Growing up, all I looked forward to was playing sports all the way throughout high school. I played basketball, volleyball, and softball in the rec league. It was my favorite thing to do, I loved being active. I was on a traveling basketball team in 5th-6th grade which was a transition from leaving rec sports to traveling with my friends, and competing against competitive teams from different towns. In 6th grade, I was asked to play on a traveling volleyball team with a group of older girls. It was a privilege to get to play with them and becoached by experienced coaches. I learned a lot about volleyball and about myself. At the time, I was looking forward to start 7th grade because that is when all the sports and traveling as a team started. I played volleyball in 7th grade, towards the end of the season, I hurt my right foot. I ended up with tendinitis and stress fractures. I did not get to finish out the season because I was in a walking boot for two months. I was hoping to be better and ready to go by basketball season. Basketball started and my foot continued to get worse, I ended up on crutches and didn’t get to play basketball. My foot was finally healing by the time track started.
I decided, even though I hate running, that I would give track a try because all my friends were doing it and what didn’t kill me would only make me stronger. I actually got to the point where I was excited to start track because I had heard from the previous classes how fun the coaches were and how fun the meets were. It was the first day of practice and of course, I have not worked out or done anything for 4 months at this point, so I was out of shape. I started running, made the lap around the practice field and ended up where we started to stretch. At this point, I was throwing up blood and could not catch my breath. I did not tell anyone, because it was the first day and everyone warned us it would be hard. I let it go. By the time we got out of practice, my dad was there to pick me up. I told him what happened, and he told me that it definitely was not normal. This was the beginning of a long journey. About an hour after practice, I still had not caught my breath and I was taken to the emergency room. I was given
I was excited for a new beginning in my career, maybe to prepare me for high school in the upcoming years. The idea of beating boys in soccer got me excited, my blood pumping harder through my veins and put an extra spring in my step. It was the first practice of our middle school season, where my life would be turned upside down. I ran down the field as normal, going for another shot on goal, but out of nowhere one of boys came from behind and completely took out my knee, causing me to collapse in pain. Lying down on the field, my sanctuary, the place I saw as home was probably the most grueling time of my life. Injuries were common in my life, but this injury was unlike any other. I could not get up off the field and felt as if there was nothing left in my knee, and every time I tried to get up, I fell right back down. I never sat out a practice until that night and figured one day would be enough. One night was clearly not enough, I was never able to catch back up to my full speed, or be able to cut around the field, which resulted in moving positions from forward, to defense to cut back on the running. I thought this would a temporary position, but I played every game in
It all began on November 3, 2015 during my first middle school basketball tournament. The grey brick walls of the gymnasium looking more like a prison than a school. The school’s “Lincoln Park Elementary School” sign had graffiti and missed a couple letters from the name. The court was terribly small, but we began by playing the superb team of Jam on It. We were blown out and I headed back up to my mom and dad in the parent filled stands. The game wasn’t even fun to play and we looked like third graders playing them. I looked up to my parents as sad as could be.
“Come on guys,” I yelled. I heard the screech of the referee’s whistle. Rushing to the bench, I heard the referee call out “Timeout, Heat.” Everything was on the line and our team’s championship hopes, being foremost on our team’s minds, was all coach could scream about. “I’m not going to tell you how to play basketball,” he yelled out. “That’s your job. I’m just going to say that right now, to us, this is a championship game. If we win this, we move on to the championship. If not, at least let us fall valiantly.” That got the whole team riled up as we rushed back onto the court. The crowd, encouraging as always, yelled out their approval on the fact that we were giving it our all. With just sixteen seconds left in the game and our team down by four, something special had to happen or we were done for the season.
Learning the game of basketball has changed my life for the better. As a little girl, my father believed that I would be an incredible athlete. As soon as I could shoot a basketball, my dad took me to a park to develop my skills. Practicing constantly led me to fall in love with the sport. Basketball became more than just a game, it became a passion. Pursuing this passion has been rewarding, inspiring, and empowering.
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.
Basketball was my favorite sport growing up. I’ve played since I was little and I still play the game today. I played basketball at my elementary school, St. Cecilia, from Kindergarten till 8th Grade and also played AAU basketball for about 2 years before entering High School. Going into my freshmen year of High School, the first sport I played was basketball. Tryouts began in about the start of November and ended about 2 weeks after. I had made the Freshmen A team. I was excited and as the season progressed, we didn’t win many games but I still had fun playing. Nearing the end of the season, golf was another sport coming up that I also wanted to try and play. I say “try and play” because at the time, I was also going to play AAU basketball. I had set in my mind that I was going to play basketball for all of my four years of high school, but my parents pushed me to tryout for golf. When the basketball season ended, golf tryouts started. Tryouts lasted for about 2 weeks, and I made the JV team. When I found out I made the team, I was very surprised. I hadn’t put in the hard work as others before tryouts came around, but the coach saw potential in me and that I can become a great player. The coach saw so much potential in me, that every week, I kept progressing in skill and fine tuning my mechanics. Halfway through the season, about 4 or 5 weeks after I made the team, my coach gave me the chance to play with the Varsity Golf team for a couple days. I was excited and eager to
When I was younger, basketball was all I wanted to play, it just looked like so much fun. In fifth grade I had my parents sign me up for CYB, then in sixth grade I tried out for middle school basketball and played all the way up until ninth grade. In middle school when I was in eighth grade I was awarded the captain position and that helped me build leadership and responsibility. All of the players especially the younger ones knew they could always come to me at any time if they needed anything or help with anything. High school basketball was a lot different than middle school. In middle school I was one of the star players so I played a lot but in high school that changed. I sat the bench a lot that taught me patience and understanding even
I fell in love with basketball 7 years ago. What began as a few trial trainings gradually grew into a deep passion for the sport. I realized that I had the flair for it as doing moves like layups came to me very naturally. All I had to do was to observe my coach do an example once, practice the move a few times, and I got it.
By this time I would be on the track getting my workout in to run the 300 hurdles. I was solid in that event, but the events I took the most pride in was the 400 and the 4 by 4. It had been a rough ending to basketball season but this would be the major turning point for me. I could make it all up by going to state. My track coach knew my coach from middle school so she has heard quite a bit about me. I never really had training or anything I just ran at first. I started to do summer training and ran with a local track team. Coach George wanted me to run the 200. It was new to me so we trained in the mornings before school. She bought in the assistant coach and he had me and few more girls lined up on the track. He wanted us to stand side by side and sprint out and merge into lane one. It was kind of crazy because we were all kind of jumbled up together. The first time as I merged into lane one my legs tripped another girl and she fell so I felt bad. So the third time I tried to make sure I didn't trip anyone up because my legs were so long. I dodge tripping the same girl but I almost hit another. By the fourth time I was really just over it, I jerked my body one way and my hip went the other. I ended up limping to the finish line. I thought it was just a little kink and I could just pop it out. I was completely wrong. It was way worse than the ankle injury. I guess it was a sign from good telling me to
Crash, I had split the beam . I was not ready for this. The nerves got to the best of me. I had fallen on my head , and gotten a concussion. I was doing my flight series which was a back handspring layout step-out. My hand for my handspring had slipped and my head went straight onto the beam. I was at my first meet of season. Beam has never been my strongest event. Thank god my coach was there she had gotten me up and took me to the gym medics. This was my last event too of the meet so then they said “the best option to figure out if my head is ok is to go to the hospital” they said this to my parents.
It was October 2016 of my junior year, right in the heart of the Cross Country season. Cross Country was fun and team was doing great, but I was looking forward to the upcoming winter track season. High jump is where it is at and that is where I wanted to be and then it happened… I went down and my ankle was caught underneath me and twisted. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I was hurt. I was on the ground, in pain as other racers passed me. I was able to get to the finish it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t fast, but I did it.
One day in Gym class there were four boys playing basketball, there names were Jimmy who is very small and never gets to play for the basketball team. Then there's Carl who is a starter for the basketball team and is trying to convince coach to put Jimmy in, and finally there's Jeff and Charlie, they both like to bully Jimmy because he’s too small to play.
Starting my sophomore year I was anxious for the season to start and to experience the exhilarating energy of a packed gym. As I got ready for my first taste of varsity basketball the worst thing I could think of happened. I injured my ankle at practice, but because of my determination to get on the court
The sight and sound of watching the basketball swish through the net are second to none. For this reason and much more, I have fallen in love with the game of basketball and all the sport has to offer. From an extremely young age until now I have played the game and I hope to be either playing or involved with the game as long as I live. I have tried many other sports including soccer, football, and lacrosse but none can compare to the pleasure and passion that I have for basketball. This has become more than a sport for me, it has become a passion and something that I have dedicated my time, energy and hard work into.
One rainy night in November, I arrived to the church gym for my first basketball practice of the season. As I walked in the doors creaked and you could smell the gym floor. As I already heard the basketballs hitting the ground, bouncing up and down. My friends Brittany and Destiny walked in right behind me through the door. That was when we realized we were the only girls surrounded by all guys. As practice came to a start we began to run, it felt like we were never going to stop. Up and down the court as we ran suicides, you could hear the squeaking of shoes as we went from the next line back and then on to the next. Before we started scrimmaging, the two captains were boys. Brittany, Destiny, and I stood in amazement as we were the last three standing there. You could see by their expressions they didn’t want any of us on either team.