The other day I had a throwback picture come up on my Facebook asking me if I wanted to share this memory. It was not just any memory: it was a picture of me when I used to play basketball in high school. Boy, do I miss those days, lacing up my basketball shoes before practice. Although, sometimes you hated the sport because some days you just were not feeling it or you were throwing up bricks all day.
For me, basketball was a hard sport. Talk about having to work all the time with taking no days off. Everyone who plays a sport knows that summers consisted of all day basketball camps in gyms that had no air. I definitely do not miss the gyms with no air. My start of my career was probably when I was in the fourth grade. While not knowing a lick of basketball, I took my skills, or the lack thereof, to the community's recreation center to sign up for basketball. Let's just say that season did not turn out very well. We only had six people on our team, and, of course me being the fouler I was, I would foul out of the game and we would have to have a girl from the other team play with us. Rec ball was just the beginning of my love of basketball.
Middle school was a whole other story. I did make the team, and boy was I excited. My dreams of getting to play eventually went away when my coach never played me. I always thought of my self as a secret weapon. You got to do what you got to do for the sport you love. Sitting on the bench sure did hurt my confidence in the game, though. Even though I did not get to play I still managed to work in practice, and still went to skill camps to work on my skills.
High school rolls around and tryouts were coming up and coming from a kid who never really got to play I was scared to death until I met the head coach and the assistant coaches. Coach Hall was the coach who believed in me and saw the potential that my middle school coach did not see. Although I never got to play for him before he left, I learned to love the game and have confidence in myself when playing. He was the one that brought the baller out in me. I am forever grateful for my coach, and he has influenced me to follow my dream to become a coach. I hope someday I can be as great as he was and be a role model to the young girls that I will coach.
I look back through pictures and do miss it a ton like any other kid who played sports while in school. I am blessed that I had parents who were supportive and traveled everywhere with me with travel ball. Without them, I would not have experienced the sport of basketball like I did. Sometimes I go to the gym to shoot some hoops, but it just is not the same as having practice with 12 of your closest friends. They become like sisters to you, and when you leave to move on and do bigger and better things, you lose your team.
So for the kids who are still in school and playing sports, cherish every moment of it because it will soon be gone and you will miss it like crazy.
