Coming of Age Draft

     Sports was the biggest obstacle in my life as a kid. It was a struggle for me at that time because it was so new to me and i didn't know it existed. Maybe the only sport that i knew was running but I never thought of any other sports like football, soccer, etc. Whenever it was P.E, I used to hate it because of my lack of knowledge towards the sports they teach us and my friends would hate to have me on their team. It was not until the 4th grade where i finally got the hang of it and I was pretty decent at it. From then on sports was getting a little bit easier on me which led me to picking my favorite sport basketball.

     From then on i kept practicing on that one sport trying to dribble smoothly, getting my shots down, working on my weaknesses and finding out my strengths all on my own! I can pretty much say that the techniques i had was based on my own hard work. When i finally felt confident enough to use it i have been begging my parents to put me in a basketball camp or basketball team. But because of my fear of getting teased by teammates i took back at what i said to my parents and hesitated to play on a team. So from there i kept practicing and waiting until that one day at church where my parents signed me up for this 3 day basketball camp. I was still very scared and nervous until I met the coaches and they said that I would be alright and i should be fine.

     On that first day, I was still very nervous but excited to play the games. Trusting the coach's word I just when out and did my best in games and limit my mistakes. When it was time to make teams for the games that they were going to make i was trying to forget the past and just focus on the game. When they called my name they said they wanted me to be with these players who was very good and really wanted to win. When our coach called for a team meeting, I made sure I'd pay attention to him and that my teammates would trust me. The very next day, it was game time or the playoffs to see who could make it to the championships. So the games we played that day was very surprising. We were undefeated and able to play the championships. The next day I was happy. I felt very proud of myself. I myself doubted that we could win the championship but we were able to win it. As i received the medal i felt special and i wanted to come the next year. 

      That year i thought very highly of myself and i really considered myself as a pro basketball player. I also at that time bragged to almost everyone in my family. But when it came to last years camp things changed. On the first day i was very excited and i really expected a championship medal again. I was also happy because my cousins were able to come this year and we were able to have a family competition. On those two days of basketball camp, I was really confident on winning the championship. We were undefeated again and the first seed of the playoffs. That last day of camp was a day i had to remember.

     As i entered the gym and doing my usual warm-ups i talked too highly of myself and the team. I felt that i knew i was going to win the championship. When it came to playing the championship game i wasn't too confident anymore. Two of our best players had left and wasn't able to come to the camp. So now the team depended on me to win it. During the first half of that game i was surprised that we were up by 6 points. But during the second half our team had broken down hard. Our defense was not good and we gave too many wide open shots to them which led to them winning.

     Basically I had to go back to square one again.  After that championship game i just kept practicing and practicing on my skills and really worked on not being so cocky. The good thing about my story is that the result of my friends putting me down led me to become a better player. But me becoming like those friends led to no championship at all. I can now say i have changed from being too overconfident to being humble and learned to just play your hardest. When it comes to basketball i now just play for fun but still want to get better at it and maybe next year i'll be able to win next years championship!