Memoir

My basketball team had made it to the state quarterfinal game, just one game away from playing at the Breslin Center (where Michigan State plays its home games). We had begun to load up all of our equipment and belongings and get on the charter bus, which was purchased just for this game for us, when it really began to hit me. I began looking back at the season and realized just how many accomplishments we had had and what new obstacle was sitting in our way in setting out to try to accomplish another amazing feat. Looking back, the season had begun just like any other sporting event season had, but there was a feeling of something different about his one. There was an excitement about us that we were setting out to have more than just an average season; we were setting out seeking high goals. We prepared hard, training every day during the off season in order to prepare ourselves for what we hoped would bring us success. We practiced just about every day as well during our summer and fall off-season. These practices were never mandatory but not showing up was frowned upon by all that did attend. We hoped that putting in all this practice, long days, tiring hours, and sweat would pay off by accomplishing something great. The results we received were far greater than any of us could of ever imagined First came all of the preparation in the days, or should we just say week, leading up to our quarterfinal action. We had made it that far; the quarterfinal game, and what an accomplishment it was, but we all wanted more. We wanted to win this game for our school and give ourselves a chance to play in a real Division I arena. Now we had almost a week to prepare for our opponent, Inkster, a team out of the Detroit area. We hoped this would help us to defend their personnel and defeat them. We practiced every night for at least two hours, and most times it ended up being three or four, in hope that we could get even a fraction closer to reaching our goal. The night before our game finally arrived after what seemed like years of waiting. I went home that night after practice not being able to think about anything that wasn’t involved with the game the next day. Nothing else seemed important anymore. The game was the only thing that was on my mind. My nerves were so stressed; I barely got any sleep that night. All I could think about was Will I get in' Will I play good' I don’t want to screw it up for my team. Anxiety followed me all that night and into the following morning. I woke up the next morning, feeling as though I had gotten no sleep, but oddly enough I didn’t feel tired at all. I was wide awake and filled with many mixed emotions about the up and coming game. All morning I waited around for it to be time to head out to get on the bus. Finally the time had arrived when we all loaded up our belongings onto the bus and began to head to our game. As we were on the road everyone kept to themselves the whole bus ride, which was odd because most of the time it was chaos on the bus, and I imagine it had to do with the nerves that were running through everyone as the game was growing closer to its starting time. We finally arrived at the court and all of us unloaded and began to head towards the locker rooms. As we began to get ready and put on our uniforms and shoes, there was a sense of excitement running through the air that was different from any other game I had ever played in. It was as if we were floating in midair in anticipation of the game. Everyone knew the importance of this game and tried to feed off the energy from it. As we warmed up, we tried to play it off like any other ordinary Friday night game, but everyone knew it wasn’t. Nothing about this game was ordinary. We were one of the final eight teams in the state playing for a chance to move further up the rankings, and that couldn’t be played off as ordinary in any of our minds. The game finally tipped off and for most of the first half the game had gone exactly as planned. We had played well and it showed, the score tied at eighteen. As the second half started, I heard my name called to go in. I thought I felt my heart stop and fall to the ground in nervousness. It was the most nervous I had been at any other point in my life. The next sixteen minutes played out as the first half did, game all tied up. With two minutes to go the score was still deadlocked at thirty-two as though we hadn’t even started the game. We had the ball and scored with less than a minute to go. We were up two, and I was very confident that trhis game was ours to win. Inkster ball now, they came down and scored with just under thirty seconds to go, but it was ok we still had time. Right where we want them, I thought. As we ran our offense for the last shot of the game to either win or go to overtime something went terribly wrong. Inkster stole the ball and scored with under ten seconds to go. We rushed down the court and had to get a shot up. We ended up getting a long three pointer that was contested at the buzzer. It clanked off the rim. He had missed. “How could it be'” I thought, “How did we lose' This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t supposed to be how it ended. It was all wrong.” Everything we had worked for our entire season and even lifetimes was gone in an instant. It was a strange feeling that caught me, sadness mixed with disappointment, even though we had made it so far. As we got on the bus to head home for one last time I began to realize, that even with the disappointment, how this one game, this one experience, had changed my life. This game had had an everlasting effect on me and my teammates. The bond that the team shared was bigger than anything that could be taught or coached to a person. What we had become through the season was forever with us. We had all been united as one group for eternity and to this day my best friends all played on that team with me, being seniors and juniors, as I was. What a little team from Hastings, which many people don’t even know exists, had accomplished. We had put our team and our name on the map for good. This achievement in itself, on top of all of the memories from that game and the season, has had a large effect on my life to this very day.