Jordan--My First E-High Basketball Game

      After practicing for since 8^th grade promotion, I couldn’t wait to suit up and play as an eagle.  Emotions came over me as I started to realize what was about to happen. “Could I handle being the point? What if I forget two-game? How many of my friends are gonna be here to watch?” I asked myself this in the locker room. Coach must’ve been able to read minds because out of the blue he says,” Should be a full house tonight!” Full house? First game? At the time I didn’t think I could handle the pressure but my good friend Julian was sitting next to me and said,” Your gonna go off for 30, watch.” This took some of the stress of but not completely. Coach called us to gather around and we did so, preparing for his pre-game speech. He didn’t say much because the team we were about to play wasn’t even competition to us. We put all our hands in the middle and I said,” Family on 3, Family on me! 1, 2, 3” and we all yelled family. Coach told us to go out on the floor and get loose, he threw two balls at us. The second I walked out those doors, I viewed the mass amount of people in the stands. Parents, friends, foes and unfamiliar faces was the mixture. I sat down and started stretch but couldn’t stop thinking about the crowd. Coach came around and said,” Lay-up lines.” And we did so. My first try and I slap the backboard as hard as I can hoping people will be amazed. We do this for about 10 minutes, then the buzzer rings. We run to our bench and gather around coach again. He told us to play under control and don’t be easy. We walk to half court and listen to the ref’s rules, shake hands with the opposing team and then our own. Here it is. The final moment. Neftal jumps up and hurls the ball back to me. It begins. Throughout the game I play fairly well except for a bad pass here and there. Now the game is over. I feel terrible with my performance, I only had 15 points and I could’ve had 30. We beat the team 64-12 but we all know there’s more work to be done. As we leave the locker room all our friends are outside to congratulate us and tell us how good we played. I’m relieved. They’re mentioning plays I can’t even remember but to them it was cool! Now I know how it feels to play as an eagle, and it felt pretty darn awesome!