Xpression.v2

“What time is it?!”
“Game time, woo!”

And that’s how it started. Because the league changed our team name to the Timberwolves, I couldn’t do my usual pre-game cheer with the basketball team I coach, so I fell back to the old Bull’s classic from the 90’s. New name, new cheer, and a new and improved basketball team.

My time, before the game, was spent really doubting myself and worrying about the season ahead. After the last game, I really thought that I may be coaching too high up in the league and that my style wouldn’t adapt to teenagers. To add to that, Joe’s not there on game day anymore. He was always the strategist while I tried my best to lead. That was gone. I’m everything now and I screwed it up last week, big time. Would it happen again? Is this something I can’t do? Those doubts only got worse when I received word that David wouldn’t be playing because of his bad ankle. Our height, our boards, our speed, and our shooter were suddenly gone. How am I going to work out of this one? Thankfully, I didn’t have to. Apparently, his ankle improved ten fold since yesterday and he was able to play. Ok, maybe this won’t be so bad after all.

Game time comes and we’re off. The tip off had to be redone after “complications” on the first attempt. Second try, out of bounds on blue, white ball. White?! That’s us! A few minutes in, however, up 8 - 7, David comes up limp and I have to pull him out. I run out to find an icepack only to discover our always prepared league has none. A garbage bag and some ice cubes would do the trick. I grab everything, tie off the bag, run upstairs and I’m greeted by David at the door. “Coach I’m fine. Can I go back in?” What did I do to be so lucky? At this point, there were up 12 - 8, but putting David back in there and regrouping the team caught us right back up.

The game goes by and it’s a back and forth battle, but you can tell we had control of the game. Any coach or player will know what I mean. It was our pace and our mistake to make. I almost made that mistake for us. It was a loose ball and Chris (not me) dove for it, but couldn’t find an open pass to make. I should have called time out, but I missed the chance. Five second violation, blue ball. For the next couple of minutes, every chance I got, I smacked my head and cursed myself out. That was a moment where I knew Joe would have made the call. I was pissed, but too determined. These guys were playing their hearts out and I couldn’t let them down.

As the game drew to a close, we were up by 3 with 40 seconds left and it was time to kill the clock. We did it almost perfectly. At one point, we threw the ball out of bounds and they had a chance to tie it with 7 seconds left, but the guys got back on defense so quickly that the other team didn’t stand a chance. We won, 48 - 45.

This is addictive. Maybe I’m not so bad of a coach, afterall. When I look at the teams, there’s only one team that really worries me and it’s the team we lost to last week, the black Knights. It always seems to be the black Knights, no matter what age division I’m coaching in. In the end, though, I put that worry aside. The team really pulled together in such a short amount of time. It was beautiful. We have a lot of work to do, but it’s okay. We’re a team now and any team can do anything when they try hard enough.

Regina Pacis Timberwolves: 1 - 1

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