Basketball's Elite Rivalry

Characters: Stevie and Susan Carol are the two main characters of the book. It also had many minor characters.

A timeless sport filled with -- rapid movements, sweat, anxiety, and team cheering -- volleyball is a sport that many underestimate. There are countless people that say “Volleyball is a girl sport” or “volleyball is not even that hard”. Also you may come across an egotistical varsity football team that refuse to attend any volleyball games, because they are mad that varsity volleyball made it to state championships and they did not. However, volleyball is a sport that requires intense drills, training, and a strong team bond. For instance if you do not dive right when hitting the floor you can seriously injure yourself. I have had torn a ligament in my shoulder diving for the ball, because as a volleyball player you are taught to always chase after a ball even if it means running into a wall. But the best and the greatest experience of all time is when it is a game day, or even better yet the last game that can determine your title in Norcal Championships. Norcal Championship finals is the game that all 14 teams strive for during the

My team was playing in Denver at the Mountain Madness tournament, our last tournament of the year. It was the second day of the tournament and after suffering a loss earlier that morning, we really needed to play well if we wanted any chance at playing in the championship game the next day. I played for a

As our two senior captains closed the practice with their last words I will never forget Claire Basetti saying "Girls, this is my last year here at Wood, all I want right now is this team, my favorite team of sisters I've had at Wood, to win this State Championship". From that practice on, we played our hearts out for the person playing next to us. As we made it to the Giant Center once again in March of 2016, we ended up beating Villa with a lead of seventeen points. The feeling we all felt rushing onto the court as we won when the clock ran out to 00:00 was one of the best feelings I will never forget. That season really taught me that when things don't feel right the way they are going, that talking the problems or feelings out with others definitely helps. If our coach didn't have that one practice dedicated for us I highly doubt we wouldn't have won that game. Winning the State Championship is definitely one of the best moments I'll remember for the rest of my life, and especially the sisterhood I made with my best

While I felt as if we would lose, I still wanted to try my hardest to change that outcome. I played my hardest at Shortstop and was able to get two of the three outs by a double play. Sadly that play had come at the expense of a run from their team. The last batter from their team was struck out and we headed back to get ready and bat. The crowd kept supporting us through the bad calls from the umpire and the strikeouts even to this point. The team was motivated and ready to take this game and head to finals with my morale boosted I got ready to cheer my team on

While I felt as if we would lose, I still wanted to try my hardest to change that outcome. I played my hardest at Shortstop and was able to get two of the three outs by a double play. Sadly that play had come at the expense of a run from their team. The last batter from their team was struck out and we headed back to get ready and bat. The crowd kept supporting us through the bad calls from the umpire and the strikeouts even to this point. The team was motivated and ready to take this game and head to finals with my morale boosted I got ready to cheer my team on

I was overjoyed, because we had beaten them and had won the national title. So I thought, when the girl came sprinting back, she did not have the ribbon in her hand. That should have automatically disqualified them, but the judges gave them a rerun, at the time Denton was out of the building and had not seen any of this. So as we waited for them to bring their calf back, I was so over the edge again. When they finally got the calf back the team went and was a 9, and beat us. Denton was so mad that he went and talk to the judges, but they were assholes and did not disqualify them like they should have. So that put us in second place in the short go. Then since they were ahead of us in the average and in points, that put them winning the world and the average. Even though we got reserve in the average and the world. I was very pleased with what happened and so appreciative for doing as good as we did. I came home with four buckles and a set of spiffy spurs. Even when Denton was still very annoyed about it, I was very

Being girls of the ages fourteen to eighteen we did not know how to react. We have never in our life went to school and heard all these headlines about how the program we worked so hard to build is not going to make it in our county. Knowing we had no support from anyone besides our coaches and families led us to constantly being down. We were continuously mocked of from higher ranked teams, even if we won a game. All that proceeded in our heads were that how can people think so small of a group of teenage girls. No one wanted to be last in our division anymore, but we didn't have faith in ourselves as a result of no one having confidence in us.

Volleyball season had started, and that means six o’clock practices bright and early. Practice was two hours long before school. I could feel the anxiety in the gym that day; everyone was nervous, thinking about what was to come. We did not play the best that day, to say the least. We kept seeing people walking past the gym, wishing they were anywhere else. The whole team was waiting for the clock to read eight so we could rush upstairs to change. At last, Coach let us take down the nets and go get ready. Our excitement led us to break record time taking down the nets.

Our team went undefeated for our first 16 games, and then our 17th game we had our first tie. We were used to killed the team we tied to, but that proves if you don’t come ready not everything is going to go your way. Some of the kids kind of took it the wrong way. We won 14 more games after that and kept playing strong. Then we had our final playoff game to see who was going to state or not.

It was a Thursday evening when it all happened. Lady Titan Softball was at Tecumseh high school playing a conference game. Of course, this was my freshman year so varsity wasn’t exactly in my range. Winning the junior varsity game though, was just as important. We all knew this conference game was going to be a tough one, but we were willing to do anything to win.

The game of basketball was created in 1891 by Dr. Hames Naismith. This game has spread world wide, but in Iowa there are no two teams more well known for basketball than the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones. A rivalry that started between the two colleges on February 5th, 1909, still continues today. Overall, the Iowa Hawkeyes lead in total wins against Iowa State with 44 while Iowa State has only beaten the Hawkeyes 26 times. Although both teams are proud Iowans, they have numerous differences in their records, coaches, and arenas.

My seventh grade volleyball team had a fantastic season. We had won every game except one leading up to the postseason. We were so successful since we worked well together. We exceeded in multiple areas on and off the court. After we won all of the Regional and Sectional games, we were headed to Tri-Valley on a

The team was ready, we had been working extremely hard for the past seven months for this. We were all in great shape and very rested. A few of the returning players were meeting me at my house to carpool to the final game of the state championship tournament. Everyone knew that the hard work had paid off when we won the semi-final game the preceding day.

Playing on the varsity volleyball team is an adrenaline rush like no other. To be able to play the sport you love with teammates that are like family, in front of a crowd of actual family members is the ultimate feeling. Playing is even better when you, a small town nobody, beat a ranked team in the first set. We had just beaten Humboldt 25-17 and I was on top of the world. We were playing like our lives depended on it and I couldn’t be more proud of the girls.