The score is 20-21. The underdogs just got a touchdown, and are going for two. What kind of teammate would you have run the ball? A ball hog who wants all the glory, but none of the work, or the quiet and fair running back, who knows his stuff, and won’t boast, but will thank his team for a good game? It’s an obvious choice. An outstanding team player displays trustworthiness, cooperation, and is uplifting, much like this person.

First off, a teammate needs to be trustworthy. He needs to be responsible. A team player needs to take care of the others first no matter what. For example, the running back in a football game trusts the lineman to make a hole for him, where as the lineman trust the running back to run the ball for some yards. At work, if a coworker needs to turn in a report he will have it done so the person after him would be able to do his part. I remember when I lived in Florida, a running back for my football team. His name was Spencer. We all trusted him to get the yards, just the same as he trusted us to block for him. Spencer always did his job and so did we, and even though he scored so many touchdowns he never took all the glory. He was an outstanding team player. Although a teammate needs to be trustworthy, he also needs to be uplifting.

In order to be uplifting, a teammate needs to be optimistic, energetic, and needs to have high spirits. An example would be a football game. Suppose the team is losing at half-time. The coach needs to, not yell at the players, but support them. Instead of saying this is bad, he needs to give a compliment, and then tell the player of the mistakes he made. At work, a good team player will try to make work fun, so that everyone does not live for the weekend. A few years back when I was in fifth grade, I remember this one very optimistic kid. No matter what, you couldn’t get him in a bad mood. If he got an F on a test, he would just say, “Well, guess I’ll have to study more!” Being a team player however, does not mean to just ignore everything, and be optimistic all the time. Besides being uplifting you need to be cooperative.

In order to be cooperative a person needs to be flexible, understanding, and to be a team player. To exemplify this, pretend that a person goes down in a game and the coaches need to find a replacement. A good team player will, without a doubt, know the position and will go in and do the job just as well as the guy before them. In order to accomplish a common goal, people who want to be good team players will cope with each other’s differences to become successful. Imagine that there is an obstacle in the way of a team’s goal. The team must work together to change the plan into a plan that utilizes the teams strong points to defeat this obstacle.

To conclude, someone who’s a team player must be trustworthy, or responsible. He must help others and put everyone else first. A team player must be uplifting or optimistic also. He needs to have high spirits, be energetic and needs to pump up his team so they can achieve a goal. A team player also needs to be cooperative, or flexible, understanding, and able to change a plan to better suit the teams needs. Trustworthiness, cooperation, and being uplifting are all important for an outstanding team player. Remember that, when the underdogs win because of the superb team player, that everyone can achieve anything if you use team work.