Tryouts

Friday came in so quickly, so Hideki met with Benjie near the gym, as both of them were in different classes, Hideki was on Class 1B while Benjie was on Class 1D, so they were on different rooms. They seldom meet on campus. 

A little bit of tangent. If you're curious about Hideki's first week of school, it has gone well. Well, too well for Hideki's liking, his unique looks and kind personality have garnered him fans amongst the freshmen body, even a bold girl, whose name I will not provide, created a club in school named, Sports Admirer Club, which was accepted by the school administrators after a day of deliberation. Sports Admirer Club is intentionally created as a vague club so all fan clubs can be under one umbrella, but the majority of members are Hideki's Fan Club, not too surprising in fact.

Weirdly enough, a freshman girl, one of the members of the Sports Admirer Club tried to apply as the manager for the basketball team, to which she was accepted. Her name is Megumi Takahashi, I won't tell who she has a crush on as her crush notion will be quickly crushed by the guy himself one of these days, and Megumi will develop love for helping the team.

Now back to the gym, as Hanabira's gym is new and the equipment are more modern since the school makes sure to spend its budget on things that will improve the students themselves, evidence of this well-spent money is that in two years' time the school had it's meteoric rise in the Middle School scene, entering the Top 16 as the team's fundamentals and synergy were being improved every year. 

In its very short history, the basketball team is already famous for it's "Defense First" motto, they incorporate 80% defense and 20% offense.

As Hideki and Benjie entered the gym, Ayumi Yamamoto was in the side of the entrance sitting on a table were their attendance was noted and there were also sophomore and senior students who were trying their luck to be included in the team. As Hideki and Benjie wrote their names on the paper Yamamoto told them with a smile, "Takeuchi-kun and Nakamura-kun, please prepare now as we will start the tryouts in 10 minutes, I advise you to warm up now"

Hideki and Benjie took Yamamoto's advice and after entering they found a comfortable spot and did some stretchings and warmup, which took them exactly 10 minutes. While Hideki was doing his warmups, he saw other students taking their warmups too, or talking with other students. 

After the ten minutes was up a middle-aged man took center stage and blew his whistle and said "Okay, everybody gather here first" Hideki and Benjie got up and walked to the court as directed by the middle-aged man. After everybody got inside the court, the man introduced himself, "My name is Takahashi Yoshida, Hanabira Junior High School's Head Coach, today we'll conduct our tryouts. I am expecting you to be competitive for now, I know you have friends amongst the people here, but we want kids who are hungry for success and willing to learn to be gritty."

Coach Yoshida then looked at Yamamoto and asked, "Yamamoto tell me how many students registered for the tryouts? 60? Okay. Since we have around 60 participants, for the first time we are now opening the school's second string. The main goal of the second string is to help the first string and if there is an emergency for the first string player you are expected to be ready to be slotted in anytime."

Coach Yoshida then looked at the students and said, "Now enough of me talking, and let's get ready for action." Yamamoto gave the student list to Coach Yoshida who then told the student body "Okay I'll call you according to who was listed here first. First I want to get your timed sprint from baseline to baseline 5 times, the active players will get your times for you." Yamamoto then called every 6 students and did their sprints baseline to baseline. As for Hideki and Benjie, they almost tied at 34 seconds with Benjie winning by a .150 second lead. 

After all 60 students did their sprints, Coach Yoshida then called for the students for their next drill, "Okay, now we'll do defensive stance drills. See those 6 cones? You sprint in a straight line to them then assume a defensive position and go sideways after reaching the cone parallel to it, go back to the cone you came from and repeat until you're done on the third cone, after the third cone, sprint back to me so we can cut the time. Okay, I'll call you one by one." One by one the students did the drill as instructed, some slow some fast, Hideki was faster than Benjie on this drill as he is more adept at the defensive stance. 

The next drill was the Step and Slide Drill, which is the same as the previous drill but, players will go zig-zag from baseline to baseline. Again Hideki was faster than Benjie on this. 

Coach Yoshida then called for the next drill, "Okay, next drill is we'll gauge your passing skills, so from baseline to baseline you and your pair will continuously pass the ball while running towards the other end, at the end one of you should take the shot, you can be creative in both passes and shot as long as it won't take you longer than you should be, we will call you out if we think so. After that, you'll repeat that on the other end and the other player should take the shot. 

Hideki and Benjie shone through this drill as Hideki made a picture-perfect chest and bounce passes with pinpoint accuracy, Coach Yoshida saw this and for a moment thought Hideki was a point guard, on the other hand, Benjie was also perfectly receiving Hideki's passes, even though there are passes that should be impossible to catch, especially at the end where Benjie shoots the ball, Hideki was feeling mischievous and did an alley-oop to Benjie, it was lower so Benjie could finish it with a layup but Benjie still graciously receive the alley-oop and laid the ball into the net.

The last set of drills were shooting drills, all shots imaginable. So they are tasked to take 5 shots in every spot. There are 5 spots in the three-point area, 5 spots in the perimeter, and 5 spots for a close shot, layup, or dunk. 

It was in this drill where Hideki's flaws were shown, ouf of 25 3p 25 peri 25 close

Out of 25 3-pointers, Hideki was only able to sink 9 3-pointers. 

Out of 25 perimeter shots, Hideki was able to sink 16 shots.

Out of 25 close shots, Hideki was perfect on all attempts, he even recovered from his below-average jump shot showing, by showcasing all kinds of difficult shots, layups, and even a simple 1 handed dunk.

On the other hand, Benjie was a slightly better shooter than Hideki but he missed 3 of the close shots. 

All in all, to be honest, Hideki and Benjie showed great potential for the team.

After the end of the tryouts, Coach Yoshida called the players and said "Okay, please give us 5 minutes to deliberate who will join the team, while we are deliberating, you can take your break and even start to cool down." The players did as Coach Yoshida said and took a break, the others did their cool down.

After 5 minutes.

Coach Yoshida cleared his throat, and said "Okay, I will start to call the students who are qualified for the second string positions Number 10…"

After a minute of calling names Coach Yoshida then said "That's the last, so I hope you'll continue to make improvements and be ready for the opportunity if given." He then motioned them to sit down and said "Okay I'll call the students for the first string Number 13 Renjiro Sato, Number 7 Shogo Aoki, Number 33 Benjie Nakamura, and Number 47 Hideki Takeuchi." As these 4 names were called, the other players clapped in applause and Coach Yoshida then said "I hope my trust in you doesn't waver and you continue to improve as the second stringers can take your position if you don't take this seriously. But other than that, congratulations on making the first string." Hideki and the other 3 bowed and said their thanks to Coach Yoshida.

After the applause, Coach Yoshida then said, "Okay first stringers, we'll have our first practice session on Monday and before that, you'll have your measurements taken for your jersey"

Coach Yoshida ended the tryouts then and there and said "See you on Monday, and good luck"