State championship, finally after a hard, long, eventful road we made it to the finals. Tolono Unity stares at us inside of their huddle, feeling confident due to it’s their home court. Warm ups went great, everything was perfect. The referees called the captions over for the coin toss. It was Delaney and Olivia’s turn to go and they came back and said, “We won the serve!” As I went back to serve, feeling extremely nervous being the first server of the game, I go back to the line and I look at coach and he gives me a you-can-do-it-look. Tolono’s fan crowd was going insane, they were like a herd of elephants jumping up and down on the bleachers . Even though we tuned the noise out, they were being extremely rude. Later didn’t realize they …show more content…
The ref called me for having two-hits while I was setting. This wouldn’t be a huge deal, but last year during the state game I was called about twenty times for two hits. Coach didn’t know what I was doing wrong the sets seemed almost perfect; however, I was still getting called. The team and I were not affected by that call and kept going. I continued to set Holly and my sets were in the perfect spot and she would hit them straight down. The first set was over with the score of 25-23. We won! Everyone body knows that doesn’t mean much to us. We win the first set quite a bit; however, the second set is not our strongest area. The team doesn’t know why, but we definitely don’t play like we normally do during second sets. We still walk out onto the court like we normally would, with confidence. In the beginning of the second set Tolono started out serving and we let them get on a roll. The game started with them winning 5-0 and we started going downhill from there. We just never got on a roll and couldn’t seem to do anything right. Passes went over the net and Tolono would whack them down on our side. Sets were way too close to the net of way to far off, either way we could get a hit out of them. Hitting just wasn’t working all together. Everyone would either hit it out of it the
As Paige and I walked across the field towards our team I felt euphoric. Four long years of work, sweat, and dedication had led up to this night. It was the perfect end to my senior year of softball. The scoreboard just beyond the mass of sweaty, screaming softball players read 15-0. This was the final score of the district championship game, a game my team had never won before. The applause and cheers of the fans echoed in my ears for hours afterward
The game was one sided with us scoring early on then again in the second half. The final score was 2-0. I was ecstatic, I couldn’t believe that we had won the tournament. At the presentation of the trophy, all I could hear was the parents shouting and screaming, I was so proud to be part of the team.
The server on the other team once again threw the ball into the air. This time, my teammate sprawled for the ball, and made a perfect pass to me, allowing me to set the ball and have my co-captain smash it to the ground. I looked once again at the faces of my teammates. Things were different now. I knew at once that they knew what I knew. We were the winners of that game. We remembered that at that point, and were assured of it when the referee blew the final whistle after I served an ace on game point.
However, I was always an optimist and tried to convince myself that I could defeat him (Yeah right!). We approached the table and shook hands. In the few initial minutes, we warmed up, just casually rallying the ball around, but even then he was playing better tennis than I ever had. The coach then blew his whistle which concluded the warm up and signaled the commencement of the match. At this point in time, I tried to swallow all the fear and anxiety that I had and to face my opponent valiantly and courageously. The match began and before I had fully realized, he had won the first game 21-05. He had won it with the utmost ease, returning even my best shots without any struggles or even remote difficulty. I tried not to feel discouraged, saying to myself that he still had two more games to win and that I would not give in without a fight.
I have been playing baseball as long as I can remember. My dream ever since I was little was to win a State Championship in high school. Baseball is the only sport that I could literally play every day and not get tired of it. I told myself that I would never give up my dream of playing baseball as long as I live.
The period kept winding down slower and slower, until finally there was 5 seconds-4-3-2-1, “YEAAAAH”, “WHOAAAAH” as we all ransacked our goalie. There was a huge pile and hugging on the ice which lasted for what seemed an hour. It had all paid off. We did it, we accomplished our goal we were state champions.
Kentucky’s Riley jumped before the ball was even thrown in the air, so we were given possession. Right away Coach Haskins told our big man David Lattin to throw down vicious dunks in order to send a message. And my goodness, did he! First time he got the ball, he seemed to stuff his armpits inside that rim! But we knew Kentucky wasn't just going to give us this victory, they've been here before, they know what they're doing. David Lattin ended up committing a foul on the Wildcat’s first possession. He needs to be smart! We need him. The game was about dead even until our star player Bobby Joe Hill had two consecutive steals and scored on both of them. The look on Adolph Rupp’s face was priceless. Before the game, he couldn't say one positive thing about Bobby Joe Hill, even acted like he didn't know who he was! Now Bobby is making Rupp’s guards look like JV! Our defense was doing a great job of getting a hand in the shooter’s face, and on offense our ball movement was superb. There were many possessions where we passed it 10 times before shooting. Going into halftime, we were up 31-28. The second half started out as a close one. The first three minutes Kentucky rallied to within a point of us, even tying us, but never got the lead from us. We eventually kept drawing fouls and ended up shooting 27 free-throws, making all but one. We had a nine-point advantage and we were able to control the pace until the final
It 's the day before my last high school varsity basketball game as a senior… Wow four years went by this fast who would have imagined this day would have came. All day I was thinking about the season ending. This game meant everything to me, it wasn 't any ordinary game. It 's a section game! Win or go home.. With it being my last high school game I wanted to close the chapter knowing I gave it my all. Practice was probably the most intense it 's ever been for me. Emotions were flaring and we were all on the grind.
Sports play a very important role in my life ever since I could walk. My interests in playing sports began at the age of three as my parents signed me up for soccer, flag football, basketball, and lacrosse. First grade started my competitive edge as I began to play for travel teams in various sport tournaments. This competitive edge transferred from the sports field to the classroom having teachers and coaches helping me be the best I can be. Sports have continually well-shaped and defined my character by teaching me how to accept a win from working hard, also how a loss is an opportunity to learn and fix mistakes.
During sectionals, our county’s championships, we were seeded against the second best doubles team in the area. Due to this essay’s prompt, you already know that this is no Hail Mary match or heartwarming underdog tale, but rather a story of failure. We lost the entire match in less than half an hour. But the whole time, I remember laughing, bonding with my teammate, and just enjoying myself. I learned that I’m not always going to be the best at everything or the winner of the match, but that doesn’t mean that I should stop trying or stop enjoying myself. Losing that match didn’t take away from all of the hours of hard work that we had put in to get there, and it sure didn’t make our efforts any less
We were all greeted by Mr. Freedland, “Welcome guys, I am Mr. Freedland and I am the golf coach. Today, you guys are going to play 9 holes to determine your place on this golf team. I see there are 13 of you gentlemen here today. Unfortunately, only 12 can make the team. One of you guys will be going home today.” I was pretty scared. There were the same 12 people as last year, but there was one new player. His name was Ryan. Ryan came from Montana and it was his first year trying out on the team. I talked to him a few times and I found out that he was around the same skill level as Bill. We made our way to the first hole and Mr. Freedland announced our pairings. I was set to play with Bill and Ryan. I was pretty excited. Many holes later, I had a good round going. I knew I was going to make the team. Bill and Ryan though, were neck and neck. It was the ninth hole and it was time to tee off. I hit a slight draw and it landed straight down the middle. Bill was next. he took struck his ball kind of off and his ball flew over a tree where we could not see where it went. He hit into an area marked with out of bounds stakes. Ryan hit a straight ball down the middle. When we got up to the area where Bill hit his ball, we could not find it. We searched in the dense bushes and came up with nothing. We all stopped searching and agreed that Bill will take a penalty. Ryan started walking to the ball. I turned toward my ball also and
The whole team said its good-byes as we all left the arena. Looking back on my experience with the whole team and the events leading up to state, I realized that if you work hard enough and do things that you love, you can accomplish or get really close to accomplishing the goals that you set your mind to and strive
“D-D-Do you want all three balls?” I stuttered, you could almost hear my fear and nervousness gushing out of my words. However, my opponent didn’t seem to care that she had called the line judge. Afterwards, when the line judge came in we explained the situation, I got the point because he had explained us that if the ball is on my side of the court then it was my call whether the ball was in or out. Even though I won the point I didn’t feel as though I had won anything. We resumed the match, but I had become afraid because I knew little back then about the line judge’s limits were. I became so nervous that I started making unforced errors, unforced errors are when you lost the point because you had made a mistake like you hit the ball out of the boundary lines. Me making unforced errors were due to my lack of focus and that lack of focus came from my emotions getting the best of
...ft," Coach said as we hurried out of the health room. She was right. There was only half the time left. Warm ups seemed to fly by, and before I knew it there were only 35 seconds left on the clock. Murray's team had already headed for the bench for their coach’s last second instructions. "Let's bring it in girls," yelled Coach Moore from our bench. We all ran over not wanting to miss any important last minute words of wisdom from Coach. "OK, starters check in, you know who you are. As I have said, they are about equal in ability with us. We need to go out there and play our hearts out tonight, girls. Enjoy this, it is your last home game this season," Coach said. With that the Ref. blew his whistle to signal the start of the game. I, with the rest of the starters, walked out onto the court and got ready for the tip off, knowing I was completely prepared for the game.
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