Here, I will discuss the pitfalls of my basketball career. I hope it becomes as popular as the M&M's! I have to start thinking of a shnazzy acronym...

Rachel

hehe tell us! :D

oh, believe me...I will. It's a really long story, so I must post it when I get back from the play I must attend...has anyone seen Mama Mia?

Rachel

oh i want to see that!

It was really good! Especially if you like ABBA, all the songs in it were theirs. It was so cute! A lot of hot actors too...

But okay, I've decided I must tell you all the long story of my basketball drama. Is that okay?

yes! just hurry up and tell us! (or me)

haha...yeah, I think it's just you, nance!

Okay. here we go.

I've played basketball since I was in 4th grade, and I was always in love with the sport. Not to boast, but I was pretty damn good. I'm tall, so I always played center, and always started, because back east at my school, they were...well, less than talented. That was also the case when I moved here in seventh grade, my junior high team was awful...but I continued to play at my school, AAU, and a club team. So, as you can see, I was pretty much a basketball fanatic. I've played soccer for even longer, like, since I was three or four, but the summer after eighth grade I gave it up so I could persue basketball-(it was a rule at my school that if you were playing basketball with them, you were completely commited, no other sports). So, thought I loved soccer, I wanted to play basketball in high school. So, I dropped soccer and became hopelessly devoted to basketball.

So, freshman year basketball went off without a hitch, I absolutely adored my coaches and I played the best year of basketball I'd ever played. So, naturally, I was excited and happy to move up to the J.V. level after the season was over. We started AAU early 2002, around February I think. The coach, Frank, I had always been afraid of...he was tall, skinny, and old--and had an insanely large temper. We started practices and he found ways to get angry with us...even when we were at our best. He drilled us, ran us, and forced us to think about basketball 24/7. I was either playing it or practicing it everyday, no joke. If I wasn't playing, I was thinking about it. "If I eat this taco will I get sick at the game tonight?" etc...you know. It was really scary how big a part of my life basketball was...it was coming before everything!

But, I thought I could deal with it...only a year, right? That summer, after dealing with Frank, and the incredibly rude assistant coach Jim, who hated me with a passion, we went to Pepperdine for a summer basketball tournament. There were, I'd say, about 20-30 other teams there, so it was a big deal. Our J.V. team had both freshman and sophomores on it, so we were too big. We split up into two, with Frank coaching the team I wasn't on. Jim coached varsity there so a dad was coaching us. It was basically all of Frank's favorites (but not necessarily the best ones) on his team, and the rest of us on the other.

So, we both did really well, and ended up having to play each other in the finals because we had won all of our other games. This, was a great accomplishment, considering we played 4-5 games a day. So, we're playing each other for the title...and my team won. Frank, obviously, was not happy about this. How could his favorites lose, right? Well, when we went to slap hands with our other teammates, Frank wouldn't slap ours...it was like he had disowned us. I was really upset at this, because we were still his team! I couldn't believe how inconsiderate, rude, and unsportsmanlike he was being. He didn't even tell us good job...he walked out of the gym and waited for his favorites so he could yell at them.

So, this got me mad enough, but to top it all off, he drove my van home from Malibu...a seven hour drive. Not one word of congratulations, to any of us. I was so angry with him. A coach is never supposed to act that way. So, I resolved not to play for him anymore. It hurt a lot, because I loved basketball so much, but I hated Frank even more. I was so distraught about his attitude at Pepperdine. And, to add to it, my parents went to the Athletic Director at my school, without telling me they were going to. So, without me, my parents and the Director decided it would 'be the best thing for me' if I went and confronted Frank about what he did. There was no way in hell I was going to do that. This man, who had been coaching for 20-some odd years was not going to change his ways just because I told him to. He had always hated my outspokeness in the first place!

So, that's where I am today...rediculously out of shape, and pretty sure I'm not going back to basketball anymore. It saddens me a lot, but I think I've lost my groove. I haven't played for almost a year. I've referreed for a youth league near my house, but that's the closest I've come to a basketball in a year. This really distresses my dad, because he was one of those live vicariously through the daughter kind of dads. And, I miss all of my friends, just being out on the court, and the feeling of a good workout...

Sigh. Okay. Now that I've relived it all...

Rachel

Holy Crap! That coach sounds like the most absurd, immature bastard in the world!!!!!! and he's supposed to be your coach!?!?! omg.... that's pathetic!!!!! urgghh... now i'm really angry at this guy!!!! but that's so sad that you quit basketball... :(


hehe just a thought... maybe you can start martial arts! :D uh... just me and my gaia obsessions! hehe

glad someone agrees with me. Ya, martial arts...then I can go kick his arse! heehee

Rach

I know exactly how you feel. Not only do I play a sport but I play basketball too. I was on the 9th grade school team, i'm on a summer league right now, and i was on an AAU team also. And i have to admit also that i'm pretty good too. :P

Your coach seems like a pain in the ass to me. :blink: I've had a couple of those coaches but not quite like yours. I play softball and volleyball too. I played on JV volleyball in the fall(i'm in 9th) basketball in the winter, and softball in the spring. Lets just say i keep busy. I played on an AAU type softball team when i was 12. My coach pissed me off so bad. I pitched(fastpitch) too so he could have me in the game more but he didn't. He never played me. At nationals he promised me that the next game we had to play, i would be playing. Four games later i was still a bench warmer. I finally got to pitch the game to determine if we placed 7th or 8th and i won the game for him. Yet he still didn't say anything or congratulated me on the win. He drove me insane. I ended up quitting his team and as it turns out, i'm on another traveling softball team because of how good i am..haha jk.
For basketball, i had an AAU coach(Jeff) that wouldn't play me either. He had me playing the center position after this girl who is pretty good. But the point was, was that he didn't realize that i could play a 4. We went to nationals in Connecticut and he never ever played me. He made me feel in practices that i couldn't understand everything when i could. It went to the point where I had an excuse for everything. Like if he said,"Laura, make sure you cover the sideline" and i would be like,"yeah i know i was". He always said that to me, the center but not to the other center that started before me. Well he called me and said that i should find another team to play on because i wasn't "getting a lot out of it". So he basically told me to get off the team. So this year i played for an aau team who only went to about 5 tournaments and i actually started. I love my coach now cause he actually sees the talent that Coach Jeff didn't see in me.
I still see these two coaches now and then at softball and basketball games. I don't ever walk up and talk to them and if one would come over to where i was sitting i would get up and walk away, cause i can't stand them. It's hard for me to fully erase them from my mind when i'm playing cause i feel like i have to prove something to them when they're watching.

But i've gone on to find bigger and better things and hopefully you will too. I know exactly how you feel. Good luck with bball ;)

-Laura

oh man!! I know! My coach had such favorites, it was disgusting to see his obvious favortism. Like, I had the exact same experience with our press...as center, I had the biggest job, and I had to yell out to the 3 and 4 to cover places and I had to say oh, I'll cover base/sideline, etc... and I was doing exactly what I was supposed to do, yelling out, covering...everything! And my coach takes me out because I'm not "yelling loud enough". Puh-lease. So, I'm sitting on the bench watching one of the coaches favorites (another center) and she's completely NOT doing anything right, not even TALKING to the 3 or 4. I just sat there thinking, "wtf? I was doing everything right!" It's so frustrating!

Rach

OMG i kno exactly what you mean...the other center on my old team was jeff's favorite. And there was a point guard who he luvvved. The point guard would consistantly brick 3's and he wouldn't yell at her and the one chance i get the ball and shoot he yells at me and tells me to look for a better shot. I hate when coaches are assholes. It pisses the crap outta me. :angry: Especially if you do everything right and have a real purpose on a team and he still sits you...it sucks

Laura

I know. Poop on all of them. And why does it seem their favorites are the really awful ones?

The only reason Frank hated me was because I wasn't afraid to voice my opinions, and I wasn't afraid of him. Talk about trying to squash a person's outgoing traits!

haha i kno! BBall conditioning started for me today....9-12!!!can you believe it??!! A whole 3 hours!!And I have a summer league game for the school team tonight too!! I'm so friggin tired..ahhh!! Oh well at least we didn't have to run :)

god, I hated conditioning. It was always during the hottest part of the day, either on the field, in the sun, or in the gym, with no air conditioning.

You didn't run? That's all we ever did!

yep we've officially started running last week <_< . Actually more on the lines of leg strengthening. My muscles in my legs are killing me!! We had to do these squat jumps for a whole minute(a minute is a long time, ok), then lunges with our knees touching the floor everytime you bent down, all the way across the bball court for a minute, then we sat against the wall and hold it there for a minute, then more jumps, and then step ups. It totally sucked ass. I have it tommorrow, along with a basketball game too cause the directors are stupid enough to have us play bball games the same day as conditioning.

oh jeez sounds like death... or yea excercise death... i know what you mean... i mean the first time i played soccer our coaches were like run run star jumps(where you touch the ground and jump up sticking your feet and arms out... makes you look kinda stupid all at the same time... totally hurts after awhile :huh: ) and push ups and sit ups and doggies... err but now i'm kinda used to it :)

AH!!!!! I just got my schedule for school, and i got Ms. G!!!!!!!! The worst teacher possible!!!!!!! *Runs and hides*

Ms. G... for what? PE? hey, that rhymes...

Ms G. for PE...teehee

:bounce:

my challenge soccer coach ruined a lot for me..he actually recruited me from my rec. team (they arent allowed to do that) So I thought well he must really like me and all or I must be really good...it turns out he doesnt even start me. I'm like you did all that just to not put me in the game??? so anyway while we were at this one game I probably played only 5 minutes...I didnt even touch the ball or anything. (my team always lost too by the way) Well to our surprise (not really) we lost Again..and my coach is yelling at us and then he says We didnt play with heart or something like that...(i got really mad at this because I really didnt have a chance to prove anything) Well anyway we went to our tournament (I play forward) we were losing again and then the center forward like twisted her ankle or something and he had to put me in...I scored the winning goal and everything..I forget what place we were placed in but it had to be low considering we didnt win any of the other games. (the one I played in was our last game) and that was the end of our season..I already knew I wasnt going back to that team...and that stupid coach kept asking my mom at the last game...Is she going to try out again...and da da da da...stupid ass coach.

god, some coaches are soooo stupid!! <_<