Personal Narrative : My First 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

“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.

Basketball was a new experience to me a few years ago, but i never realized I was going to love it. When I was younger, I’ve always wanted to play the sport of basketball, and I got my opportunity to play when I was in fifth grade at Monte Vista Elementary.

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

After years of basketball taking up most of my time, I knew that at some point I was going to need to stop. What I did not know, was when that time was going to come. This past year, I have made the bold choice to stop playing. If I played one more year, I felt as if it might ruin basketball for me. Basketball has always been the way I was able to forget about everything going on around me and just focus on one positive thing.

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.

On a saturday morning the philomath basketball team had a basketball game very early in the morning. I went in the gym and saw my team warming up and I remember looking up from tying my shoes and just see what I thought was a NBA team. When I was walking over to the lay up line I heard there shoes shaking the ground as they would walk and jump the ball not even touching the rim when they would shoot a three and the two post that were 6,2 I know that doesn’t sound talk but for us in 7 grade that was tall. We go back to are bench as we hudl up and I remember my Dad whispers in my ear just post up strong the first time and i promise you he will get scared and not want to play. I remember looking at are crowd and seeing my brother and all his friends laughing and not even looking at the game in front of them.

After tryouts the coach brought us all over 1 by 1 and told us if we made the team. My heart was pumping while i waited for him to call me over. He yelled my name and I ran over, I had made the team. After the news I was determined to greatly improve my skills throughout the season. Each practice was hard and the games were much more intense than my previous years. The warm ups were all thought out and made us really get our shooting and passing on point. Then the national anthem was played and it really gets you in a great game mindset. After my first game on varsity I realized how much better everyone

The coach gestures his clipboard at me and my eyes fall onto him. The whistle screeches again and I snap out of my daze.

On October 31st, this was the day when our cyo basketball team schedule came out. As my team (Saint Anthony’s) and I looked on the schedule, we noticed that on December 11th we are playing our friends and their team name is called Saint Augustine's. We knew that if we lose they were going to make fun of us at the lunch table. Our team knew we couldn’t lose that game because it is a humongous rivalry. Our first game was against St.Peters. The location of the game was at St.Anthonys. Usually, the first game is always rusty because we have to remember the plays and some of my teammates were nervous. At the end of the first half we were winning, 16-18. Our coach Kenny, told us to remain in the game and keep fighting because he knew that we were so much better then them.

Rushing to the bench, I heard the referee call out “Timeout, Heat.” Everything was on the line with our team’s championship hopes foremost on our minds. As soon as we were all huddled up, Coach Drew began to lay out his expectations. “I’m not going to tell you how to play basketball,” he told us. “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.” We rushed back onto the court, riled up at the thought of our coach’s inspiring speech. The crowd, encouraging as always, chanted our names. With just sixteen seconds left in the game and our team down by four, we had no choice but to do something special.

If someone told me something terrible would happen to me during basketball practice on that cold November night, I never would’ve believed them.

Ever since I have started basketball I don’t let nobody mess with my dreams or goals. I started my basketball career in second grade. My first state experience was in fifth grade. We ended taking second place. In sixth grade we won the state championship that was one of the greatest feelings so far in my young life. Then in seventh grade we slipped a little bit and took fourth place. But this year in 8th grade we hope to take back first place because this is our last year of tournament basketball. This is our last chance to win middle school state. The main thing is don’t let people tell you what to do and go after your goal. If you achieve more and don’t let people mess with your dreams not many people can stop

The lights flicker on as I sit up lazily in my chair. I try to focus on the television screen as it goes black. I attempt to recollect my thoughts of what I had just seen. Then it came back to me, I was watching another one of those same cheesy videos about someone who had overcome failure to accomplish something great. I didn’t give the video any thought because all I could think about was the 8th-grade boy’s basketball tryouts after school. I was excited about the upcoming season and was eager to join the team. I watched and played basketball every day, so I felt confident in my ability to play the game the right way. As tryouts began I noticed the other kids playing extremely well so I exerted myself to step up my game and play their style.

You could see them mumble, “Do we have to pick them”. We finally were out on teams and ready to finish practice. My team put me in a position that they never had to pass me the ball and I wasn’t in the way. So, I just went along with the practice not knowing at the time how this would be something shown throughout the whole season. As the practice came to an end we huddled together, and talked about the next practice and our first game on Saturday. As we left you could hear the boys talking. Saying things like, “Why are they on our team?”, and “They are going to make us lose”. We just kept going to our cars and went home.