Help Tamas Achieve His Educational Dream In Sports Analytics

My name is Tamas Sebestyen. I am a 25-year-old native Hungarian who recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and sports management from York University in Nebraska, USA in the Spring of 2023. While most individuals would remain content with one degree, my desire to further my education and support my ultimate goals of helping athletes, movement specialists, and teams with a desire to surpass their prior achievements and best their own performance feats, has led me to continue my academic endeavors and ultimately pursue a master’s degree in Sports Analytics. I have just begun a year of pre-requisite work at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota that will immediately be followed by a rigorous 2-year master’s program at the same institution. I find myself on this forum, prepared to share my life story, to support this last lag on my journey. Thus far, I have been independently pursuing my successes without financial help, and mostly also without the unwavering support that most others receive from family. I have navigated a burdened childhood, created a successful soccer career on my own accord and hard work ethic such that it allowed me passage to the United States from Hungary, created a successful University career culminating in a Magna Cum Laude academic honor amongst being Captain of the soccer team, supporting myself via merit with scholarships and supplemented by grueling hours of student work in the cafeteria. It is with unfortunate necessity that I ask for help financially from strangers to achieve these last certificates of achievement. Below, I hope to share my life story to provide clarity toward my past stressors that some would easily fall from just one, while I took motivation to show the world what I can achieve from the innumerable roadblocks, barriers, and traumas.

As aforementioned, the path I have taken to achieve my successes were wholly supported by my own independent work ethic, a steadfast belief in myself, and with an ultimate target in mind of helping others achieve their own similar goals with more support and grace than I was ever granted. By asking for financial support now, it is not to let these innate drivers in myself wane. It is not to eliminate my own intention to continue to support myself to the greatest of my abilities. I can assure those reading my story and considering assisting me that I will continue to work through available avenues to support myself maximally on the financial spectrum and have zero intention of failing myself with less than my own perfection when it comes to completion of the academic portions of this program ahead. My own determination of success will be marked by the capacity to help others experiencing similar hardships to those I am currently encumbered by. I will define my ultimate success by seeing come to fruition a network of resources I produce for others to cut a less burdened path to their dream.

To allow you to understand my present circumstances, I need to take you back to my origins. I am a native Hungarian. A proud one at that as for all that is difficult being raised in a country that has poor financial integrity and has been shaped by centuries of unrest, it is a place that generates a person who works endlessly toward their successes and one that understands hard work and focus can lead to achievements beyond what your initial imagination can fathom. I was born and raised in a small Hungarian town, mostly by my grandparents, as my first trauma in life is directly rooted to my birth. In my mother’s eyes, I was supposed to be a girl. While most cultures and peoples place positive emphasis on male merits, my mother had completely opposite hopes and when I graced the world with my presence as opposition to her dream, my merit in her life was readily eradicated.

My parents were also plagued by their own youth, being only 23 when they chose to start their family, and burdened by the country’s financial difficulties, raising a family was not easy, producing many stressors. My parents eventually divorced, the final catalyst of which was the birth of my sister. This created tension between my parents as it only widened the chasm between what a mother’s love should be between her and any child she bears and the dream she had of only bearing female children. My mother felt enough disdain for me that she suggested my father keep me and she keep my sister, creating minimal to no intended interaction between the two of us presumably for the remainder of her lifetime or mine. However, financial circumstances requiring my father to work multiple jobs did not support this suggestion and I eventually came to live with the one person that never wanted me to walk on this earth, my mother.

Being raised by an adult that is inherently designed to provide unyielding support and love, but to receive the opposite, was a heartbreaking environment at its simplest and traumatizing at its worst. Between my mother and grandparents, I was groomed to do hard labor and followed the rules of “you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Not only was my heart not receiving necessary care and guidance as a young child, I also suffered the loss of basic needs if I did not comply with their rules. Despite following their rules, direction, and demands, I was often punished regardless of my efforts, setting the perception that I was not good enough no matter what I accomplished. This was a very isolating twelve years of my life and created a baseline of anger and resentment.

I was incredibly lucky, all the same, to be introduced to the sport of football (soccer) at the early age of five, within the same year my parents divorced and able to harness some of that anger and resentment toward a tangible goal. Soccer may just be a sport to much of the world, but to me, it became my outlet from the misery of my day-to-day life. It granted me moments of peace, contentment, success not measured by others, and lessons in self efforts culminating in achievement of goals others cannot remove from your being.

Excelling in soccer became my focus and distraction from the burdens of life. As the capacity to participate in sport was directly linked to academic achievement, I also shifted my life’s focus to high academic standards as well. Most days I would leave home in the early hours of the day to complete school, complete my homework, and then spend the remaining hours of the day on the field perfecting my craft. My efforts paid off and I was recognized by my teachers and coaches as the best student and athlete, respectively, in my town. While most children would feel the immense pride of their efforts and feel this reflecting in their parent’s eyes, this mirror did not exist in my home. I was still not perceived as a success even with the accolades bestowed upon me by those that have the inherent capacity to do so. The way in which any of this was acknowledged by my family was the elimination of them beating me, which of course is an action I was happy to have stopped, but to have achieved this feat, to have had this as a prior consequence, is now something I can see was not normal. This portion of my past did teach me an incredible lesson and value of every human being’s worth and that my own actions have the capacity to help others grow and flourish, or by way of my own poor and misguided choices, can make their light go out. If you choose to assist me on my continued journey, I can promise you my interactions with those around me will only be met by my encouragement, helping those that are lost find their way, and support those that have been harmed by fists or words to seek their own value away from these hurts.

To continue my story, I must continue with soccer. As most athletes, you start your athletic career humbly until you can prove yourself worthy of advancing to higher levels of play. I was no different than most and began playing with a lower division team. Quickly, however, my prior efforts and focus were clear to see on the field and I was selected by a coach to attend a professional academy. This specific professional academy has helped guide players like Dominik Szoboszlai, who now plays for Liverpool FC, to their success careers in professional soccer. To remain in the academy, each player’s family must contribute financially. When I introduced this requirement to my family, I was met with disapproval as they attributed increased hours of effort toward soccer as distracting from academic pursuits. Additionally, they did not believe I had the skill to become a professional athlete. These concerns, combined with lack of financial capacity, led to me to play only for the second division team. This did not deter my inherent and internally led motivation and I became captain of this team.

I also proved my family wrong in being able to participate at a high level of soccer while also attending a prestigious bilingual technical high school. Despite having to utilize public transportation, navigate a schedule that left no room for error for both my academic and sport ambitions, learning English amongst 3 other languages I am not native to, and working 2 jobs in addition, I graduated with an IT degree at the end of my high school tenure.

Once complete with my high school tasks, I became acquainted with a company, StudyNSport, that assisted me in connecting with Universities in the United States. This was an important route for me to explore as I have passion for both my sport of soccer, but also the pursuit of knowledge. Had I only considered continued growth in my native country, I would have had to pick one over the other as the systems of sport and education remain separated. As I inherently understand the merits of both avenues, I pursued my options in the United States with a motivation second to none.

The decision to follow both my academic and athletic dreams, did not come without barriers and difficulties. While completing my last months of high school, this decision required me to take additional tests to demonstrate my proficiency of language, complete a plethora of documentation to apply and express my intent to multiple United States Universities and complete documents necessary to support a Visa.

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I was met with one of the greatest burdens of my life at this time while participating in a soccer game. Being reminded that we are all human I tore my ACL, PCL, MCL and Meniscus in my left knee. With one move, everything I worked for, struggled for, and fought for seemed to fall from my grasp. I was graciously able to have surgery within a week of my injury and started the recovery process. Again, I pushed myself to my own limits and the limits of physiological healing and was able to recuperate in less than one full year.

I didn’t know it at the time, but pushing the limits of healing was advantageous as if I had not recovered quicker than most, I would have been catapulted into the start of the pandemic and it would have been unlikely to have been granted passage from Hungary to the United States. That year from the summer of 2018 to the summer of 2019 was met with pain, challenges insurmountable by most, and created a more difficult trajectory to be welcomed by US Soccer teams as my recovery prohibited my ability to participate in showcases or gather highlight footage of my skill, each of which are crucial to being offered a scholarship by coaching staff. Not unlike much of my childhood, I navigated this all essentially alone with the exception of my dad who saw the potential in me, and countless opportunities should I be successful in receiving an offer from a US University. Scholarships offers became a necessity to accomplish the dream I saw fading as the value of Hungarian currency to the US dollar was meager and despite the unexpected help from my dad, we just didn’t have enough alone. Academic fortitude alone, without good showcases or video footage of my on-field skill, also posed a barrier to success. When it seemed all hope was fading, I received an offer from York University in Nebraska. This opportunity helped to refuel my motivation – to prove others wrong, to prove to myself that I had the capacity to be successful on and off the field accomplishing my dream, and to show my dad the unexpected belief in me was worthwhile.

A new chapter of my life began in August of 2019. Never having traveled much outside of my native country, I found myself flying across a vast ocean to the center of the United States. I was alone, but knew this next journey was going to be a defining one. While I was on the precipice of an incredible opportunity, I could not have predicted the many challenges that lay ahead. Despite this, I have learned over many years of struggle, that there is not one thing on this earth that can get in the way of my success as long as I maintain a belief in myself and stay true to my passions.

My freshman year proved grueling, learning to find the rhythm of a brand-new system while having to put in extra effort toward school, soccer, and the work required to maintain my financial capability of remaining at University. The pressures of performing well across all aspects of life seemed insurmountable at times. As with the many paths I paved before this point, I was again met with the challenge of my dad injuring himself back home, reducing his ability to assist me financially – again, I was completely alone in procuring the money necessary to continue onward. I did find grace during this time from an incredible family that allowed me to join their home, join their family, and seek refuge from the otherwise hefty cost of housing.

By the middle of my sophomore year, the new Head Coach of the soccer team recognized my potential, work ethic, and passion for the sport and was able to increase the scholarship dollars I was receiving. The summer of my sophomore year, I was also introduced to a youth soccer club in Winona, Minnesota and spent my summer days coaching those teams, bolstering my savings to bring back to school in the Fall.

By Junior year, I received the highest academic and athletic scholarships available. These, combined with my summer savings, daily work on campus, and support for housing from my hosting family, I was able to cover all costs and remain at University. It is also incredible to state that during my time on the soccer team, we broke the school record twice and I became the Captain of the soccer team as a Senior. I was nominated for “Athlete of the Year” and received a plethora of academic awards and acknowledgements. As I stated at the beginning of this letter, I graduated proudly, Magna Cum Laude, with a BBA in Sports Management.

And here I come full circle to my current endeavors. Once again, finding myself mostly alone to support myself financially within a system that puts more barriers in the way over encouraging success, supporting fortitude, or recognizing the incredible potential in a human being seemingly because of the origin of their birth and humble beginnings. Should you choose to help support my next chapter of life, I can assure you, I will pay the community back with no less effort, grace, intensity, or passion than what I have completed the last 25 years of my life with. I intend to pay it forward. I intend to leave the world immediately around me a better place than what I found it and inspire others in a way that the world in its vastness will also be better because of the ripple effect I create with my initial example. I intend to support the athletes I encounter not only with data to drive their own successes, but allow them the courtesy of treating them as family and the dignity of not making them navigate challenges alone. I know I have the strength to act as a compass to others whether they are shining in the warmth of the sun or traveling on a sea of heavy waves. If given the chance to find my own success now, I know I can help find it for others for many years to come. Please consider contributing to allow my best efforts the chance at prevailing.