Friday, December 4, 2015

Portola Basketball Team

This week I would like to talk about the great sport of basketball. I have been playing basketball since I was 6 years old. It has taught me many things: you have to be persistent towards your goals, and you have to be open to changing some of the things you do on offense and defense. So here I am now, on the basketball team. We have won our last 5 games making our record (5-0). Our team, which has about 12 players, mostly consists of players from park leagues and travel ball teams. Our coach says we should come into his practice with a different mindset, meaning to forget what we have learned elsewhere. We started having out games around a month ago taking place at a few high schools in the valley. So far we have played teams throughout the valley (all of which I forgot the names of). Our first two games we played, the teams were CLEARLY lacking a structured offense and defense resulting in a blowout by 20+ points. For our third game a similar situation except there was this huge kid who played the point guard. Surprisingly enough he only drove to the basket once or twice, the rest of the time settling for a jump shot, and we still won that game by 10 points. For our first game that day, I couldn’t believe how that team made it to this round. They too were lacking a structured offense and defense, running like wild monkeys up and down the court. For our second game this team was a worthy opponent, though the coaching seemed worse than the players. They also had a huge kid, except this time this kid had great ball handling and was able to use his size more effectively. This resulted in him getting to the free throw line more often. Now our team is headed for the “Final Four”, at Kennedy High School on December 19. Check back then for the latest info.