Have you ever felt like a failure in a sport? Well, I have too. I was getting ready to go to a basketball tournament, but little did I know, it would all change how I looked at my life…
I woke up at 4am to get ready and pack my bag for the tournament. I woke up so early because the tournament was in McPherson at 7am. That would leave me one hour to get ready and 1 hour and 30min to get there, plus warm up time. When I got there, I decided to check out the oval gym, the one I would be playing my last game in. The gym was so cool! Then I headed back to the one gym I would be playing in. I was the first one there so I had a little more time to check out the rest of the school. My team finally arrived so we got to warming up.
The ball went up for tipoff, and soon it was 0-0 headed off into the 2nd quarter. Our coach is going ballistic on us saying how we should be scoring some baskets already. We went back out on the court ready to dominate. Then things started to happen… they started to get layups, after layup, after layup. When we were down 16-2, our coach just called a timeout. We knew what was about to happen. “I feel like I have nothing to say…” our coach said. Our team knew what we had to do. I saw my parents in the stands looking disappointed. Not only was our coach mad at us, but our parents thought we could do better. Our team was tired and lazy, but we all knew we could do better. And then the scoreboard buzzed. It was halftime, and the score was 32-8 we were 24 points and 12 buckets behind. We all were pooped from all the running back and fourth. We had to do it, but it was our first tournament of the season which probably meant we weren’t in shape.
At the end of the game, the score was 40-14; we lost. I wasn’t ready to hear what my dad would have to say after the game, so I decided to say bye and thanks to my grandparents that had to drive 4 hours away just to be disappointed by a loss, and a granddaughter who was lazy. I decided to sit down next to my sweaty basketball bag, and wait for my dad to tell me how disappointed he was in me. I saw him heading out the door, which surprised me because he usually talks to me in the gym after a loss, but he didn’t. He basically stormed out of the door with his bleacher seat in hand, and my mom trailing behind him. I decided to follow because I knew they expected me to follow after. I could tell my dad was furious by the way he stormed out the door. When I hopped in the car all I got was an evil stare from my dad, and a glare from my mom. My dad started off quietly saying “I can’t believe your grandparents had to drive 4 hours just to see you being lazy… I expected better from you.” I felt my guts screaming inside of me. I knew what was about to happen. My dad would have a serious talk with me about what I did right or wrong. He looked at me for a few seconds and started talking. Something changed inside of me. My dad did have a long talk with me, but this time was different. I didn’t cry, or look away. I understood very clearly what he was trying to say.
My dad always says “The only things you can control in any sport is your attitude and effort.” You’re going to fail, and it’s okay to fail, but it’s not okay to not try.
Not only did I learn a lesson that day about being lazy, but it will stick with me for the rest of my life. “Work ethic is everything, never slack anything and give your best effort.”
My dad is the most hardworking human I know, and I will forever love him. You guys should go check out https://www.basketballlegends.fun/ for a fun basketball game. See you later, hope I steal a win from you next time.
