I got up, still shivering from the ice bath our basketball team had taken the night before, after a long day of basketball. I dragged my feet downstairs of the Anchorage Dimond Hotel for breakfast. Coach Stoops was already there, eating a banana and studying basketball plays.
"Good morning, Coach," I said with a tired face.
"Good morning," my coach replied with a smirk, because he knows our basketball team hates waking up early.
The rest of the Kotzebue High School girls' basketball team slowly trudged down the stairs. The day's breakfast consisted of a waffle smothered in syrup topped with bananas, and a glass of milk.
After breakfast, we leaped up and packed our basketball gear. The team gathered in another girl's room to energize for a day of intense basketball. We danced, laughed, and prayed before we left for Dimond High School, where the Western Alaska Conference basketball regional tournament was being held. We plugged in our earphones. I listened to "All I Do is Win," by Dj Khaled.
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The Dimond High School gym was already filled with raging fans from Kotzebue. Kotzebue High School's Lady Huskies, including myself, were competing against Bethel's Lady Warriors to advance to the next round of the tournament. The gym echoed with cheers and chants as the score was narrowing in the game's fourth quarter. The camera zoomed in on my face. I had trails of sweat running down my forehead, as I inbounded the ball to my teammates. Both teams were pressuring each other as each tried to advance the ball past half court.
Time was running out. Adrenaline flowed through my veins. Crowds of hometown fans were watching the two teams battle it out; we were growing impatient for victory. Many people in Kotzebue and Bethel were wishing they were in Anchorage. They were watching on television instead, but that is not as exciting. Both teams had players in foul trouble late in the game, when everything was on the line. Mistakes were being made, perhaps from the distraction of the intensity of the roaring crowd. All I could think about was to get the ball and put it in the hoop. Of course, that's not as easy as it seems, with a defender right on your hip also playing her own heart out.
Twenty seconds felt like a long time to go in the game. Shots were being made left and right. Then, there it was. I attempted a three-point shot. The ball hung in the air. The whole world seemed to stop in that moment. It felt as if I were watching that ball for 5 minutes, soaring through the air, as the gym went still and silent.
We scored!
The Kotzebue fans started jumping up and down. We were now up by four points with 15 seconds to go in the game. We only had to play 15 seconds of tough defense and not foul and send an opponent to the free throw line, as our coach instructed during the time out. The coach's face was fierce and red from nerves and excitement. I glanced at the crowd during the time out, which motivated me to play the best possible final 15 seconds of the game. The team's intense practices had paid off, as we played the best defense out of the whole season for this victory.
Our lead held; we won the game!
Basketball is one of the best things that have happened to me in my life. I love playing the game.
Colleen Snyder wrote this story as a Kotzebue High School senior.
The preceding essay is part of a series written by volunteer students participating in the Chukchi College Honors Program, a dual-credit partnership between the Northwest Arctic Borough School District and Chukchi College, the Kotzebue branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This essay is distributed by Chukchi News & Information Service, an award-winning publication project of Chukchi College.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.