We had ten seconds until the championship game started. All of us were nervous, excited, and ready to play our hearts out. We had been ready for this game for weeks. I took a deep breath and chanted along with the rest of my team. We all knew that because we were playing Fruitland, we could not afford to let our nerves take over and show in the way we played.

The buzzer rang and the starters ran onto the court. I knew deep down that we could win the game. Sure Fruitland was good, but we had put so much hard work into practicing for this game. I had faith in each and every one of my teammates. Our coach had given us everything we could have asked for. She was always there to help us get better after a not so great game so that we wouldn’t make those mistakes again in the championship game. There we all were. We were in the Parma gym feeling anxious as ever ready to beat Fruitland. We scored the first point. Our defense was outstanding. They went out there and played like we owned the court. Before we knew it we were ahead.

The second coach subbed me in, I was ready to play more aggressive than ever before. I ran as hard as I could and played as good of defense as I possibly could. Moving my feet was what I focused on most. If I got behind, they might score. Letting them score was exactly what I was afraid of. I let that drive me to play harder. During the second quarter, Marissa brought the ball down the court. I played low post and the wings were ready for whatever pass they might be able to get. We ran through the number one play. I did just as coach said and moved to the open spot. I was now high post. Marissa passed me the ball and I took the open shot. I made it! My team cheered and we quickly got back into our defensive positions. We decided before the game that zone defense would be the way to start. Everyone got to their spots and a few others pressed them at the top of the court. Lilly had the ball. I knew that if I didn’t give up that I could stop her. I put my mind to it and did my best. The other Fruitland girls were ready to do anything to score. A few times they did and a few times we got ahead of them and stopped the ball. It was half time.

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” This is a famous quote from Michael Jordan. Every player on my team had a rebounding goal. About four or five had a goal of ten rebounds, and the rest of us had five. In order to reach these goals, we had to expect ourselves to do them. We had to play our best in order to reach our goals and get the gatorade prize my coach promised. Each practice and each game every single one of us gave it all we had. As a team we set a lot of goals. We set goals for the number of rebounds, turnovers, and baskets that we made. We may not have always met them, but we tried our best and gave it our all.

After half time we kept going with our amazing defense. We moved our feet and hustled. By the middle of the third quarter we were behind by a few points. Nobody gave up though, we all still continued to play as hard and aggressive as possible. By the fourth quarter we were still behind. I was nervous and so was the rest of the team. They continued to play awesome defense and they took the open shots. In the last few seconds of the game we were behind but that didn’t affect the way that they played. We may not have won the championship game, but we were winners in our minds.

We only lost by four baskets and we never let the score slow us down. We gave it our all and that’s all that was all that mattered to us. Our Weiser Wildcat team ended up in second place overall. Our team got a trophy and knew that we played our hardest. We were extremely proud of that. I’m proud to call us a team.