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Driver's Seat

I definitely would have to say that high school basketball was a fun experience for the most part until my senior year. I had the same coach for my first three years of high school basketball. He definitely was more of a defensive coach so we didn't average many points. And for those of you who don't know much about basketball, defense may win you games but if you don't have any points to back up the good defense you most likely aren't going to win. Despite only being an average team, my first three years where a blast. We weren't the best team and didn't get very far in play-offs but I learned so much. Then came my senior year when my coach decided to retire and a new guy came in. I would like to say that he almost ruined my high school experience but I don't like to let one person have dictatorship over my experience.
Anyways, he did absolutely nothing for the seniors. He was all about himself and didn't do what a "good" coach should do. That is help your seniors/upperclassmen find a place where they can play in college. They are supposed to introduce new colleges and universities to you and for those colleges and universities to know that you are interested. A high school coach is basically supposed to market you. Yes it sort of sounds degrading but it is how high school sports work. You market your players so they can go on and be successful at that sport in college and maybe beyond professionally. Like I said, my coach didn't do that for me or the other girls on the team. He actually even benched me for a game for "not" passing the ball to a teammate (a total lie). Another girl and I, combined, passed the ball to this other girl a total of twenty-six times. Twenty-six times is a lot of passes to one person in a game and the fact that in order to get this girl the ball we had to create an opening for her which makes that number even more difficult to reach.
The moral of this story is that after all the things I went through my senior year; a new coach, being benched by the new coach, and not getting the appropriate help from the coach I overcame those struggles and ended up playing college basketball. Although, I had the chance to go and play at a DI university like University of Miami, Baylor, and Brown, I still am happy where I am. It wasn't because of my coach my senior year that those universities were interested in me nor was he the reason that I didn't go. I chose Trinity because I didn't want basketball to strictly run my life. I believe that you can't let people control the outcome of your life. You should be in the driver's seat of your own life and nobody else should be able to jump in and take over.

Katy Youth Basketball Gets Me Going

Katy Youth Basketball is like a little league basketball association. It allows people to play from Kindergarten up through 8th grade. When I moved to Katy, Texas from Richmond-Rosenberg, Texas in 3rd grade my Dad was informed about it. He decided to go ahead and coach a team which I would be on. We were named the Wolverines and had these bright yellow jerseys. Because we were new to the area we didn’t really know what to expect or who all to place on our team. My Dad just decided to allow the organization to put players on our team for us. This is what was called the Neighborhood League. I hadn’t met anyone so I was super excited about meeting all the girls on the team.

It wasn’t until about a week later when the first practice rolled around. There were so many different personalities on the team and some who could barely play the game of basketball. There was one girl on the team named Kelsey that I became really good friends with instantly. We were definitely the best two players on the team and after practices our parents had to bribe us to get off the court. We were on the same team all the way up until 6th grade. After our first year her Mom took over the coaching position and because their family are die hard aTm fans we were the Aggies every year up until we started playing for our schools.

I never really thought about the friendship we have until recently and how special it really is to me. Our families are very close and we always get together and do things especially for sporting events. This is just so interesting to me because it just shows how sports can have an effect on your life. I mean this may not be the best example but I know that if it weren’t for Kelsey and her family that I wouldn’t be the same person I am today. I wouldn’t be nearly as competitive or have as much devotion towards basketball. I probably would have never came to Trinity nor been the prestige basketball player that I am today. All this just really gets me thinking about "what if?" How different would my life be if one tiny little thing had been different or gone another way? It is just interesting to see how things in your life and others have come together and changed over time. Basketball has allowed me to meet so many different people and to form so many friendships and without it I wouldn't be the well oriented person I am today.