The Switch up!

I was in Gym class. 6th grade. It was Friday, and on Fridays we had we got to do whatever we want. The only thing was, we had to be moving as in doing something physical like jumping rope or playing basketball. I was playing basketball with one of my friends. As we were playing, my friend said I was pretty good at it. Her not knowing this was my first time really playing. A little later the gym teacher came over. He asked me if I was interested in playing for the school team. I considered going because I needed to get involved. Honestly I thought he was asking me to play because of my height like most coaches do. There wasn’t really a tryout, he just picked some girls that could play.  In my eyes I seen that he picked people who were tall and fast. Including me.

I went to the first practice and not being as big as a fan of basketball I liked it and I learned the concept on the game pretty easily. Some of my close friends were on the team too so it didn’t make me as scared of nervous as I should have been. At one practice and gave me and my friend a piece of paper with an address on it. “On Friday I want you two to come to this practice for an outside team.” I was surprised! It was just the first few practices and I’m here.

The practice my teacher invited me and my friend to was an  outside team. This team was at a gym on 34th & haverford. A gym I was familiar with. There weren’t many girls but my coach from school was there and introduce my friend and I to the team. The practice was really simple.  We did laps, basketball drills, challenges.  After that cool experience, we started having practices and games at another . On the team,was a starting playing as a power forward. The basketball season started around fall into winter time  for school and the team I played on for outside of school as well. The school games we played were easier. Not as competitive as the outside games were. The outside team was kind of like a traveling team. Every Saturday or Sunday or both. Which wasn't great because this caused me to cancel some plans for me to hang out with my friends. I was upset because I couldn’t hang out with my friends as much, but . I was having fun playing in the games and with my friends there. Some games we would lose but  we didn't give up nor lose our positive attitudes and played as best as we could.

Some games I would get hurt like my ankle and my knee but “what’s a game without out pain” my mom would say. If I complained about my ankle hurting she would say “you ball so hard.” I played basketball for about 2 years after that. Then one Saturday things changed. I got into an argument with my mother on how I didn’t want to play anymore. It wasn’t my teammates neither was it the games. I just felt as I was done with it. Yes I loved the sport but I felt as I had had enough. I did continue to play or the rest of the season in school of 8th grade but I stopped going to practices at the outside team.

A few weeks after that I went to play volleyball for an club outside of school which I used to go to before I played basketball. I rarely got hurt and I  enjoyed it very much . It also involved more girls and we got along with each other very fast. I liked volleyball more because basketball was more of a contact game, it was another  reason why I told my mother I wanted to stop. Till this day I still play volleyball for the club team I am with and also my school. My team mates are the best and we still play with a positive attitude. I don’t plan on quitting volleyball like I did basketball. I want to play in college but I know after college, it might not play anymore. My mother has pointed out to me that there are no 40 year old volleyball players, so I’ll enjoy it while I can.