raymond, against kids who were three to five years older than him. Soon Raymond only played one sport, tennis, all his time taken up by tennis.
One experience in particular, made Raymond love tennis even more. It was at a tennis court, when Andre Agassi had completed a professional tennis match. At the time, Raymond was ten, and was in a local youth tennis organization, in which the professional generously helped with. Agassi had been entertaining the large crowd during his match. Then, when
Raymond’s turn came up to play with him, Agassi made his famous 150 mile per hour serve to the far right corner. Immediately, surprise lit Agassi’s face as a ball bounced back to his feet. Talented Raymond had returned his serve! Showing so much astonishment on his face, the crowd laughed with Andre. After the “fun match”, Agassi gave an encouraging comment to the excited Raymond. “You are better than I was at your age”. Today, twelve year old Raymond lives by this statement, pushing him on to reach his goal of becoming a professional tennis player.
In Raymond’s tennis accomplishments, he has traveled all over the place for matches and tournaments alike, mostly playing against older kids. A common example, Raymond came in second as a ten year old in a twelve and under tennis match. Everywhere he goes for matches, his family goes with him. They even traveled to Africa once, where a huge recognition was headed towards Raymond because he placed third out of twenty-three countries represented. Talent takes Raymond all around the world.

Tennis is his priority because he loves it. He is known by his friends and family to never give up and to work hard. Work barely describes Raymond’s three to four hours of practice each day. Even Raymond’s coach, Blake Ross, says that he is one of the best tennis players his age that he has ever seen. Many sacrifices were made by Raymond, like home schooling and missing social time, so he could play more tennis.
I believe Raymond will become a well-known professional tennis star when he grows up. Raymond most certainly deserves it for sacrificing what average kids do. The beginning of his lifetime journey, has taught him that his dreams can lead him to something he loves and enjoys. This story made me think hard about softball. Would I ever sacrifice the same things that Raymond did? Perhaps so, if a professional softball player told me that I was better than they were at my age. This is why Raymond is a star of America.