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Injured Volley

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Injured Volley

By: Rosetta Sontiago

One month. I have to have this ankle brace on for one month! I have a volleyball game in two weeks and I won’t be able to play. But… it isn’t the exact truth. I’ll start from the beginning, the day it happened. September 19, 2002, my brother and I were playing and he pushed me to hit the ball. Got a sprained ankle and I couldn’t play for the next month. I had to sit down and watch my teammates and friends practice and play.

It was maybe a week, week and a half later and I was trying to practice at home but my mom obviously didn’t let me. I practiced anyway, hoping my ankle would get better before the game. At school, I had the norm, classes, tests, annoying people. Everyone teases me for the ankle brace and I’m so irritated! 

Charlie, my brother, has finally left me alone. He’s the one who sprained my ankle and he finally let me be. I got peace at home, just not at school. Charlie and I have no classes, and that’s good. But I have three classes with his friends, and they won’t stop teasing me. My mind is gonna blow because of those maniacs. 

Few days ago, my coach said I could play the next game but when it came, he rejected me and I couldn’t play. I sat with my family, mood spoiled and hopefulness gone. Throughout the rest of the game, my mom tried to comfort me, but it didn’t work. My attitude was sour and no sweetness was fixing it. I had an attitude for the rest of the week, I couldn’t play at practice, and I couldn’t focus on my school work. I couldn’t focus on anything besides my ankle and volleyball.

The next volleyball game was in three days and I still had my ankle brace on. My coach still wouldn’t budge on letting me play in the game. I had to come to all the practices just to do nothing but sit there and watch everyone else practice. Everyday when I went back home, I was never in a good mood. I would come home and do my homework or get in the shower. No small talk. No, “How was your day?” Nothing.

The day of the volleyball game came and I was at school, in morning practice, watching everyone play while trying to convince the coach to let me play at the game. The coach never listened to me and either cut me off or flat out ignored me. It wasn’t the best position to be in, but I got mad and stormed off. Leaving practice and to the girls locker room. I stayed in there until the practice was over and my teammates came in. My friend, Mia, once she changed out came over to me. 

“You okay?” Mia questioned.

“No, I’m not okay. Coach won’t let me play today at the game even though my ankle brace gets taken off in two days! What could possibly happen to make my ankle worse?” 

“Well… You could break it?”

I look over at Mia and scoff. “That’s not helping much.” 

She looked down and I could tell I upset her. I sigh and place my hands in my lap. 

“Look.. I didn’t mean to come off rude it’s just.. Coach is being so stubborn with letting me play.”

She was silent for a moment and I was going to speak up but Mia cut me off. 

“I get that, but the coach is just looking out for you. They’re just…. concerned. They don’t want you getting hurt even more.” 

I listened to what Mia said and throughout the rest of the day, I slowly understood why the coach wasn’t letting me practice or play. Until seventh period, when I had to leave to go to the game, I was more focused on finishing my school work instead of being mad I couldn’t play. When I got onto the bus to go to the game with the rest of my team, I sat by Mia and tried to forget I wasn’t even going to play at this game. 

Once we get to the school, I walk with Mia to the gym and chat with her while they get ready. After a bit, when I was sitting on the bench with my phone until the coach walked up to me and started talking to me. She said I could play at the game today and I was so excited, I couldn’t help but jump up and down. One problem was that even though I came to the game, I didn’t have my uniform! My mom had come to the game, but she obviously wouldn’t have brought my uniform so there I was without one. No one had a spare so someone had to drive back to the school. Luckily it was only a 20 minute drive but that means it’d take 40 minutes for them to come back! The game started soon and we didn’t have time for that. 

As we were all getting ready for the game, we were still panicking because I didn’t have a uniform and I’d play soon. In the end, a school teacher drove it here, and I had my uniform just in time before the game started. I got into position and served the ball, flying over the net. The other team’s player hit the ball and flew back to our side. Mia set the ball and my teammate spiked it. The ball hitting the ground and giving us the point. This continued for a bit until the other team caught on, and we had to start hitting the ball back farther. 

In the end, we won the game and we all celebrated. When we were driving back to the school so our parents could pick us up, Mia and I sat by each other again and were having a blast. 

“We won! And I got to play! I actually got to play!” I said, I was full of excitement. 

“You literally spiked the ball so well! The other team couldn’t even hit it!”

“Thanks, Mia. You really helped me forget about the fact the coach wouldn’t let me play at first. It made it all the more fun.” 

Mia and I chatted for a bit before we got back to the school and my mom picked me up. 

“Hey, Mom.”

“Yes, sweetie?” 

“Is it okay if I get my brace off tomorrow? I played tonight and my ankle didn’t even hurt!” 

My mom smiled and she nodded. We got into the car and drove home while I rambled on and on about how the game went and how fun it was. When we got home, we ate dinner and then had a movie night, celebrating my team’s win and having some family time. My brother finally apologized about my ankle and I forgave him, letting it go since it didn’t hurt anymore. 

The next day, I got my brace off and I went back to school, happy and stress free. The day went by quickly but it was fun. It was amazing and it was a good day to end the week off with. Looks like a sprained ankle can’t stop you from playing volleyball. 

Brace Yourself

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Brace Yourself

By: Anita Dump

5..4..3..2..1

ring ring

School’s out for the day. I head to my locker and grab my gym bag, then wait for my best friend Hailey. 

“Hey Emily, are you ready for practice? I heard we are doing a lot of running,” said Hailey, “are you sure your ankle is going to be ok?”

“Yeah,” I said, “It doesn’t hurt as much as it used to.”

Right before basketball season, I sprained my ankle during PE doing relay races. It caused me to sit out the first two games, but now I am able to play just having to wear an ankle brace. 

We headed down to the locker room and start getting ready for practice when all the sudden we hear the Weller twins, yelling everyone’s ear off per usual. This time it was about one of them getting new shoes. It finally stops when the coach comes into the locker room and yells at us to hurry up, and of course Hailey and I are the last ones in the locker room.

“Hurry up,  Coach Rachel is going to yell at us for taking so long,” Hailey complained.

“Sorry my brace takes like a million years to put on.”

Finally we get into the gym to warm up, and  Coach gives us a firm look so I just hang my head.  She l calls us in and gives us a lecture about taking too long in the locker room and I can feel everyone’s eyes on me including Coach Rachel. Once she is done lecturing us she tells us what we are doing in practice today.

“Since you guys lost your last game we are going to do conditioning today”Coach Rachel said.

You could just hear the groans throughout all the girls, then the excuses started.

“But we have a game tomorrow, we will play worse because we are soar,” said one of the twins. 

“Well, maybe it will teach you guys not to slack off while playing,” said Coach Rachel, “and as a matter of fact every complaint or excuse I hear is one down and back.”

We started the conditioning and on the first drill with running I hurt my ankle and fell to the floor. 

“Emily, are you ok!” said Hailey in a worried tone.

Then the Coach came over.

“What hurts?” said Coach 

“My ankle,” I said  while trying to stay calm

After that Coach Rachel called my mom and I went home early. On the car ride home my mom told me I should probably sit out on our next game.

“No I can’t sit out, I have already missed two games this season, I can’t miss another one.” 

“I scheduled a doctor’s appointment for the morning. We will see what he says,”my mom said.

After we got back from the doctor, he said I was fine to play. I just had to be careful considering my ankle is weak. I got to school an hour late just in time for second period with Hailey.

“So can you play today?” Hailey said in a nervous voice.

“Yeah, the doctor said I just need to take it easy.”

The rest of the day went by slowly but when the final bell rang I was ready for our game. We got to the locker room and put our uniform on and shoes then I looked in my bag and realized, I forgot my brace! This causes me to get really nervous, so I started to overthink everything. After all this is the first game I am playing, and everyone has already played two. What if I am absolutely terrible and the coach doesn’t even play me, or worse she tries playing me and I make us lose. 

We got on the court and started to warm up and I didn’t miss a single shot which really boosted my confidence. Once warmup was over she sent the starters out on the court. I saw Hailey was starting like usual and it made me kind of sad I wasn’t out there with her this year. The game was going smoothly and half way through the first quarter I was in the game and right off the bat I made a shot and forgot all about that I am not wearing my brace and should take it easy. I decided to guard the biggest girl on the court, she was rough. She pushed me over which caused me to fall then stepped on my ankle.The pain was excruciating.

“Emily, are you ok!?” said the Coach.

I tried to respond but I couldn’t get a word out of my mouth. I saw my mom rush over. She picked me up and took me to the car and drove me to the hospital. At this point I am terrified because I am in urgent care. I am in extreme pain, I am brought to the hospital bed and a doctor comes to the room. 

“By the looks of it, I think that’s broken,” the doctor said, “but we will go ahead and take some x-rays.”

He was right, it is broken and I will be on crutches and have to wear a cast for three weeks. He also said I will probably be out for the whole season because I need to rest, which breaks my heart because this is the first year I can play school basketball. The doctor also mentioned that my injury might lead to later problems down the road and that my ankle might never fully recover.

The three dreaded weeks are finally over and I am going to go back to the doctor to see how I am healing and take off my cast. It has been miserable sitting around while I know all my friends are playing basketball, but Hailey has made sure to tell me everything that happens when I am not there to see it for myself.

“And then number 45 started to get mad and threw the ball at the ref just for calling a foul!” 

Though Hailey made sure I didn’t feel left out, part of me was still really sad. So that is why today is important. It could either be one of the best days of my life or one of the worst. We showed up at the doctor and got in to my appointment.

“Let’s take this cast off and see what we are dealing with.”

How could he say that so calmly this could determine my future.

“Well there is certainly still quite a bit of swelling.” Not what I wanted to hear. “But you should be fine to play basketball in a couple weeks.”

That was great news! I am so excited that I am able to play this season and trust me I will always remember to bring my brace, maybe even a backup.

Making it Pro

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Making it Pro

By Scarful

Hello there you should read my story. It’s about my life. I really recommend it.My name is Tanner Rock. I am a 15 year old male. My dreams are to make it pro in the NBA but I’m not very good at basketball. I recently moved to Nevada with my mom. My dad passed away when I was younger. And I wanted to make him proud and make my dream come true. But my mom is living in rough conditions. We moved so my mom could get a better job. 

On the first day of school I met a really nice kid. His name is Oliver. His dreams were also to make it pro in the NBA. But he was 10x better than me. And he said he could give me some pointers on my ball handling and shooting. After school he gave me his number to text him. I  went to his house later in the day to practice my basketball skills. We practiced for around

2 hours and his mom said,

 “Hey do you wanna stay over and have some dinner?”.

 After I ate I walked home. It wasn’t a very far walk to my house. When I arrived home I told my mom what I had done at Oliver’s house. She was really happy that I made a friend. At my old school I didn’t have that many friends. Oliver and I tried out for the high school team. We both made the team.

After my freshman year I didn’t start that much and I still wasn’t a shooter, I was more of a passer. I only scored around 30 points the whole season. But my sophomore year I scored a lot more points than I did the year before. I was averaging 19.3 points a game. My junior year I was on varsity so I didn’t play a whole bunch but I was still averaging 17.6 points a game. But my friend Oliver was doing very well; he was averaging 25.0 points a game. And in our senior year I was averaging 26.1 points a game. My last game there was a college scout and this was my chance to make a college team. I was playing really well; this game I had 23 points in the 3rd quarter and I finished out the game with 36 points. And the college scout came up to me and we were talking for a while. I made the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Oliver on the other hand he did make a college team, but he’s on the Iowa State Cyclones. We both did pretty well; our freshman year he averaged 22.4 points a game and I averaged 23.2 points a game. And through the rest of my college years I decided to go in the NBA draft.I didn’t get drafted till the 5th round. I got on the Houston Rockets.

And so did my friend Oliver. We finally got reunited. I got the starting center position at 6’8 and my friend Oliver got the starting point guard position. He’s only 6’3 but he can do everything he can drive down hill. He can shoot three pointers really well. And he’s the best at his mid range shots. We were 24 games into the season and we were doing good.

Then Oliver tore his ACL. He was out for the season and the thing that sucks is it was his rookie season. He was on pace to get rookie of the year. He was averaging 22.3 points a game more than any rookie this season. I’m only averaging 19.8 points but I was averaging 6.4 rebounds and 6.1 assists. The very next game after Oliver got injured he got my first triple double. I had 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. When we were getting to the end of the season. I actually got rookie of the year with averaging 23.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 9.0 assists. 

The thing I was the best at was tip offs. I won almost all of my tip offs besides one and I only lost because I slipped when I jumped. After the season me and Oliver would train every day with our private trainer. When the next season arrived, me and Oliver both got 21 points in our first game of the season. 

Week 8 of the season we had to go against the boston celtics they were 7-0 and we were 5-2 not off to a bad start but we didn’t have the best start to the game we were down 10 points at the end of the first quader. The score was 29 to 19. I had 3 of those points with a lay up and 0ne made free throw but Olliver didn’t have any points so he was really discouraged but when we were on the bench I had to give him a little speech so he didn’t feel down on himself. 

After that when we went in halfway through the second i gave it to Oliver on the give and go and he got his first points. After that he got hyped up and got 10 points after and at halftime the score was 56-55 we were up by 1 point. During halftime our coach gave us a pep talk. I only had 7 points so I was kind of mad. But after half i got 14 points in 4 minutes. I had 21 points going into the 4th. We were up by 5 points with 2 minutes left in the game. Then they got a lay up and a three pointer with 20 seconds left and it was 120 to 120 and then they got a layup in 5 seconds so we had 15 seconds to either get a three pointer or a layup and we gave it to Oliver then he gave it to me in the post and i passed it to Oliver in the corner for a three and he MADE IT!!! To win the game. The only team to beat the Boston Celtics was us so far. 

  At the end of the last game of the regular season I had 45 points, the most I’ve ever scored. In the off season I was working out with Oliver and I was doing squats and I tore my quad. But luckily it was right after the season was over. So I had enough time to heal. It’s gonna take around a month for my quad to heal. After the offseason was over I was all healed up and ready for my 3rd season. On the first game of the season I jumped up for a rebound and got injured. After the game I went to the hospital and I found out from the doctor that I won’t be able to play for the rest of the season. And Oliver was having the best season of his career. 48 games into the season he was averaging 25.6 points a game. After the season they ended up 72-12 and won the championship. But gladly I got a ring. 

My 4th season on my first game I didn’t do any good. I was still a little hurt from the previous season. I had 0 points in my first game. And I didn’t get too many in the first 10 games. So the Houston Rockets decided to trade me. They traded me to the pistons. I wasn’t a starter for the Pistons and barely got any playing time. And when I got in the game I wasn’t doing anything. Then the Pistons traded me the next season. Then every team that traded for me would trade me a season later then my last shot to prove I’m still good. The last game of the season I was playing for the Lakers and I got injured again. I knew my career was most likely over. And I got cut a week later and no team wanted to pick me up so I had to retire early. And Oliver went on to win 5 more championship games and be known as the GOAT.  

Hoop Dreams (1994)

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January 12

This is one of the most recognizable, iconic documentaries of all-time and it was one of the first films I placed on the list of possible docs to watch during this Genre-ary. Hoop Dreams follows two black youths from the inner-city Chicago area on their struggles to get through high school with a dream to make it to the NBA.

The two boys were named Arthur Agee and William Gates, and, one of the things that I liked about Hoop Dreams was it was much more in depth than just basketball. It truly looked at the problems each boy faced as they navigated their way through their specific high sachools.

At first, it seemed as if they would both be going to the same high school, St. Joseph, but after their freshmen year, Arthur was behind on the tuition payment and wound up being removed from the school. William had financial issues too, but he received help from donors of the school. It was implied that William received the aid because he was seen as the stronger basketball player.

The film spent time with family members of both kids too. Arthur’s family provided the most drama as his father left during his high school years and ended up in prison. He was able to return to his family eventually and did appear to have turned a page on his criminal activities.

William went through an injury to his knee during his high school days and it was something that really caused problems for the young man. There were moments of game footage that was tough to watch as he struggled to make it through the injury.

Coach Gene Pingatore was a major character in the documentary, and he was not always portrayed in a positive light. He was that old school basketball coach in the vein of a Bobby Knight (who did cameo in the doc) and watching that today was challenging at times. Pingatore’s final meeting with a senior William was about as awkward as it could possibly be.

Hoop Dreams was a deep dive into the inner city youth whose only hope to escape came with a basketball. Both of the young men involved faced their difficulties with a differing level and reached for what they could. It was a very involved doc.