Believe

            For most of us high school was some of the best times we can remember. We shared many laughs with friends and always looked forward to the weekends. While going through high school everyone pick up the activities and sporting events that they enjoyed playing. For me attending a small high school was nice for the class sizes, but when it came to sporting events the score at the end of the game usually did not turn out in our favor.

            I was always very athletic in high school I always enjoyed playing basketball. For one thing I have always been tall compared to most classmates, which seemed to always work in my advantage. Starting off freshman year we started off the year with 5 freshmen counting myself. Just enough to have a team. The one thing we could look forward to, as a team was having a lot of playing time and just having fun playing the sport, and not having to compete against each other for a starting position. But the downfall was listening to the school and the rest of the community criticize the expectations of our seasons record.

            As practices flew by and games went by one by one, going into our last game with two wins and two loses. As our last game of the season, we as a team agreed that we needed to win this game so we could have a winning season. By half time we had outscore the other team by more then ten points. We knew that all we needed to do was stay ahead. As the game proceeded and another quarter went past we still had a commanding lead. But once the fourth quarter came around you could see we were beginning to get wore out. The other team came back with four 3-pointers and tied the game to force an over time.

With only second remaining. We fouled an apposing player with seven seconds left on the clock and we are down by two. The opposing player made the first free throw and missed the second.  I knew that we needed a 3 pointer to at least tie the game. While the free throws were taking place I was standing at half court. The ball hit the backboard and is rebounded and pasted out to our point guard. He starts to dribble up the court and sees me just over half court now running towards our basket. He throws the ball ahead to me. I take two large dribbles and pull up for a three pointer and let it fly. The buzzer sounds with an ear ringing sound. The ball rips through the net and makes the best swish sound one can ever hear. The entire stands erupt and was an amazing feeling.

The game was still not over but we went on to win the game by two in double over time. This was the biggest game I had ever played in. The stands where filled with not a single empty seat, since two varsity games were latter to follow. But that was not even the best part. Since our game had gone for so long it started cutting into the times of the other games which were to be heard on the radio. So they played most of the game on the radio.

That was the greatest feeling, to come out of that locker room knowing that as a team we accomplished our goal to have a winning season. We tore through all the nay saying that we would not win a game only having five guys but we did. As a player, for your teammates to trust you with the ball in your hands as the clock whines down shows that they believe in you more than in themselves. To come through with a buzzer beater to force another over time was a feeling I will never forget.