How Does Basketball Change Your Life

One of the activities that I took part in that I feel has shaped me as a person, was basketball. I joined the Sea Point High basketball team in the tenth grade, in South Africa. Now basketball was not very popular in South African high schools, as such we lost our coach in my junior year. The choices that were given to the team was to either end the program or to continue without a coach. As team captain I rallied my teammates and we persevered through without a coach; we showed up for intensive training and competed against other schools. At the end of my senior year I was presented with the basketball player of the year; however I feel that award did not necessarily celebrate my skill in the sport, but it acknowledged the determination and

The day was October 8th, 2014. I hardly played. One school day, my 5th teacher, Ms. Smit said, “flyers for the basketball team on the table” ordinarily I took one. Kids from 4th, 5th, and 6th grade came to try out for the team. After tryouts, a paper next to the nurse's office was hung up. The paper sheet named those who had made the team. Surprisingly, I made the team, most likely from my height. I felt like I shouldn’t have made the team. At the time, I barely started to play basketball. I went to the practices at school and tried to make myself a little bit better, since a tournament was about to begin in a few weeks.

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.

Going into that game we had convinced ourselves that we had already lost before it even started. We were about as flat as a tabletop. While warming up we were pretty much just waiting for the game to end, so that we could just leave and just call it a year!” Once the game actually started something just clicked. We

Basketball has always been something I loved ever since I was a little girl. I remember when I was younger, we had a basketball hoop in my driveway and my brothers and I would always go out and play one on one or horse. I also remember losing, a lot. Although it wasn’t about winning or losing for me, I just loved the game. In fourth grade, I started playing competitive basketball and loved the sport even more. Maybe it was scoring points or getting an assist, I’m not really sure the reason, I just knew I loved the game. As I got older my love for the game only grew; until high school hit.

Although we have preseason, the actual season begins in January and ends in May. It is a long, tiring season. We had gotten past the first round of playoffs and were on our way to the quarterfinals to face our biggest rival: Oak Mountain. We had gone through a full eighty minutes, two overtimes, and twelve penalty kicks when the whistle finally blew. We had lost, and our chance at a state title had been stripped from us.

Basketball was once the love of my life, 10 years of it to be exact. When I stepped into a gym, it felt like home. It occupied all of my time, and my greatest memories will always be ones from the court. Unfortunately, during the season of my freshman year, I was introduced to a game that was nothing similar to the sport I had dedicated my life to. The fact that my last name is “Moore”, I personally was instantly set up

In sports you often think about going pro, very few of us will in fact make it there.

Basketball is not just a sport, to me it is a lifestyle; there is something about shooting the orange sphere through the net and hearing that “swoosh” sound that can force any problem to instantly go away. Nothing can compare to the satisfaction that is felt when stepping onto the court or feeling the padded outer-layer of the ball clash with the tips of my fingers after bouncing up from the ground. The court is a second home to me. I have been playing basketball since I was eight years old. It seemed to come as second nature. Once I reached middle school, I competed for a spot on the seventh grade girls basketball team and earned myself a spot. Those girls meant everything to me. I can recall practices when we got off task and goofed around for a bit, but we always got back to work.

Basketball is all I have ever known. I started playing when I was about 3 years old. At the time, I was living in a big house in the suburbs of Vallejo with a large backyard as well. My father had acquired and assembled one of the little Fisher Price baby basketball hoops in the backyard for me; it even came with a baby ball! For the duration of all of my summer, I was in the backyard, playing with the basketball, pretending I was as marvelous as a professional player like Michael Jordan. I spent so much time outside practicing, I’m surprised I didn’t get sick of it. Eventually, as time carried on, I outgrew the baby hoop. When I became of age, I started using the regular sized hoop my father had in the backyard. And I fell into the same routine

I never liked playing with dolls, painting nails, pretending I was a teacher or even acting like I was baking with fake food. All that girly stuff sounded boring to me, so the one thing that kept me busy everyday was going outside and playing whatever sport was on for that day with all my neighborhood friends. We played everything from kickball to football in the streets. Ever since I was a little child, playing sports was my passion. In my free time I played every sport you can think of, but sports that I actually was on a team for was baseball, hockey, soccer, and I ran track. Being an athlete is how people knew me, I guess you could say I was and still am a tomboy. Being involved in a sport ever since I was four years old, has really taught me a lot about not just playing the sports itself, but at life as a whole. Being apart of a team, can teach someone many skills, and life lessons. Because there are uncountable reasons why one should be involved in a sport, the main skills, and lessons include learning how to work together, and developing communication, and organizing skills. Additionally, one could develop a good work ethic, and learn how to control body language/temper.

Basketball has always played an important role in my life, however, one game in particular stands out above the rest. In this game we faced our rivals and the fifth ranked team in the state, Pleasure Ridge Park. No one believed we had a chance at beating this team. We have only beat them once in our school’s 25 year history. Before this game I really did not have the confidence in my abilities. But this game allowed me to believe in myself in knowing I could play among the best.

Have you ever look at someone and assumed they play a sport or they’re an athlete? Well that’s what 90% of people do when they look at me. Pretty judgmental and bold but there’s not much that I can really do about it because well... they aren’t wrong. I am an athlete, but I don’t just play a sport I live a lifestyle.

I attended St. John’s Lutheran School from three year old preschool all the way to graduation eighth grade year. Fourth grade was the age at which students were allowed to start playing sports. Even though I cheered and played volleyball, basketball was my favorite. Starting out as a fourth grader playing on the sixth grade basketball team, I learn at a young age how important it is to always give 100% and then a little more if you want to win. Fastwarding several years, I am now a senior in high school realizing basketball has taught me so much more. As I get older I see how basketball has shaped me as a person. It has allowed me to become more confident in myself; growing into the leader I wanted to be. Basketball has also taught me the

When I look back over my life and I think back to the days of my youthful experiences, some of the greatest and most impactful moments of my childhood happen to have occurred while I was playing sports. It isn’t surprising that during my childhood that the most popular sports were football and basketball. More specifically, basketball was extremely popular. With superstar players like Shaquille O’Neal, Scottie Pippen, Alonzo Mourning and Michael Jordan dominating the hardwood night in and night out, it was quite hard not to become mesmerized by these athletes and wanting to go immolate them in the backyard on my pint sized hoop.