Personal Narrative Essay: Happening Truth In A Basketball Game

Soon as I got off the bus, I rushed into my house, threw my book bag and jacket off onto the floor and ran to my room to get dressed for my game. When I finished getting dressed, my teammates and I went over to my friend Josiah’s house and hung out for a little before the game. We went out to eat, played, joked and even played a little pick-up game on his hoop in front of his house. As we left to go to the game, inside the van I started to get more excited and more nervous. I plug in my headphones to block out the noise and to get hyped up for the game that we would be playing in just one more hour. When we arrive at Boo Williams Sport Complex, where we were going to be playing at, I saw a variety of teams playing and there were so many different basketball courts.Watching how good these teams were made me think about how good the teams we were going to be playing. After I got to thinking about it, I was extremely nervous to the point where I thought I was going to throw up. The gym smelled like a bunch of basketballs and sweat, it smelled very bad. As we walk to our court to warm up I finally get to see the team that we were playing, at first sight they didn’t look too good. After warming up, my coach calls the starting lineup and calls my name for it. At tip-off I got more and more confident the more I touched the ball. Only about three minutes in I shoot my first three pointer and it goes in. As the game comes to the end my coach names me the MVP and I finished the game with nine points and no turnovers, we beat the opposing team 37 to 21. Our jovial game ended as a big

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

It was dead silent as the ball sat in the air and as if time had stopped. It was December of 2015, I was 13, my team and I was playing for 3rd place in the Colt Classic Tournament. It was a night game at Barrington Station High School. We were playing the Barrington Colts, which was weird considering they are playing for 3rd in their own tournament that they were hosting, before the game, I was talking to some of my teammates Aaron Pattis, Stephen Harris, Bradley Jenkins, Ayden Anderson and I were talking before the game, going into that game we speculated that we had this game in the bag easily as a result of how well our team was playing. Little did we know, we had another problem coming.

Our first game was at 9, but the players were supposed to be there at 8, so I thought that I should be there. Because it was a round robin, when I got to the gym East Grand and Steamboat were playing. I was beginning to get nervous because I did not want to let down the players that I was coaching. When the game that was going on reached the fourth quarter, I took my players to the locker room and went over our game plan. The game before ours ended, and my players began to warm up. I was getting more nervous now; this was the first time I had ever coached, and I did not feel like I was qualified enough to be coaching. Sure, I have been playing basketball since third grade, but I did not think that I should be coaching. The game started, and I soon realized that my patience level was not as high as I thought. I never was mean or yelled negatively; I tried to constructively help the players. During the whole game we were doing really well, and I was super happy. The players were running their offense and doing well on defense. During the end of the game I was feeling really well because I knew we were gonna

My stomach twisted at the thought of losing when we pulled into the McDougal High School’s parking lot. I ran into the building where our coach taught us the new positions until it was time to play. The ref blew the whistle and threw the ball into the air. I jumped up with my feet dangling off the ground and slapped the ball out of its orbit and ran down the court. I could feel my heart beating, I lurched to a screaming halt at the three point line and pushed the ball towards the basket. I shut my eyes hoping it would make it. I heard the ball drop to the ground and the crowd that was erupting with cheers, I opened my eyes and saw my teammates smiling. “That’s a girl!” my coach hollered as I ran towards the sideline and sat down on the bench. We ended up winning by 2 points after two overtime periods.

We had to get the ball in, and someone had to make a shot. I was so nervous in the timeout huddle. I kept looking up at the red numbers on the scoreboard. Breathe, just breathe. Coach had written out a whole play for us. We were going to get the ball into Jocelyn at half court and she was going to dribble in and find a shot or pass to me or Ellie on the wings. I was hoping Jocelyn wouldn’t pass to me. It was 4th grade and I wasn’t very good. The referee’s blew their whistles once, then twice, commanding us to take the court. Neither team was ready to see who would be on top when the buzzer would finally go off. As both teams were getting ready to take the court, the ref set the ball on the line and began counting to five. We threw the whole

My team took the field with high energy. Coming off of an injury and weeks of being sick, I was unable to be a starter that game. I tried my best to keep my spirits high as I cheered from the bench. The whistle blew, and the game began to unfold. I watched as

Now, 30 seconds left Oley had the ball and they were up by one point so they were going to try to pass their way out and win the game. Except, with 7 seconds left I stole the ball and got fouled and went to the free throw line to shoot some free throws. I got to the free throw line

Our car rolled and bounced along the grey and dusty gravel road that reeked of gasoline and exhaust. Finally, we came to the entrance of the patchy green fields to start my first practice. I soon learned that there would be no need to be nervous as we all worked hard on this team and all became friends and were very serious about the sport. Every week we attended the five hours of practice and worked our butts off every practice. Finally, It became time to talk about our first games together that were that weekend. Before practice started coach pulled us aside and talked to us about the tourney. We were excited and prepared, but I think all of us were a little nervous. When we got to the tournament we warmed up for our game and and did some quick warm up drills. The game started and my chest was pounding out of my chest thumping so hard I could feel every beat. FWEEE! The whistle sounded and our team advanced on the field passing and running around. The ball was passed to me and I panicked and passed it right back. I realized that I needed to calm down so took a little break on the bench and settled down and got back out on the

That quarter I scored 10 points 2 rebounds and had 4 assists 2 steals and one block the score was 19 to 33 are coach Bennett told us to keep playing hard and keep doing what we are doing. I was guarding the 6,2 guy when he got the ball he did some move that was so fast I didn’t know what happened so I jump up to see if I can block it and when I came down the whistle goes and I got a foul that was my 3rd one in a row so my Dad sent Brody in for me and told me that I need to Guard my man and apparently I didn’t do

Not only was I playing the rest of that match, but I was one of the starters throughout the rest of the season. My teammates, and especially my coach, made me feel incredibly welcome on the court. They not only pushed my skills

Play by play, we played good D, made deep shots, and made all our contested layups. At the end of the game we won, 45-28! We crushed them in the second half, and at that moment I knew we could beat our #1 rival, St Augustine's. A month and a half later after all these practices and scrimmages, gameday! December, it was snowing so hard that if you went outside and took more than 10 steps, you would slip and fall. It was as cold as Alaska!! So my mom was taking me to the basketball game at Saint Anthony's and once she started driving, the car made a weird uncommon sound. She ignored the sound and then she continued to drive, so after a good 5 minutes the car started to slip and slide. The game was so close from starting and my mom started thinking I couldn’t go. Once she said that I rapidly answered and said “NOOO mom I have to go”. I started getting nervous because if I miss the game everyone was going to ask me “ why wasn’t I at the game”. Later on, my mom says I am not going to drop you off to the game. The game started at 7:00 and the time at the moment was 7:05. I was panicking and was so upset that I was late to the

I played basketball from 3rd grade until 8th grade. I would work my butt off the whole time I remember the last game I ever played. We lost both of are biggest players. One went to play for another team at a different tournament and the other had been elbowed above the eye and had to go to the hospital for stitches. We did not have many kids left who were tall, so we had to push harder to try and win. Everyone wanted to give up because our biggest players were gone but I just wanted to give it all. I pressured the offense as much as I could, trying to steal the ball for a fast break because with my skills the best way for me to score was a lay-up. I would swat at any shot, dive at any loose ball, and throw myself into anywhere to keep it out of the other teams hands, but my team had already given up. Right then and there I was so disgusted that when the game was over I decide

In 2014 something happen to me that was amazing. I was at a basketball tournament in big lake. We won our first 3 games and we were in the championship against the other sartell team. The game started and I was nervous because it's against the other sartell team. We were winning by 10 at halftime. Then with 1 minute left they tied it up. I was getting anxious and wanted to win so bad and I got to aggressive and I shoved jack Greenlun in the back on accident. I felt so bad I started crying. I got an intentional foul and they shot two free throws and made both. There was 20 seconds left and we had they ball and my dad called a timeout. We made a play for me to shoot a three to win the game. Logan passed the ball in and I got it. That's when it

Playing basketball in elementary was always fun in P.E. but it was something that I wanted to do against real competition and not the crazy kids everyday kids in P.E. class. I first tried out for my elementary basketball team in the third grade which was the minimum grade they allowed kids to play basketball. Even though I was very shorter and smaller than the other kids I luckily made the team and it made me very happy. One day I gave my opinion to the coach regarding bettering the team thinking I could be very helpful. Unfortunately, he didn’t think so and thought I was insulting his knowledge about the game which they started a series of disagreements throughout the season. Eventually he put me off the team that year and every year afterwards. After being put off the team I told myself I would just do as the coach says even though I knew that I was right. A year past and I eventually tried out for my middle school team. I made the team and It was a whole different experience for me. I bettered myself throughout those years and carried my love of basketball into my high school years.