VALERIE RIVERA and PAIGE BUECKERS, best friends since they learned how to dribble. They had the same dreams of being basketball stars, even having a promise to go to UCONN together. They were inseparable leading Hopkins to an undefeated season their...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"why'd you have to make me love you I said, "I love you" you say nothin' back"
valerie
past- march 12 + 13th 2020; narrative
Tensions have been high lately. With the spread of covid there was talk about our championship game on Saturday getting canceled. Obviously we didn't want that to happen and tried not to concern ourselves with it until we had to. It was Thursday we still had to go out and play to actually make it to that championship game.
"No, win or lose this could be our last game. They canceled literally the whole NCAA tournament." Paige said from the seat across from me. I put my headphones on trying to distract myself from that possibility. To me the idea of this being our last game was terrifying, that meant I had to make my decision and lose my best friend. I wasn't ready to cross that bridge yet. I tried to drown everyone out for the bus ride, just to make sure I still put on my best performance.
When we got to the university of Minnesota where the tournament was happening everyone seemed down. I tried to make the most out of the situation. We were standing in an arena that some of us would grow up to play in, where we watched college games when we were kids and inspired us to play ourselves.
I kept my headphones on until I absolutely had to. I knew that with the sad energy surrounding us all that I wouldn't be able to concentrate properly. We went onto the court, some of us ready to give our all and some of us already giving up. Everyone looked to Paige, expecting some words of wisdom right now but she had nothing.
"Come on guys, we're not about to just give up now. We've worked our asses off all season, we're undefeated and I'm not gonna go out there and watch us give up when we've worked so hard to get here. If you want to give up, stay on the bench but I'm gonna go out there and play the Hopkins Royals way, the way we've played all season." I stepped up, basically scolding the rest of the girls, Paige just looked down taking a deep breath before putting her hand in the middle.
"Family on three." Even if some of us were discouraged we all put our hands in the middle. "One, two, three, family."
The game started, feeling almost fake. The stands were practically empty because we were only allowed to have close family come out and watch. It was a good game though, we played like we normally did. No weird feelings allowed to ruin our chances. We had to leave it all on the court or we wouldn't even make it to Saturday. It felt like an easy game too, only realizing it was over when the buzzer sounded and the rest of our team swarmed around us, hitting us and jumping on us. We made it to the finals 66-40. My eyes searched for Paige until they finally found hers and I ran to her, wrapping my arms around her and hugging her tighter than I ever had.
All the negative sad energy disappeared and we were just left with the overwhelming joy of a win, that we would have another undefeated season if we won again on Saturday. Paige kept her arms wrapped around my shoulder as we walked to the locker room, all our smiles the biggest they had been all day.
