Their name was All Iowa Attack Black. Our starting lineup was Q, Joe, Matthew, Drew, and me. I started off tipping and we scored right off the bat. We stayed aggressive the whole game bumping cutters making sure they got no easy buckets, and we ended up winning 52-15.
The referee blows his whistle and I start to lead the ball down the court. I glance over and see a split down the middle of the court, exactly what we needed. I dribble the ball the middle of the paint, right as I see the defenders start to cut me off. I make a sharp cut, turn, and pass the ball right to my shooting guard. He takes the ball in his hand and swiftly goes up and makes the three.
Parker is 6’4, Luke is 6’5, Alex is 6’0. Then there's me at a whooping 5’6. Then the game started, we played hard but it came down to the wire. A 14-14 game to 16.
Just 2 minutes left the sun half way set, the crowd cheering and most of all the scouts not blinking paying attention to every detail, play and decision each one of us makes, I see the ball come off the rim and the other team grab the rebound and their other play already across the court just past half court I knew what I had to do. With no thought or anything I break out running across the court chasing their player knowing he was going for a fast break lay-up I knew I could catch there was no doubt about it but the question was would I block the ball or not I can feel the eyes staring at us curiously wonder what will happen. Just like I predicted I see his hand turn upside down getting ready to lay it up I take 2 more steps and leap as hard as I can towards the ball staring at the ball and nothing else all I cared about was saving my team from those 2 points and looking good on the court and on that stats sheets, that was a decision I would later pay for. I did what I had practice and done hundreds of times before at the park I swat my hand towards the ball as hard as I can, I hear when my hand hits it and it bounces off the backboard not thinking about my landing instead of preparing for the fall I prepare myself to start running back across court but that wouldn’t happen when I landed I felt a pop in my knee’s
The chilling breeze brushed up against my skin, thankfully drying up some of the sweat that was finding its way into my eyes. My hand still trembling with nervousness, and my stomach churning with nausea. I was approaching the basket and the crowd starts to rise like a Tsunami. As I got really close to the basket I got into my layup position. Taking two swift steps and then just simply serving the ball on to the backboard.
If we want to win, we need to just go get the rebound, or go dive on the floor for a loose ball. It does not matter how; all that matters is that we need to just go get the ball. It is when the ball is in the air that the game plan goes out the window, and whoever wants the rebound more is going to succeed. This is why I love basketball, because when the game becomes close and it comes down to effort, I know that no one is going to outwork me for the ball. We could have played badly and not gotten any calls from the referees all game, but it doesn’t matter, because if the game is close at the end, one’s internal drive to accomplish what they want could still propel them to achieving
At 4:00 p.m., the ref was going to start the game and at first, it was 7 vs. 11 for the first three minutes until more players from our team showed up. I could tell by looking at the coach that he was disappointed with the team. It was close to halftime and they were winning 2-0. Throughout the last ten minutes of the half, I was pressuring the other team.
My Story Hearing my future coach blowing his whistle and yelling for us to bring it in for our first varsity practice, I could feel my heart begin to race. Going to a school and joining the varsity team as a freshman with 7 D1 athletes on it and one of the best coaches in the country, one could say I was a tad bit nervous. Looking around in the huddle of teammates and coaches, I knew I had picked the right high school because the group of people surrounding me was going to make me a better basketball player. Having both perspectives of my coach giving me critical feedback of my play and my teammates encouraging me to never give up and keep working hard, I learned that it would be challenging, but if I kept my heart to it, I could reach some
As the quarterback got under the center he yelled “Ready, down, set.” When he yells set I could feel the adrenaline rushing, before I knew it the play was already in motion. The offensive line hit the defensive line; as they were pushing each other for the advantage, I could hear them grunting for position. As I received the handoff from the quarterback, the blockers unclogged the hole, I hit it swift and quick, following my blockers as they were going blow for blow with the defense. I got snagged by the defensive end, but I ripped through the tackle for a six yard gain.
“Walking on to the ball field that day made me feel good” like we are going to win this. While I was walking to the pitcher’s mound I knew that I would strike out about half of the batters. Ended up I had seven strikeouts and one hit off of me, and I thought “not to bad.”
When I was a child, I did not necessarily have a favorite toy as if to say, but there one thing in particular that I always used to liked playing with. That one thing was Basketball, A child’s favorite toy is usually something a child would bring around with them all the time and would cherish. That's exactly what I would do with my basketball. That leathery-bumpy skin of the ball in hands while I would dribble diligently down the street, was one of the greatest feelings I had as a child. The squeaking of shoes on the court and the swish of the ball in the hoop was probably the second best thing about basketball.
I started to practice at my house—it was the only hoop available for me at the time. Everyday, I would go outside and just shoot as many shots as I can so, I could make my form better. A few weeks of practicing, I started to see progress in my form—I made more shots than usual. Since I thought I was getting better, I decided to ask my parents if they could put me in a basketball team. My parents agreed without any hesitation.
It was game day today. My teammates and I had a game against our rivalry high school Alta and we were pumped because we have beaten them every year since 2014. This year felt like we would keep that streak up and in motion. They had 6 really tall players while we only had 2. It made us all nervous for a while until we seemed to get over it.
It was a warm sunny day, and I woke up and wanted to go play basketball. So I got up all exited and went and took my shower, I probably took a 5 min shower. I wanted to get out of there quick so I could get playing my basketball. I got to my room and got dressed and pulled out my cool kicks, they were my basketball shoes. I got them tied on pretty tight.
How In the 7th grade our basketball team was good, we had never played together and our chemistry came out pretty well. The first team we played was Derby, they’ve always been good in about every sport. We worked hard at practice every day leading up to Gameday. We won that game, in fact we won every game except for two in the regular season, we lost to Andover Central and Augusta. Then we had to play Derby in the championship, it was a hard fought game, but in the end, we lost by 3.