Basketball Season Over

It is early February and yet again at my highschool the basketball season is done. We had an ok season, better than the season before this year we won more than one game. Our team started to come together by the middle of the season. We struggled through some injuries and people quitting because they had other commintments. That was our teams biggest problem, commitment issues. Having 6 people show up is hard when you want to run a scrimage or run our plays against a defense. We had a great coach who was very hopeful and enthusiastic at the beginning of the season but even though she kept acting this way you could see that she was getting very frusturated by the end. Our team might not have the most skill but we had as much heart as any team out there and never gave up. We played several games with only 6 players and most people would want to just forfeit to the other team but not us we played as hard as we could. Our teams mainstays and key players were a steady reliable point guard, a hard working undersized gurad, a lanky and defensive minded guard who could hit threes, a big power forward who if you gave him the ball under the basket would always score and he probably could kill a kid with a pick. We also had a very tall centre with long arms and if you came to the middle you would get rejected. Then there was me a regular sized small forward who likes going to the basket, getting fouled and slefish a points i will get in to that next paragraph. Together we played well together at times but at others we got very paniced. I am proud to say i was part of this team and it was a fun season.

 It then came to our first and sadly only playoff game against a team seeded below us and that we should ahve beaten. We started out ok about even with them even though we should have been beating them. I couldnt hit anything but our gurads and post players were playing well. No excuses but i was injured and did not have my explosive step i usually have. Our big power forward had lots of free throws and didnt hit many but that was expected lol. He was getting there big men in foul trouble which helped.  Then came the second half and yes if you look at the score sheet i scored 15 points in it but i really was hurting the team. I admit i got very selfish just trying to beat my guy and ignoring my teamates when i should have passed. I put blinders on and i am sorry for this but i cant go back and change it. I though i was the only one on the team who could score and that was wrong. My teammates are probably mad at me and have every right to be i got in my own little zone and didnt look out of it at all. I promise to do better next year!! - Nathan D

Young Canadian Tennis Player

I have been playing tennis since i was 8 and at that time i was already years behind many kids in the world. Cause of canada's harsh long winters tennis is not encouraged to many canadians. I go to tournaments and probably 70% of the players do not have english as a first language. Most of them are eastern europeans with parents have pushed them to play since they were 3. I have made friends with some of them and they all say they don't enjoy playing anymore but they want to please there parents. I feel bad for these kids because they don't have much of a choice if they dont want to almost be disowned by there parents. These kids are rich and can afford to play all the time. I can't do that my parents have supported me the best that they can. They cant afford to pay court fees every day for 5 hours like kids i have to compete against. They can practice all the time and many of them have their own personell tennis courts. I have to go to barrie anytime i want to play indoors in the winter. My coach is great but then again i am not his only student by far he has 20 or 30 kids he is coaching. Most of the kids i am playing have their own personell coaches that are paid by there parents to take them to all the tournament and strategize how to beat players like me. I want to be a professional one day but it will take alot of hard work and training and just hoping that i have the talent to make it. How am i suppose to compete with these kids? I will have to just train harder then they can even imagine. If i do that then maybe i can get on the professionall tour and make some major noise. It may mean moving to montreal to be at the national training centre. If that is what it takes i will do it. I am very close to a scholorship in the states so i can have my own coach and get my education paid for and that would be amazing! It is going to be an uphill battle but i am will to do it and fight every disadvantage i have to overcome there advantages. - Struggling Canadian Tennis Player