Before the championship game, I thought miracles only happened in movies. However, this game would change my perspective of that thought forever. We had gone undefeated on the season, so I completely expected to win. This was my first time in a highly competitive basketball league, with championships and trophies, so naturally I was a little scared. However, I had friends on the team who probably felt the same as me. I had spent the past few hours mentally, and physically preparing myself for this game. Today, I was ready to win.
The sound of the whistle and the tip of the ball got me on my toes, even though I was on the bench. Being the sixth man on the team, I was always anxious to be in the game. Today, however, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be on the court. Sure, I loved basketball, and was always willing to play. But the mere, fearful thought of making a mistake and costing us the game was enough to make me want to stay on the bench.
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I also found I wasn’t able to contribute much either, besides getting a few assists and steals. During the game we had started out in the lead, but had progressively slowed down and fallen behind. As the loud buzzer of halftime sounded, I resentfully looked up at the scoreboard to find we were down by seven points! That was the biggest margin of points we had been down all year. I was beginning to believe this may be impossible, even for us.
During the second half, it seemed as if the world was fighting against us. Almost none of our shots went in. Even the starters were beginning to lose hope. But I had seen what our team could do. I refused to believe we could lose a game this important. Sadly, as the game progressed, we only fell further behind from our goal. I quickly glanced up at the scoreboard, 13 to 26, with 3 minutes left, it read. The odds were slim no doubt, but the game is never over until it’s
We gave it our all at the practices leading up to Tuesday’s game. The practice before the game was an especially hard one, I remember that my two friends, Lucas and Mathew made a bet about who would win. Lucas didn't believe that the team had what it takes to win, while Mathew had confidence in our team. The night before the game, I laid in bed not being able to sleep, I was too nervous about tomorrow’s game. “What if we lose?”, “What if we win?”, “What if…”, these were all thoughts going through my mind. I woke up the next day, exhausted and sore from yesterday, but confident. That day, time moved slowly. Each class felt like
It is the first round of the Basketball State playoffs, and with eight seconds left, the talented Northwest team is down by three. The star point guard speed dribbles up the court, the tension on and off the court is immense, the pressure is even greater. Everyone during and prior to this game, had witnessed a season full of promise, and the consensus conclusion for most recognized this team as the best team to have ever come out Northwest High School. This was our best and likely only chance for success. So as the point guard puts the ball up, time nearly stops, it has a chance, but in like in life, the game of basketball is unforgiving, he misses. As most made their pre-conceived predictions of the future, or lack thereof, a young sophomore and his Junior Varsity teammates, we were inspired by our elders walking off the court, and the doubters going home. Bonded together, and we believed we were destine for something historical, and mythological outside our small circle. Thus two years later the 2016 Northwest Varsity Basketball team, the discourse community, where I developed relationships with the people I still call my brothers. A community which has shaped my work ethic, and has given me the knowledge of the amount of effort and work it takes to be successful. All of which was in efforts for a goal not even pronounced among our teammates, to us the future was still a mystery, only realized to us a one
Walking out onto the opponent’s brightly lit turf field setting up for the kickoff of the second half just gave me the feeling that everybody knows, my hair starts to stand up, butterflies began to flutter in my stomach, and everything seems to slow down. Looking into the stands and seeing that our hometown fans had traveled four hours in order to outdo the home crowd gave me a sense of comfort. Looking into East Jefferson’s stands and seeing that our fans, despite having to travel all the way down south, outnumbered their fans by at least 70 people. I found myself thinking that this meant just as much to our town as it did to our school and team. This feeling would be just the motivation we needed in order to finish this game
Even the air was trembling. The gym was filled with a mixture of nervous and urgent, and all we need was another basket to break the deadlock. The score was 19-36, nearly 2 minutes left, however, the unstoppable cheering was still there, as well as our spirits. None of the girls on the court gave up, though we were not close to winning; every one of our eyes were blazed sharp and focusing, waiting for another steal or chance to shoot. In brief, before the timer buzzed, we would never give up on our game---which is the most valuable spirit in CCA sports. Our girls basketball game has the power of inspiration, because though they didn’t win, they supported each other with encouragement when difficulties come. All they do is to turn the failures
One morning during practice, my coach approached and requested that I play the point guard position for the upcoming tournament in place of my friend who was unable to participate due to a sprained ankle. Initially, I was very apprehensive about taking this position as they held the crucial responsibility of constantly assessing the situation and determining the best course of action for the team to take. Unsurprisingly, my performance during this first practice was disastrous due to my lack of experience. However, despite my initial failure, I did not remain discouraged for long. I began examining the habits of the varsity point guards during practice and accepted constructive criticism from my teammates to help improve my results. Eventually,
We reminded each other that we needed to just have fun and relax on the court. The nerves kicked in for me once we arrived at McCormick Place. My stomach was twisting and my legs went weak. Tall escalators carried us up to the level that the courts were on. We were welcomed by a sign that said, “Welcome to the 2017 Nike Tournament of Champions.” I was shocked walking through the large doors that led to the courts. All I could see were courts upon courts. It felt like we walked forever to get to our court. As I was lacing up my shoes, all I could think about was all of the hard and long practices that had led up to this. I didn’t work hard for nothing. I realized that I was only a freshman and still had a long ways to go. Most of the nerves came out after the first game. We played three games that day with college coaches watching all of them. The lumps were in my throat and it felt like my heart sank to my stomach. I have never had college coaches watching games that I was playing in. After each game I reflected back on how I played and told myself what I needed to work on and do better at. I have never played against girls that were so good at basketball. Some of the teams had tall girls that hovered over all of us. Not all of the games went as we had planned, but we played well as a team.
The crowd is cheering, the pressure, the weight of my team on my shoulders I take three dribbles and then I spring up and take a shot and. It was a December night on the day of the Oley Championship Basketball Game, against Oley. After the tip off, the game was in Oley’s hands. They played great defense, made a lot of their shots, but our team just played horribly and they were up by 16 points. At the end of the third the score was around 26-10 Oley, but in my head the game was not over yet because we still had 8 minutes to come back, and I always want to win. Nothing really happened in the first 4 minutes, but in the last 2 minutes I contributed with an assist and 5 points including a layup and a three.
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.
The team we were playing was one of the best in the school league. They had good guards and amazing post players. They could make a lot of the shots we missed. We were nervous, but we had made it here and we knew we had to win. It started out rough, our defense wasn’t quite there. We let the guards go by us and the post post up way to easily. At the end of of the first quarter it was 11-2, they were winning. By half time we finally made a
It was Saturday, a 79 degrees sunny, summer day; a perfect day to have a basketball tournament. Because we defeated our first two opponents, if we won the third game we would move on to the finals. For this game, we were up against the Tipton Tigers, who had also won their first two games by more than 20 points. Even though we were going up against a great team, we were just as great. The start of the game went by and we found ourselves in a close game at 36 to 42, them. To push us forward, our coach gave us a pep talk. While he encouraged the players, I was thinking, “When I go in, there are a couple of things I can do to give a win for the Sabers: I said to myself, good defense and to move on offense. That will make it a close
I began playing Basketball freshmen year as a way to release my emotions and forget the thoughts that gave me stress or made me overthink. My coaches gave me the nickname of “Mean Darline” because of how tough and aggressive I would get when being on defense. Little did they know that I wasn’t good at that position because I loved Basketball but because it maintained me calm and allowed me to express myself in a socially approved activity. When the season was finished and I retired from Basketball after my sophomore year I went back to going to the gym three to four times a week. Gym workouts or any physical activity is great to rechannel one’s unacceptable impulses without others criticizing us for our actions.
As all my teammates ran up to congratulate me on my 55 yard touchdown I realized that we were still in this game. As I stood in the end zone, I finally started to realized what I had just done. I had finally proven myself to everyone including my teammates and my coach. Perhaps most importantly of all, however, I had proven to myself that I had what it took to play on the varsity level. It was something I had yet to prove before that game and is something that I will never
Coach took a seat and flung his hands over his head, letting out a woeful sigh as if to say it was over. After moment of motionless stares I looked inquiringly at my teammates, all run down across the aged, inclined bench with nothing left in the tank. My ears hear the sound of the squad backing down, caving through the pressure of what seemed to be a stress-free game. Three quarters flew by and we were down by a commanding double digit deficit, heads down and unable to fathom the shock losing another a playoff game it seemed as if the season was over. Coach rose off plastic lawn chair ‘I know it seems like this is the end of what has been a courageous season, but right now up to this point I can’t teach you fellas any more than you already know. It’s not up to me anymore to tell you what to do. I need someone, just someone, anyone to stand up and take back control of this game’. That was all I needed to hear for my mind to ponder about the late nights balling with
I looked up at the scoreboard and the time read 8 minutes left. As I looked at the scoreboard I felt a jolt of energy enter my body. I had felt as if a fire was lit under me. My eyes opened as if I had just seen a ghost. I remember thinking to myself, “how can we lose this game?” I made a promise to myself that I would win 4 state titles while being at Battlefield High School. This was my sophomore year of high school and I had already won one state title, how could I give up now and let my dreams be crushed, I worked too hard for that to happen. In that moment I knew there was only one result I was going to walk off the field with, and that was with a win and another State Championship. I took a deep breath and thought to myself, “My team needs energy. They need a leader.”
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.