We had chance, after chance, after chance and nothing was going in. The time was running out and our dreams were slipping through our fingers. Until with five minutes left they fouled our best midfielder, who got midfielder of the year and was my brother, about thirty yards from goal. My brother hurried to the ball, we needed as many chances as we could get because time was against us. He judged his angle and determined where he would place the ball.
I promised myself never to let it happen again. The next day I turned on the T.V and to my surprise the Raptors were playing. A wonderful situation to test my new “will power”. Just then my evil sister walked by, this time with one of her girlfriends. I recognized her, the best female basketball player that played for Jarvis.
The score was 2-1, playing in the last few minutes of the game, he wanted to make one more goal, faking out the defense moving the ball down field, he does a trick shot and he scores! With 4 second left, he scored one last goal and won the game! Everyone runs to the field cheering for Jack and The Warriors! College scouts swarming the field, trying to get Jack’s attention. Every head coach handing out their business card to him, every coach wanted him to be a part of their team, but he only had one team he was interested in being a part of.
We lost mostly all of our games and had a rough season. The following year I was moved up to Varsity. I was known around school as this good basketball player and somehow I got stuck with the nickname Kobe. So when the season came around I found out I was going to be one of the starting five. I was real nervous when I heard this because I was only a sophomore and my coach had unreal expectations of me.
Thats when St. Johns made its comeback. They tied the game and that is when my coach put me back in the game. There was about 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter when I came back in. Both us and St. Johns were on fire making every single basket. The clock was winding down and the game was still tied.
We earned the number one seed in the section and were on our way to our goal. We got to our first game in sections against a much worse Truman/Martin Luther team. Nerves got to use in the first half and we were only up by ten points on a mediocre team. After our coach got on us during halftime, we came out in the second half and dominated the game winning 73-48. We had a great week of practice looking forward to the second game of the section playoff.
Coming out of halftime we scored off of a Jalen Brooks run and reduced the deficit to 8 points. From there we fought hard on defense but they managed to score again to make the score 29-14. Once we got back on offense we went to work and Jalen hit Ethan Myers for a touchdown pass and made the score 21-29. We stopped Comstock Park once again and got the ball back then scored when Jalen pounded the ball in for a touchdown from the 1 yard line, but to make it an even ball game we had to go for two so we ran the same play and sure enough we got it and tied it up 29-29. Comstock then went to work on offense and ran it down the field for a touchdown and went up 36-29.
So we came back in the game motivated and determined to win, we got the game tied up and started to switch leads. However, in the last 3 minutes we were losing by 4 points and the pressure was really high now. We ran a play and I got the ball and scored 3 points. The next play when they had the ball, my teammate stole the ball and passed the ball to me then I scored to bring us back up by 1 point. The last possession was in their hands and the player who I was guarding had the ball.
It is there that they are mentored, coached and practice for hours to be the best. For most, that is where the dreams also end. As NCAA television commercials remind us, most college athletes will become professional in something other than sports. Many youth begin dreaming and playing sports at a very early age. Parents are willing
After a scoreless match against China in the finals, the US scored on a final penalty shot and won the game. The game itself had an attendance of 92,000 screaming fans (Litterer). The game was as close as it could get. Neither team could get an advantage. It came down to a penalty shot by Brandi Chastain who put in the winning goal (Radnedge).