Growing up I was known as the “tomboy” on the block. I was 5’7, fit, had good dribbling and rebounding skills, and was known as the dominator of the paint on the basketball court. I loved to be active in school and play sports. When school was over and summer had begun, I would always go play basketball with my older brother at the local park, which was Pepper Park. I always played with the boys and never had an issue, except for this one day some boy decided he was going to bully me just because I was the only girl on the court. I will never forget the day I was discriminated on the court because I was the only girl. It was the morning of June, 20, 2014. A regular Saturday summer day. Like always I would wake up do my morning chores and …show more content…
exactly my brother showed up with the rest on the crew. We begin to warmed up as a team, stretched and waited for the other group of boys to come. Working on free throws, lay ups, alley hoops and post moves. The boys finally got there around 3:15. As they walked in, I realized some unfamiliar face but I was not intimidated at all. We waited for them to stretch, get there team together and meet at half court to shake hands before the game. Tito, my brother, AJ, two other boys and me made my team. As we stepped on the court, the captain of the other team exclaimed that he was not going to play with a girl on the court. I called out in response” Are you scared to play against a girl you little wossy.” At that moment he got ready to rush and hit me. My brother and Titou rush in front of me so he wouldn’t reach me, as the boy still was muttering things under his breathe and as his friends pulled him back. All of this because I was the only girl on the court. I have never been through this all the other times when we played with the other boys. My brother decided to go make a deal with them. Since every game was 8 minutes each and after the second quarter would be half time my brother decided to make a deal with the other captain. If we were in the lead after the second half I would be able to play. At first he said no with his face all grinned up and fist balled up. Then his team talk to him and they agreed that I could play fourth quarter. My brother look at me and …show more content…
By the end of the first quarter the score was 15-12. I was kind of afraid because both teams were playing hardcore. Second quarter came it was tied up 30-30. The boys’ shirts were drenched with sweat as sweat came running down their faces as they walked as a group to the water fountain. We always brought our own cooler with stuff to drink. Titou came to sit next to me to tell me I was not going to play till the end of the third quarter. I was so upset, throwing the ball against the wall because I wanted to play. The break was only a 5 minute break. In the meantime our team got up and practiced shoots. When I did the same the captain of the other team looked at me laughing, teased me saying aww she is practicing, boy are we going to cross her over. I replied back at him say be careful what you say. I may be a girl doesn’t mean I can’t show off on the court. He laughed and went back to his team because the third quarter was soon going to start. During the third quarter the score was going up and down. One minute we were in the lead and the next we would be like 1 or 2 pints down. Boy was this a close game. With only one minute left till the fourth quarter the score was 51-49. We were three points down. I started cheering my team on. Within that minute we scored two layup putting us in lead at the end of the third quarter. Boy was I ready to play. For the first half of the game I played as the 4. Helping catch rebounds and
I was ten years old when I began cheerleading for my school basketball team and competing in karate, as well as continuing competitive gymnastics. Being good at sports was a part of my identity. I was known for it and I lived by them. I was proud of myself and my ability to do whichever sports I desired. From doing sports I was able to develop new friends, as I had begun to realize that many of the “friends” I had in school doubled as bullies. At some point between sixth and eighth grade I was accused of being a lesbian. This is prominent in my memory as I was horrible confused and offended by such an accusation, even more so than being called racist for a situation that did not warrant such a response. Unlike racism, I was fully aware
Growing up a tomboy had its pros and cons. It was always a plus to be able to dominate the handle- ball court at recess, and at a certain time in my like it was the biggest compliment to be considered “one of the boys.” Being a tomboy gave me a strong platform to be competitive, aggressive, and tough. It also helped contribute to my very comfortable fashion sense.
I figured that I had grown about five inches since my freshman year and had gotten stronger it might be time to play basketball competitively once more. When November rolled around I was on the varsity team, but unfortunately my basketball skills was not up to par. It was tough at first, because I was a new face on the team, and the guys on the team had a great chemistry that they had built up throughout the years. After a few weeks had rolled by, I realized that I would not be in the rotation.I told myself that the team’s success is more important than my personal desired statistics.I decided to make the most of my role on the team. It was a tradition for the guys who were not in the rotation to contribute to the game in some way, guys did this by preforming stunts after significant plays and momentum shifts in the game in our favor. This was great because the crowd loved and it and more importantly my teammates fed off of the
Since we were the underclassmen, the 8th graders got to play their game before ours. But soon their game reached the end of the third quarter, and my 7th grade teammates and I went into the locker room to change into our jerseys and shorts. Since this game was home for us, we wore our white jerseys and white shorts. The horn sounded for the end of the 8th grade game, so we ran out on to the court and started in the layup line. I looked across the court at our opponents from South Tama, and remembered what James said about him thinking South Tama wasn’t very good. Looking at their size advantage over us, I started to think they were better than what we were
The day came and the whole way down to the tryout I was as scared as a turkey in November! The tryouts were at a school in Sioux city. As soon as I walked in the door, I smelled sweat and I wanted to leave. I started to sweat before I even started playing, I saw so many girls from 3rd to 11th grade. I didn't know where to even go so I walked to the middle of the court and that's when it began.
Our first game was against Mason City. It was going great for us because we had a 14 point lead going into the 4th quarter. But things had gotten a little shaky when they brought it under five points. Even more when they had taken the lead. They were winning by one and we had to get the ball back fast. I fouled this really tall guy and we had almost gotten into a fight. But Blake, had gotten in between us so we couldn't. They were throwing the ball in again when Blake had stolen the ball and he was running down the court with 8.5 seconds left. He shot the left handed lay-up and he
And not being played as much I wanted was the worst thing ever. From then on I was determined to be a starting player my senior year and did everything I could to be better at my position on the court. Finally the day had come for tryouts to start and there was 2 other girls trying out for the same position I was trying out for. One of the girls had been the starting setter and an all around player for the JV team the past year and I was a bit intimidated by her and the other girl was just starting out the position so I wasn't that worried about her. A few days later we had a scrimmage and the coach told me she saw a huge improvement in my skills and I was pleased to hear her say that because I worked my butt off to be better. It was the beginning of the season and the first few games I was a starting player and was overwhelmed by the pace the other teams were playing at because I didn't play as much as they probably have but eventually got used to the change. All of a sudden the coach switched things up and the former JV setter was the starting setter and I was a bit angry. But for the rest of the season I was the starting setter and also was made captain of the Varsity team and got server of the year in our district that
It was game night and I was amped to be a part of the football team, I had waited a long time to be a part of the Southeast Trojans’ team! I was a little unsure though because I had missed three days of practice this week and I knew that Coach didn’t play that. When I got to the locker room to get dressed, Coach told me to see him once I got dressed out. I got scared right away because I didn’t know what he was going to say or do to me because I knew in the back of my mind that it was about me missing practice. When I was dressed out, I went in to see Coach. He said, “DaTrevion, have a seat and let me speak with you.” I replied, “Yes sir.” Coach then proceeded to tell me, “Trey, I am disappointed that you have missed practice every day
I was on defense, my teammate, Kiarra, who was on offense faked a pass to the girl I was guarding, Brooke. I lunged my left leg out, and POP, CRACK, POP, I felt three pops or cracks in my left leg. Down I go, on the ground balling my eyes out because I knew right then and there my basketball season was over. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing. All eyes were on me, they looked like deer looking at a car’s headlights. My coach ran over to me and said,
Ever since I was a little boy, about eight years old or so, I had an extreme passion for the sport of basketball. On weekends, I would wake up in the morning, eat a bowl of frosted flakes or cheerios, put on basketball shorts and then go in my driveway to shoot around. I would be out there for hours just shooting around or playing with some random kids that I would occasionally see walking around my neighborhood. This was satisfaction to me, but even better was playing on multiple public teams and not just playing in my driveway every day. In elementary school, I played in a recreational league, just like almost every other kid who tries out basketball when they were younger. This was fun and all but it was nothing too serious. There were never any practices, it was just one or two unorganized games per week. I never took
It was my teams versus the captain's we launched the ball towards the middle of the court, everyone lunged at the ball. Running around passing the ball making baskets left and right no one could stop my team. In the end there was only a few seconds on the clock, so I grabbed the ball. I ran towards the basket, but this short girl got in my way and me being a big fellow I moved out of the way by jumping towards the side. While in mid air another big fellow on the
“Well why don’t you play me 1 on 1, and whoever wins, gets to play on the court.” I have NO idea why I decided to say that. Even though I have ZERO talent when it comes to basketball, I wanted to “defend my turf”. So he agreed on that and we got to playing and it was going pretty well. For him that is. It was 9-0 and he only needed one more point to win. I was not going to go out like this. Not without scoring at least one point. So the next time I got the ball, I would score. He starts dribbling and kinda just messing around with the ball since he
I was prepared with everything needed for the game like a towel, a basketball, a jug of water, my jersey, and a small Gatorade for practice. When I reached the school I dribbled the ball to the indoor basketball court that we were going to play on. “Did you get a good night's sleep?” my coach said with surprise. “I slept well,” I said. “Is there only five people coming to the game?” I questioned my coach. He said there were only five people with grief and went inside to talk to the referees. Fred came with four of our teammates and said hi. We then began our practice what were lay-ups (dribbling the ball to the hoop and shooting) and jump shots (shooting the ball from a distance while
It was a game versus the North and the South, based off of what side of the river you live on. I live on the south side, but have always known the girls from the northern schools better. Even though I am on the opposite side of the river I am closer in distance to these schools rather than the girls I was playing with. Being that I am closer to the north, all of our games since junior high, against these southern teams have been intense, even considering a couple of them our rivals. Don’t get me wrong, I was ecstatic to find out that I was chosen to play in the All-Star game, especially since my school hosts the event it gives me one last chance to play on my home court. Yet knowing that I would be playing with girls I had never been fond of made me pretty
Next, we went down to the bleachers and watched the rest of the teams from our section. I was amazed at how good their routines were and how many people were on their’ teams. Before I knew it the awards ceremony was up. We got down from the bleachers and sat in a circle on the gym floor. Surround by about twenty other teams sitting exactly like we were. My heart was pulsing loudly, and my hands were shaking. I was super nervous. The announcer said,” In 3rd place, the team from Decorah.” Everyone cheered. Once it is quiet again he said,” In 2nd place the team from Cresco.” Then after everyone was done cheering the announcer said,” Drumroll please.” We all started a drumroll loudly on the floor. Then he said, “ In first place…” Everyone went silent from the anticipation. The gym was still. It's not going to be our team we did our best that is what matters. Then he finished “, The team from West Union!” I immediately jumped up and started hugging everyone around me. “ I can’t believe we won!” I said to the person next to