Last game of my career, last free throw I would ever shoot , the other team had a chance now, the clock was running down, we blocked the shot and now got the ball back, the last thing I remember was throwing the ball as high as I could and going to hug my teammates. I have been playing sports ever since I can remember, whether it would be playing with my cousins or going to camps. I played three sports all through high school and which kept me pretty busy. While playing sports, my dream had always been to win a state championship. The girls basketball team, my senior year, had a good chance at doing that. Even though people from other towns doubted our team, we would still work hard.
It seemed that every year nobody believed that Caledonia was ever the better team in games; well we would prove people wrong each game. People would always say “well they don’t have very tall players or they aren’t the better team.” We had been to state 2 years in a row before my senior year, and we lost the first game each year. We used this as motivation, our coach asked us 5 seniors at the beginning of the year “what is your goal for this season?” We all agreed that our goal was to make it to state and to focus on winning the first game. After that, we wanted to win the state championship. It just so happens that we had the chance to succeed our goal, we had won the section championship, and we also won our first game at state. After our first game we decided to make the trip from Minneapolis back to Caledonia to go to school and have a regular practice the next day because we had a day to wait before the semi-final game, which was against Jordan the team we had lost to the year before.
The day of our semi-final game we rode the bus up for our 6:00 p.m. game against Jordan. Again, everyone thought they were the better team since they had the “dynamic duo”. Well it turns out that we proved everyone wrong because we were the team who was moving onto the final game. Our team worked hard and showed everyone that we could win, and would win even though they were supposedly the better team. We were going to be playing at 2:00 p.m. the next day for the championship. After the game, the team went back to the hotel while the coaches stayed to watch the game after ours which was the team we would be playing in the finals.
Today was the day that we would be able to make our dream come true. Walking into the Target Center that day was one of the most exciting feelings. We were so ready to prove ourselves that we could win and that all the hours and hard work we put in during the season, and pre-season were going to pay off. We wanted to win for ourselves, the coaches, and also for our supportive community. Running out onto the court was something that I will never forget, it was an amazing feeling to run out to a crowd that was so loud, but everything felt silent and in slow motion. Warming up felt like it took forever because we just wanted to get the game started and for our nerves to be gone. When the game finally started we started off with a pretty good lead going into halftime. After halftime the other team started cutting our lead down, and after a while we started getting flustered and frustrated. During one of our TV timeouts coach said, “forget about everything that’s happened so far, and go out and show them we are the better team.” Well, we did that to an extent but we ended up letting them get within 2 points. Right there is when we started to get nervous and we got in a huddle and said, “we are going to win this for the team and for the community, whatever it takes, leave it all on the floor.” It came down to free throws at the end of the game for us to win, we made them and had a 54-50 lead. That would end up being the final score, we had just won the schools first state championship for the girls basketball program, and also finished the season perfect with a 31-0 record! We went crazy and so did the crowd, it was a great feeling to have them behind us and cheering for us the whole game, having that many people cheering for you just makes it that much more memorable. As soon as the buzzer sounded all of us just ran to each other and gave hugs, there were tears, sweat, smiles, screams all kinds of emotions going through. One of the comments my mom said to me after the game was “why did you have to make it so close?” I just kind of laughed when she said that and said, “sorry, it’s not like we tried.” Cutting down the net was also one of the best feelings I have had and experienced. We all stood in a line and took turns, when it was my turn I just felt numb, walking up the ladder seeing the flashes of cameras going off, it was truly a great feeling to be cutting down the net at the Target Center. After we got done with all of that and with pictures we went back to the locker room. While I was taking my shoes off I just thought to myself, working hard towards something really does pay off in the end. One of my teammates and I were the last two out of the locker room because we had been interviewed, so it took us longer. Walking through the doors to where all our family and teammates were was awesome! Everyone just started screaming and we started crying because we were so happy we accomplished our goal that no one else thought we could. The final part of all the celebrating that day was when we got escorted into town with fire trucks, ambulances, and cop cars. They took us around town, and finally to the high school where all the fans were waiting for us, once we got there everyone was cheering again!
Having a goal and working very hard towards it to come true is something that a person should never forget. I know that when I see my classmates and teammates, winning the championship game always seems to come to mind. We put in many hours of hard work over the summer, and season, and also spent many hours in the weight room and getting up early to practice. When our town had a ceremony for us the next day in the gym, it then sank in that we would never get to play on that floor together again. It is a very good feeling to accomplish such a big goal, and I believe that if you work hard enough towards something that anything is possible.
