I Get A Chance

January 7, 2020.

"8...9...and 10," counted Coach Myers.

Coach Myers helped me lift the barbell back into position as I finished my set of bench pressing. It was early Tuesday morning, and I had come to the gym to get an early workout. Luckily, Coach Myers had been present to let me in and was also available to spot me as I bench pressed. I wasn't the strongest guy on the team, or the fastest or the tallest, but I was pretty good when it came to running and weight lifting. I could also jump fairly high, which gave me a good advantage when scoring from the paint in a game. So despite how my physical attributes might appear on a sheet of paper, I could work well with what I had and that was important.

I was determined to do well in the upcoming game today and so my concentration was on-point. I had gotten a good sleep, eaten a banana for breakfast, sprinted to the school, and had been working in the weight room for a good 30 minutes. I had been able to get in a lot of sets so far and since no one else was in the gym (other than Coach Myers), I had the whole place to myself, just like after practice. So overall it had been a great start to the day. I only hoped that it finished just as well.

Coach Myers rested the barbell back onto its holder as I grabbed a towel to wipe off my sweat. I was about to move to another exercise when there was a knock at the gym door and Myers stood up to go see who it was.

"Ah," he said, walking out of the weight room. "The rest of the gang has arrived."

I stood up to follow Myers, as I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by 'the rest of the gang'. Was the whole team coming?

But no. Coach Myers opened the door and in stepped Coach Hendrix and Jackson, with Maia tagged along behind them. I guess it made since that Hendrix's kids would come along with him, since they both had a hand in the team.

"Lose your key, Eric?" Myers asked.

Coach Hendrix shook his head. "It's down deep in my pockets, and I figured you'd be here." He glanced over at me. "And I see that Blake dropped by as well."

"Yes sir," I replied.

"Hey Blake," Maia waved at me.

"Alright, well I'll get settled in," Hendrix said, moving for his office. "You know where the briefcase with the control panel in it is right, Maia?"

"Yes," Maia said and followed Coach Hendrix into his office.

"Well, I'll go see that he settles in nicely," Myers decided, and he too made for Hendrix's office.

I looked over at Jackson, since we were the only two still in the main area of the gym. I thought it was going to be awkward—since I never really got to know Jackson—but he just walked over to me and nodded at me. "What have you been working on?" he asked. "Your game or weights?"

"I've been doing weights," I replied.

He nodded. "Well I can spot you if you'd like."

"Nah I've already been here for half an hour or more," I said. "I'll spot you."

Jackson smiled. "Deal, but we'll switch off every now and then."

"Works for me."

We went back into the weight room and I spotted Jackson as he warmed up. After awhile, we started switching back and forth and then working out simultaneously. After that, we decided to practice a little on the court by doing some two person drills—which I had never done with Jackson before—and played a quick game of one-on-one. Although Jackson won the game, it was pretty fun and I felt like I'd done well.

When we'd finished, I walked over to my bag, pulled out my phone, and checked the time. It was fifteen minutes before the first bell rang. "I'm gonna take a shower real quick before first period," I told Jackson. "Thanks for the game."

"Alright," he replied. "You did well, by the way. You keep coming early and I think you'll be able to best me."

"I wouldn't count on that," I called back as I grabbed some non-sweaty clothes and entered the locker room. I took a shower and then dressed in a button-down shirt and khakis, since the coach preferred that we dress up for game day. By then, the bell had rung so I headed to my health class since it was B-day.

I walked into the classroom and sat down like usual beside Aubrey. I felt refreshed from the shower, even though I had woken up early to work out.

"Morning," I said to Aubrey as I pulled out my things to get started with the assignment on the board.

Aubrey whistled deeply. "Well aren't you spiffy today?"

"Yeah," I said. "There's a game today, so coach wanted us to dress nicely."

Aubrey nodded. "That's cool. So, you won't believe what Rebecca said to me this morning..."

I listened to Aubrey gossip nonstop to me during class while I worked, and I talked about the upcoming game with Wesley and Finn in Spanish and then with Wesley some more in human geography when it came around. Nathan, who usually sat and talked with us, was on the other side of the room now, talking with another group of people. I realized as I talked strategies with Wesley that I had been drawn away from my group of middle school friends and I hung out with my new high school friends every day. It seemed weird when I thought about it how smooth the transition had been between friends, all things considered. Pretty soon, the bell to end third period came around and rang, and Wesley and I stood up to leave.

"Well, I guess it's finally time," Wesley said as we exited the classroom.

I had been about to part ways with Wesley to go to my gym class when I realized that he was right. Since we were going all the way to Hialeah for the game, we were leaving before last period so that we'd have time to get there. So instead of going my separate way to the gym, I walked with Wesley out to the bus to meet the coach and the rest of the team.

It was a 40 minute bus ride to Hialeah and so I prepared myself mentally, taking a seat on the bus to myself. I propped by bag on the window seat and used it as a pillow, laying across my aisle on the bus with my Beats in, readying myself for the game.

During the bus rides to the other games, I had sat near Cam, Nathan, and Max, but that wasn't going to happen today. So I sat in the back near some of the varsity players instead, since Wesley and Finn were sitting together and Jackson was sitting with Chance and everyone else was paired up as well.

So 40 minutes and my entire playlist later, we arrived at Hialeah High School. It was game six and so I knew sort of what to expect. Don't get me wrong, I was already very familiar with playing basketball games at the beginning of the season, but it did take a little while to get used to playing at the high school level. It wasn't too terribly different, but you did have the occasional six-foot-powerhouse, which made the game a little harder. The fact that I hadn't played one game this season near as well as I used to didn't help matters either. But that was going to change. I was going to make it change. By the end of the season, I wanted to have one game under my belt that was just as good (if not better) than my middle school games. Unfortunately, that was still a long way off.

The game against Hialeah started off roughly. I didn't start, of course, but I got to go in at the start of the second quarter. The score after the first quarter was 11-12, with us trailing by only a little. The squad that went in was the same second squad as we'd be running during practice recently: Nathan, me, Finn, Diego, and Zane. I was a little worried about running the plays with Nathan as point guard (if he even passed to me at all), but there wasn't much I could do. At least Cam had started and Max had played a little during quarter one, so I wouldn't have to worry about all three of them being on the court with me. When I thought about it, that made me a little sad. Just a few days ago I would have loved to be on the court with those three, even hoped for it. But things had changed—they had changed. Or maybe I had changed. I wasn't completely sure, and now definitely wasn't the time to thing about it. I had to get my head in the game.

Getting my head in the game proved to be harder than I had expected. It was our third possession of the quarter when I was finally passed the ball... and I didn't catch it. I had had my back turned, running toward our basket when the ball was thrown and so it flew behind me without me knowing and was out of bounds. I looked over at Nathan, who had an angry expression on his face. I turned my attention to the coach as Hialeah in-bounded and caught a deep sigh from him. Cam was shaking his head on the bench and Chance was whispering something to Jackson, probably about me. I shook everyone's reactions out of my thoughts and continued on with the game, which was now 13-16.

I tried hard to make something happen on the court after that incident, but to no avail. I got my hands on the ball two more times, but ended up passing it both times. I guess my first points of the season would have to wait. A little more than halfway through the quarter, I was subbed out for Amir, and so I returned to the bench.

I was on the bench for the rest of the second quarter as well as the third quarter. My hopes of going in at any point in the last quarter were pretty low, since I had pretty much blown my opportunity and Jackson and Chance were currently on the court, so I suspected they'd be popping off.

But maybe I had spoken too soon. I was watching the game on the bench when I noticed something odd. I watched as Chance took a three-point shot and missed it. This wasn't too uncommon since Chance took lots of three-point shots and was sure to miss a few every now and then. What was odd was that I couldn't remember Chance scoring a shot for the entire game. I started paying more attention to the game now, specifically to Chance. The score was 42-45 and we were still down a few points, but the game was nowhere near over. And especially with Jackson and Chance on the court, we should be able to regain those points in no time. But that didn't happen. In fact, two Hialeah possessions later and the score was 42-49. The difference in the score was growing.

Xavier in-bounded the ball to Jackson, who dribbled up the court and passed to Wesley, who sent it back to Jackson after not finding an open shot. Jackson then passed to Chance, who immediately pulled up for a three-pointer. Unfortunately, Chance seemed to have borrowed my luck and the result of the shot was an air ball. A Hialeah player grabbed the ball and started to in-bound it, but then something happened. Chance walked up and grabbed the ball from the Hialeah player, hurling down at the floor in rage. One of the refs immediately caught the ball and started puffing his breath into his whistle. Both of the refs walked over to Chance and started to escort him off the court. At that time, Coach Hendrix walked over to the refs and started talking to them. The refs nodded and Chance walked back over to the bench and sat down away from the other players with his head down.

"Blake," said Coach Hendrix, drawing my attention away from Chance. The coach caught my eye and motioned toward the court.

"What," I said bluntly, not understanding his gestures.

"I'm sending you in," he replied impatiently, tapping his foot on the ground and his pen on his clipboard simultaneously.

"Me?" I said intelligently.

"Yes, you," the coach said. "Get in there and show me how hard work pays off."

So I jogged out onto the court, still not fully comprehending that I was getting put back into the game after what had happened last time my feet touched the court and my hands touched a basketball. I took notice of the score—42-49 as well as the time on the clock for this quarter—2:32. Then I looked to see who was on the court with me—Jackson, Finn, Wesley, and Xavier. I was playing Chance's position, which was shooting guard and I was defending in zone defense, not man-to-man. Unlike my shooting skills, my tendency to know everything going on on the court around me had been transferred from my middle school years of playing basketball. I was ready to play, and this time I was determined to do something with the chance I was given.

Hialeah started with the ball, and when they came up the court they passed it around for some time. One of the players finally decided to come in for a shot, and he ran right into my zone as he pulled up for the shot. I jumped up with my hands high to block the shot, but I wasn't near as tall as him and I fell short. But perhaps my defense still affected his shot, because the ball bounced off the rim and right into my hands. I immediately found Jackson and transferred him the ball, and so he started back up the court. Since it was the fourth quarter, both teams were allowed to full-court press, which meant they could be right in our face all the way up the court. We had done drills to learn how to combat against a press, but it was obvious that Jackson and Chance had their own method of doing it, which was probably why they were always on the court together. I didn't know their method, so I figured that Jackson would probably pass to Finn or someone, but no. The ball soon came my way again.

I tried to quickly recall how Jackson and Chance had done their passing patterns and so I passed the ball back to Jackson at an estimated interval. Jackson received the ball with ease, so I suspected that I had performed it correctly.

We were down the court now and as I surveyed what was happening, I noticed an opening to the right of the basket. Within the split second, I decided not to hesitate and started down the route, only hoping that Jackson would see the opening too and trust me enough to send me the ball. Luckily, he must have noticed the opening and he must've somewhat trusted me or maybe trusted the fact that I couldn't screw the game up any more than it was because he passed me the ball. Almost without thinking, I caught the ball while running, dribbled once, and laid the ball up nicely as I ran past the basket.

I stopped myself from running into the stands, and as I turned around back toward the basket I knew the shot had gone in. Jackson was throwing a punch in the air, the coach had a smile on his face, and the Hialeah crowd was frowning. And that was the picture that was engraved into my memory of my first high school basket. The score was 44-49, and I suddenly remembered that the game was still in session. We pressed the court as well, but Hialeah made it down the court successfully. That was about all that was successful during that possession though, because Wesley made a nice steal and threw the ball to Jackson. Jackson ran down the court and passed the ball to me, this time with more confidence. I got to our side of the court and considered shooting the shot, but my old point guard mentality kicked in and I saw Jackson, who was presently open. I passed him the ball and he made the jumper. 46-49 with 1:16 left.

I high fived Jackson and Hialeah started down the court once again. The problem this time, though, was that they tried to get the ball down the court too hastily. One of their players tried for a long pass to the man in my zone, but I wasn't going to allow that to happen. I jumped in front of him at the last second, and managed to get my hands on the ball. I passed the ball quickly to Finn, who was closest to me and he found Jackson. Jackson brought the ball up the court and passed to Xavier, who tipped the ball up toward the basket. The ball rolled around on the rim, but came back down. Thankfully, Wesley got the rebound and tossed it to Finn, who couldn't find an opening and sent it to Jackson. Jackson brought it around and passed it to me. I saw an opening, so I dribbled to the opening and pulled up for the jumper. Unfortunately, I had miscalculated and I wasn't at all open. In fact, I had a defender upon my that topped me several inches when it came to height. I had picked up the ball, so my options were limited. The clock had gone down quite a lot since the start of the possession, and only 8 seconds were left in the game. We were out of time. I pivoted and looked for someone to pass it to, but no one was open. So I did the only thing left to do. I shot the ball. As I mentioned, the defender towered over me, so the only way I was getting a ball above his head was fading back as I shot. I released the ball and fell down to the floor as my balance completely deserted me. I watched from my spot laying on the ground as the ball went out of my eyesight and the defender backed away, holding his hands up.

I gripped Wesley's offered hand and got to my feet. The only thing I heard was a shrill whistle. I looked over at Wesley for confirmation, but I knew what had happened. The shot had gone in, and I had been fouled. I made my way to the free-throw line and glanced at the score 48-49, with not much time left. I had a free throw that could tie the game up, and I was going to make it count. I felt everyone's eyes upon me as I dribbled the ball, took a deep breath, and shot. I watched the ball as it made a straight line for the basket... and missed completely. It bounced off the rim anticlimactically. I stepped back and ran my hands through my hair, knowing that I had lost the game for my team.

Except the fact that I hadn't. When the ball bounced off the rim, Wesley jumped up and grabbed the rebound and as the clock winded down, he managed to float the ball up into the air and down into the basket. There were 4 seconds left in the game, and the score was 50-49. I looked over to see that our entire bench was on its feet, everyone except for Chance. Even Coach Hendrix looked like he was about to freak out, though he showed it by keeping a small smile. The Hialeah crowd were sitting on there hands, but they weren't too distraught. They had witnessed a great game.

Hialeah in-bounded and threw a pass across the court, which ended up in Jackson's hands. Jackson passed it to a ref with a smile on his face and as the buzzer to end the game sounded.

Everyone in the gymnasium had exploded with excitement and surprise, even Hialeah supporters. Our bench, including varsity players, came onto the court to hype us up as Hialeah players rotated off. I shook Jackson's hand and Wesley's and gave a fist bump to the coach, who looked the least surprised out of anyone at the result of the game. It wasn't a huge game, nothing like a championship, but it felt like it to me. I had finally performed well enough for the coach. Not well enough for me, but well enough for the team. And that was a start. That was enough for now.