It's the week after Thanksgiving and you know what that means... basketball tryouts! Luckily for you, you've escaped basketball tryouts this year because you're in college now and didn't need to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat thinking about running sprints. But with this absence of tryouts also comes the realization that you don't get to have basketball season either, and you're probably feeling a little sad about that. Here's a few things you can reminisce on while you watch the underclassmen in your high school go through tryouts this week:
1. Tryouts.
Let’s be honest, you miss tryouts even though they were hell. You and your teammates all had to endure the same pain and torture and countless suicides, layup drills, and foot fires. Tryouts brought you and your teammates together right off the bat as you iced your various sore muscles, but they were also a sign that basketball season, the best time of the year, was now upon us.
2. The first game back.
There’s nothing like the first game of a new basketball season. Running out onto the court with your pregame playlist blaring in the background and high-fiving each other as you warm up to take on the opposing team got your blood pumping. Opening night back on your home court is like protecting your house and you took it personally when the other team showed up and tried to make themselves comfortable in your gym.
3. Free throws.
The scariest, quietest minute in basketball. Everyone always says free throws win or lose games, and it's completely true. This unfortunate fact just added more pressure as everyone in the gym stared at you, completely quiet, as you either sunk your two free throws or threw up a beautiful air ball. Sometimes, though, you nailed those free throws when it really counted and you may have even saved the game for your team in the last minute or two of a high-intensity game. If you're anything like me, however, you probably missed a lot more shots than you actually made.
4. Team dinners.
Basketball team dinners are infinitely better than any other team dinners because they occur over the holiday season which means one thing and one thing only: Secret Santa. You always were psyched to eat massive meals with your closest friends and get ready for the holidays by blasting Christmas music at team dinners while you sorted out your Secret Santa for the season.
5. Ordering warm ups.
Let’s face it, high school sports revolve around what cool team gear you get and how badass you want your warmups to be. Should you go for the blacked out warmups that show you’re not to be messed with? Or how about the pure white look that screams fresh to death? Either way, warmups were a big issue on your team and you probably took many polls and votes about what teammates wanted the logo to look like and if you want names and numbers on the back.
6. Reuniting with your rival opponent.
It’s the game you had circled on your schedule since the last season ended and it was always the biggest game of the season. This was a team that your coach prepared extra for; you practiced special formations and defensive set-ups to combat their special offense and you ran extra sprints in preparation. You learned their names, their special skills and jobs on the court, and every play or signal they had in the book. When it came time to step on the court and start the game, you felt like you knew them better than you knew yourself and you wanted to, well, slaughter them. With sportsmanship, of course.
7. The locker room pep-talks.
Depending on how the game was going, these meetings were either invigorating and pleasant or scary and anxious. I preferred the former, but any moment spent in the locker room with teammates and coaches was important and with me forever. These were the brief meetings before, after, or at halftime of the game that were intimate conversations between players and coaches about how to band together and beat the team in the other locker room. These were screaming matches when coach was so angry that we couldn’t make a layup. These were those few minutes before each playoff game when we stood together and screamed at the top of our lungs and believed in each other and swore we wouldn’t walk off the court with a loss. This was also the last place that you ever were the same team, the same unified group under one coach that either said congratulations on winning it all or that it was a great season and you had a lot to be proud of. The locker room, like any place the basketball team goes, was one of the best places to be with your team and your coaches.
8. Getting new basketball sneakers.
It only happened once in a blue moon, but maybe freshman year you got new kicks and you couldn’t wait to debut them in your first game back. Getting new basketball sneakers was like receiving a gift directly from the gods. Lacing up your new high tops and wearing them in a game made you feel like Kobe and even if you missed a bunch of layups you just thought to yourself, “Hey, at least my sneakers look amazing.”
9. Practice.
It seems cliché, but you’re supposed to love practice more than anything else because if you practice hard, games become easy. Practice was a two-hour chunk every day after school in which you could block out homework, obligations, worries, and stresses. It was a time when you stepped onto the court and focused solely on getting better, making your teammates better, and preparing for your next opponent. You worked every day to get better so that when the regular season ended and the true test began, you could dominate in playoffs. So many memories happened in practice that you’ll never forget with people that you’ll always remember, and these are some of the best hours you ever spent playing sports.
10. Playoffs
Regular season games are intense, but when the playoffs came around you were in beast mode and you believed with your whole heart that your team could win it all. You prepared double for playoffs what you did in the regular season, stayed after practice to shoot more free throws, and made sure you were ready to go. When you won your first round and advanced, you believed even more that this might be your team’s year, this might be your year. You wanted this for yourself and your team, but also for your school and your friends and family.
11. Your last game, your last win or loss.
The last game of your high school career will always be burned into your memory and you probably remember every single second from warmups to the last locker room conversation. At least I do. Your last game was your last time playing in front of your coaches, teammates, parents, and friends, and you tried to go out with as big a bang as possible. You may have cried a little bit—it’s fine, I wept—and it was depressing, but you’ll always be proud of your last game and your last time playing with your teammates.
