Most people pick one sport and stay with it from a young age until they graduate. Not me though, when I was young I moved from Oklahoma all the way to Colorado. This might not seem that bad, but when drastically changing altitudes it’s hard. When running, I could only run about 40 yards before dying for water. This meant football would be hard to play, but it might’ve killed me if I tried tackle football, so I played flag football. It was hard but I found my spot, quarterback.

 I played flag football for five years, then decided to try basketball. At that time, I had only played basketball at recess, but I was still traveling,double dribbling and fouling. Our elementary school was too small for a basketball team. But there was another option, a club team. The only thing was there were a lot of people trying out for this team, so I had to practice. 

I somehow convinced my dad to buy a basketball for me. For nights, I practiced until I learned how to stop fouling and traveling. When try-outs started, I felt good and started to shoot more. I wasn’t the best shooter, but I was making at least 70% of my shots. I made the team, and I’d never made a basketball team before so I was very happy to be starting. We ended the season with a 5-2 record, which was good for me. 

Fast forward to 7th grade year, which was the year when I finally could play basketball for my school with my friends. Before the school year started I had a goal, and this goal was to make JV for the Salida Basketball team. I practiced by myself in my gravel driveway for hours until the sun was setting just trying to get good enough to fill that spot. When the time came, it was the first practice, there were lines of kids shooting in front of all the coaches. Then came the time, the coaches were choosing who to play for them. One by one, kids kept getting picked. Then, I heard my name from the JV coach. I was excited to play on my school’s team. The first few games were okay, then the last few games is when we played amazing. Play after play, we scored. Then it was the end of the season, and just like that we had won 12-2 games in our season. 

Then I had to switch schools, and it was hard but I got over it. At a new school, it’s hard to adjust to the new people, and the entire time I was trying to guess who’s playing basketball and who wasn’t. Then I met Brian, who was in my math class. I knew he played because that was all he talked about during math. From Brian, I met the other people that played basketball. Our season was okay. We didn’t have a good record but it could’ve been worse. Over this summer, I’ve been going to the open gyms for basketball and learning more each time. This has been my experience with basketball.