It’s crazy how fast time goes by, isn’t it? It seems like it was just yesterday we were all just a bunch of ambitious freshman ready to start our high school basketball careers. Now we’ve all gone our separate ways and have gone off to college, our four years at Crystal Lake Central over in the blink of an eye. Time has flown by and many things have changed, but one thing remains the same, and that is the memories we made as a team throughout our four years of high school, where we grew as individuals and also grew together as a team. We all went through a lot together in four long seasons, but I just want to thank you guys for making those seasons memorable ones.

Six years ago, we were all just a bunch of freshmen who had just made the freshman team and would become teammates for the first time. It was our first season together as a team, the season that would begin the journey of our careers as basketball players at Crystal Lake Central high school. A long season filled with hard practices, close exciting games, long bus trips and of course, hanging out in Weaver’s room before the game eating pizza and playing happy wheels on the computer. The season went by fast, but by the time it ended we started to grow as a team and become closer as friends.

Next season, our sophomore season rolled around and we were ready for another great year of basketball with OB as a coach. I know we all remember how cool we felt being able to finally get out of the aux gym and get to play out on the varsity court in front of the big crowd, and we felt so cool because we could warm up to music, just like coach Weaver said. Sophomore year we all stepped up as a team and helped each other improve. Once again, another year went by way too fast, and we continued to come together as a team.

Junior year…. We all remember this as a low point, as it took us way too long to get a win. I can remember the frustration we felt, as it hurt to work so hard only to come up short. As negative as this memory may be, we can look back on it and agree that this forced us to come together as a team in order to start winning. We learned a lot that year, like how to deal with adversity, to help your teammate when he’s down, and we also got to take a ride on the energy bus during practice. Overall, we experienced a lot of highs and lows our junior season, but I still like to think that the good outweighed the bad that year.

Then came our final season, our senior year, which was by far our best year. We came a long way from being just a bunch of young immature freshman. We were a group of brothers ready to go into battle with each other when that season began. We started off hot during our home tournament, and despite some low points throughout the season we stayed together as a team and were there for each other on and off the court. We had some close losses, but those games were outweighed by the big wins we had followed by the celebrations in the locker room which included tossing of chairs and blasting of music, and the occasional game of “the floor is lava”.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. We lost to Prairie Ridge in the regional tournament in a game that we were in the whole time, the energy was high and our game was strong, but we just came up a little short. Thinking back to that night, I am still heartbroken. I don’t know what hurt more, the fact we lost and our careers were over, or the fact that we would no longer be a team anymore. After one last game of the floor is lava in the Huntley locker room, we finally headed back on our last bus ride together. I’ll never forget turning in my uniform one last time, and then Jason, Ian, and I all went up to the court and just sat there for a while. The three of us reminisced about the past four years as a team, all the moments we sweated, bled, and all the fond memories we shared as a team on that court. Those past four years playing basketball with you guys was honestly the greatest, and it is something I will never forget. I want to thank all of you guys for those four great years together as a team, there is no one else I would have rather shared the court with, and no one else I would rather call my teammate.

Many of us have gone our separate ways, and I’m sure you’re all doing great things in college or wherever you are. I hope you all get the chance to read this and when you do, I hope you know how grateful I am to have had you guys on my team.