The Elites: A Short Story

I walked onto the court for warmups and the routine shots and drills performed seemed pointless. Our opponents did not have a single player that was closer than 3 inches to my height so I expected to have a successful game. We all believed that we would win the game, and most probably expected to dominate. We were hit by a rude awakening as our opponents torched the nets shooting the ball, and we uncharacteristically made mistake after mistake. By then end of the quarter, the scoreboard read 23 to 9 and we were not the happy leaders. Our coaches told us, “Stay positive, and play hard. We will be ok in this game if we play

We got changed in the locker room, listening to music that would get our adrenaline pumping. The game started with a tip-off with us getting the ball and scoring on the first play, but so did the other team. The game was very close. We would score, they would score. No one ever got ahead by more than four points. At the end of the second quarter with ten seconds left, it was their ball and we were down by two. They did a nice play and a girl got a wide open three pointer. Then the buzzer went off and we all looked at our fuming coach and knew what was about to come at half time. You know that scene in the movie, “42” about Jackie Robinson, where the other teams coach is yelling at him saying rude things? And then there’s the heartbreakingly beautiful scene where Jackie goes into the dugout and breaks his bat and screams and cries. That’s what our halftime was like. The coach yelling and us wanting to scream and cry, but still we had determination to win this game. We came back out ready to play and immediately tied it back it up. The game kept going back and forth, until the fourth quarter with a minute left and us up by four. The other teams coach called a timeout and our coach gave us a speech about if we wanted to win, we needed teamwork. Teamwork just like Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. We came back out and held the game at four points until the buzzer went

My freshman year we entered playoffs with a hopeful optimism that in our first year in 3A, the largest division, we could make a statement that we were here to stay. In the end, the game didn’t go our way. There were some questionable calls made but in the end, it is what it is: we weren’t good enough to win. A tough reality but often times you learn more from a loss than from a win. Sophomore

The day the team got together and fought threw a tough battle facing pinnacle high school. It was our second home game and our record was 1-2. After all of the hard work we had put in over summer, we realized we could not lose, especially in front of our home crowd. At the beginning of the game we did our usual warm-ups, I have never felt so much adrenaline pushing threw my veins in my life. After the warm-ups the whole team got in a big huddle, we chanted a chant that will never be forgotten and one day make history for the pride. After the chant we got ready for kick-off, lined up and ready to go. The crowd started cheering at the first 2 seconds of the game “go pride go, go pride go”. This made the whole team nervous, not just because there was so many

I remember that day as if it was like yesterday, it was a warm day, the sun shining, and it was the perfect weather for us to play in. The important day for the Iowa-Grant Panther Softball 5th and 6th grade team, it was our championship game.

As Drew and Andie, came over to my dad and me, we were talking about how they got tickets also. Andie got the tickets from a friend. The teams came out of the tunnel and the second half was about to start. The first two minutes of the second half, UNI did not look very good as they were down 45-34. UNC shot the ball really well which put UNC up 50-34 with 17:13 left to play. I thought that UNI was still going to make a great comback into this game, and they did. Matt Bohannon made a three pointer as well as Paul Jesperson with two three pointers and trimmed UNC´s lead to seven at 50-43. ¨Here we go!¨ Jeremy Morgan made a three pointer and the score was 54-48. It just got even better. Wes Washpun got two layups and trimmed the lead to two. ¨Let´s go!¨ There was a TV timeout with 11:32 left to play, but there was a UNC foul. Jeremy Morgan got two free throws and made one for two. UNC would commit another personal foul, and Matt Bohannon had a chance at the free throw line and made one for two also. The game is tied at

The third game, that was previously postponed, was a tie at 8-8 with a team from Bucks County. Then it was a waiting game to see who and when we would play. We ended up playing a team called Big Sky and won that game. Then right after that we played York A team for the gold medal; which no keystone west team had ever won. The game was a long one if you were playing even though the game was only 40 minutes it felt like 2 hours. The game was 6-2 at the half and the keystone West team were winning. With under 1 minute left in the game the score was West 12 a York A had 8. York ran the ball down the field and then throw it out of bounds with under 30 seconds. West got the send it call and that is what they did and ended that throw with a goal. That ended the game and all but one of the West team ran to their goalie but I did not. I was in so much shock from how I went from one position to another in under a year and was one of the best in Western PA and how much we practice we had to let this moment happen. I am now and was and will always be proud of what happened with this

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.

The second championship game began much like the first. By the seventh inning the score was seven to one in favor of Waterloo Valley. Being the home team, we had one more chance for survival in the bottom of the inning. The inning started with one hit after another, raising the team’s spirits with each one. The hits just kept coming until we finally found ourselves only down by only one run. The excitement in the dugout was soaring, and so, with a runner on third base and two outs, Coach Sullivan put in Jakob Crampton for what could be the final at bat of the season. After strike one the anxiety became overwhelming. With the second pitch on its way, Crampton swang the bat, and the dugout exploded into cheering as the ball found its way between the third baseman

The game was about to start, walking onto the court, warming up and getting ready for tip-off, I had a huge amount of confidence before hand. The game had begun, although, as the game went on, I wasn’t doing as well as I would have liked. It seemed like I couldn’t hit a shot, neither could the entire team.Throughout the game, we were always down, we never lead at any

With the season on the line, the seniors team had to win against St. Francis Xavier. Down by two baskets at the end of

We grinded for the next 6 months until school was out. Some of us lifting twice a day trying to gain an edge on the other teams so we wouldn't have to suffer the same fate as the past year. When summer came around we headed back down to Colorado for our annual football camp. This year Cullen, Luke Max, Emmitt, Clay, and me rode down in coach G’s Suburban instead of going down on the bus. This was so much better than riding the bus. We were able to make more stops and the seats were really comfortable. The whole way down we were cracking jokes, talking about different stuff, and making fun of Cullen and his foolish comments on how Trump was going to “Make America Great Again” This was by far the best trip to CSU I had been on. After returning from CSU we got back into the weight room. When we started two a days this year the energy was different from years past. This year everyone was hyped for them. We all knew we were the best and we were going to prove it this

We were playing Mountain Valley, a team we lost to earlier in the year by a score of 1-0. My soccer team did not lose very often. We lost once in the regular season in all of my high school career. So my team and I wanted revenge. We wanted this game more than anything. They had 4 foreign exchange players on their team and we knew how good they were. We knew it wouldn't be easy to win but we knew that it was possible. We had no right in winning the game. We got dominated in every aspect of it. They probably outshot us 100-1 or at least thats what it felt like. We ended up tied at 0 after 80 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime. We ended up gong into penalty kicks. We eventually won the game but it wasn't until the 20th kick that we won. It was one of the best feelings.

My seventh grade volleyball team had a fantastic season. We had won every game except one leading up to the postseason. We were so successful since we worked well together. We exceeded in multiple areas on and off the court. After we won all of the Regional and Sectional games, we were headed to Tri-Valley on a

It was my first basketball game of the season. The league opener. We had gotten a fresh supply of new uniforms that were very heavy, our whole team didn’t like them. We were playing one of the best teams in the league last year, so we were expecting a fair fight. The game before ours had just ended so it was our turn to warm up, but it was their turn to warm up as well. After doing out layup and jump shot drill, we headed over to our coach who gave us a before game talk. “This team likes to run a full court zone press, so try and get the ball to the middle of the floor and push it up the court. Defensive wise, we should be in our full court man to man defense, if you see the back of the other players head with the ball what do you do?” Immediately after hearing this, our whole team yelled, “TRAP!”. Of course, I was on the starting five so I got to come out and play for the tip. Although I wasn’t the tallest man on the court, I still played a big role. My role was to either bring the ball up, or catch the ball in the middle and pass it up the court to set up our offence.