Airball

Chapter 28 - I Figure Out What's Important

February 28, 2020.

I stood in the coach's office surrounded by my fellow JV teammates. We were all in our uniforms and we'd already warmed up. We were just waiting for the game to start now. Southridge was out on our court at the moment, having their huddle. Coach Hendrix was giving us some final motivation before we ran out onto the court and the tip-off started.

"Go out and have fun," the coach was saying. "You guys have had a fantastic season so far. Give it your all, remember everything we've practiced, and show the Southridge Spartans what we've got!"

We cheered and Hendrix opened his office door, letting us run out onto the court. I looked out among the cheering croud as we ran out. There were more people there than I had ever seen in those bleachers during a game, and the varsity team wasn't even playing.

We met the coach over at our side of the court, did a quick huddle and chant after Southridge had finished with theirs, and then Jackson, Wesley, Cam, Xavier, and I ran out onto the court for the tip-off. I got into position and followed the ball with my eyes and the referree blew his whistle and threw it up into the air. Xavier missed the tip and Southridge's player managed to hit it off. Fortunately, he didn't hit it straight back, so I was able to pick it up before an opposing player. I tossed it to Jackson and the back and forth action that was basketball began.

Jackson threw it back to me, signalling one of our plays, and I tossed it to Cam as I cut toward the basket. Cam returned it to me in time for me to lay it up for the first two points of the game.

"Got that starting position you were going for, huh?" Luke said to me as I ran toward the other side of the court. I just nodded to him as I passed.

The Southridge player who had done the tipping inbounded the ball to Luke. Luke took the ball up the court and passed it to the man that I was defending. He then quickly swapped places with Luke and handed the ball back off to Luke. Jackson and I adjusted so that I was on Luke and Jackson was on the shooting guard. Luke dribbled the ball twice, took a step back, and released. I had predicted what he was doing before he did it, but I wasn't able to get a hand on the ball before it went over me and into the basket for three points.

"I've been a starter all year long," Luke said to me as he watched his shot go in.

"Touché," I replied with a slight smile as I wondered how long he had planned that. It was on, all right.

And it went on like that for the rest of the first quarter. Our starting team stayed in the whole quarter, but Southridge shuffled some people in and out as the quarter progressed. We were able to hang in there better than we had done last time we'd faced them, but it was still a challenge. Southridge was definetely the best team in the league, and they weren't going to lay down easily. The score at the end of the quarter was 21-22, with Southridge leading by 1. Southridge would have been leading by much, much more if it hadn't been for our  spirit. Southridge was going to make it to the playoffs whether they won this game or not, but this was the deciding game for us. We had higher stakes, and that was obvious by the way we were hanging in there.

As the buzzer ending the first quarter sounded, I took a seat on the bench along with the other starters. Next up were Nathan, Chance, Finn, Diego, and Max. Zane, Amir, Colton, Levi, and Tucker would also be subbing in at some point in the upcoming quarter or the one after that. Coach Hendrix usually didn't leave anyone without playing time past the third quarter. If we got in trouble and the starting and backup teams had to stay in for the rest of the game, the coach didn't want to worry about someone not getting any playing time. That hadn't been much of a problem since I had stopped being a menace to the team. Most everyone on the team was at least average at the game, and could hold their own if need be. The exception to this was probably only Tucker, who had only scored a couple of times this season, and never more than once a game.