Although there are a handful of different sports people play, I’ve noticed that athletes always seem to fall into the same few stereotypical categories.  Some are favored more than others, but you can find every single one of them on almost every sports team.  Believe me, after playing five different sports throughout my life I know.  And it’s not based on their ability to play that specific game either, it’s their personality or how they act and treat other people, especially their teammates.  Unfortunately, the majority of them are unbearable. 

The Mr Letterman 

Of course, I need to start off with the stereotypical jock.  These are the people who make sports their one and only personality trait.  Literally all this person talks about is sports, even if they don’t play it they will talk about it. They wear their letterman jackets in the middle of  august, they only post their medals on social media, and they bring four turkey sandwiches at lunch. Some of the really committed ones will have their old jerseys hung up on their bedroom walls for decoration. You know one if you see one because they are more then likely the fittest person on campus.  Unfortunately, the jocks aren't the brightest bulbs in the box either.  They’re the ones who count on the full athletic scholarship rather than any money from grades (mainly because they are failing their classes).  You would catch them sleeping in class before they take out a textbook or study for an exam.  None of them are necessarily mean, but it's nobody I would want to spend the majority of my time with.  The strong smell of sweat constantly follows them around, making them immediately identifiable.  However, if I had to sit next to one in class, I wouldn't complain too much.  I would just bring out a little of my own perfume to drown out their smell.      

“What’s their name again?”

The loners have absolutely no friends on their sports team, and every team has one.  If your team doesn't have one, I’m sorry to tell you this, but it's probably you.  Loners do their own things away from the rest of the group, though it doesn't seem to bother them.  Drill ends?  They drink they’re water as fast as possible then hop back onto the field without saying one word.  Team bonding planned?  They happen to get extremely sick that day or have family plans that they cannot miss to matter what.  Anything that has to do with the team, they avoid if they can help it.  They never talk, keep their head down, and do the bare minimum to remain on the team.  It seems like the only person they talk to is the coach.  When seeing them around campus they constantly have earbuds in, avoiding your small smile or wave (rude).  However it’s not just you, they avoid the whole team.  It's like they don't really want to be there,  they’re parents made them try out and they just happened to make the team.  Or they really just hate everyone.  Personally, I’m betting on the second answer.      

The Mini Coach 

Mini coaches get on my nerves a whole lot, and I bet you five bucks they got on your nerves too if you’ve ever played team sports.  When the coach tells you to do something, the mini coach will tell you to do the same thing, but much louder to make it known she understands the drill.  Before practice starts they will try to begin their own drill that doesn’t make sense just to make themselves look good. If the head coach isn't there, then they think they get to run practice, even though literally nobody asked them to do so, nor wanted them too even though another coach will be present.  And somehow, the coach doesn't seem bothered by them, in fact they couldn't care less. The best you can do is nod your head and go with it, if you do the opposite the head coach will get a message saying that you were extremely uncooperative during practice.  Thankfully, that doesn't affect the coach's judgment or one’s playing time, however I’m starting to think coaches find it entertaining.  Mini coaches defiantly have to be on my list of top ten least favorite people.  

I have to deal with these kinds of people between four to seven times a week, and after a while you get used to it.  There are so many other kinds of people I didn’t even mention (which would cause a whole other rant), but all of them would connect to small bits in the categories I already listed.  However, based on my experience of playing soccer my whole life, two years of track and field, one season of volleyball, a week of tennis and three days of golf, these are the most generic characters found on each and every sports team, all of which are unavoidable.