Persevering through Societal Barriers in Basketball

don’t pass to tyler

she’s a girl growing up playing a sport

predominantly dominated by men

i learned how to tap into my inner

competitive nature my first ever

basketball team

was in a co-ed league and i played with

my brother who’s two years younger

so i was the oldest one on the team and

my dad was the coach but even then i

felt like an outsider on my own team

i was one of two girls in the entire

league and the only girl on my team

so the boys didn’t want to pass to me

and you know i wasn’t great

so i thought it might just be because of

my skills but i realized it was because

i was a girl

these boys my team didn’t want to pass

me because of my gender

so when i said it wasn’t great i was

actually terrible

i thought i could only rebound on

defense but that’s besides the point

because i showed up and worked hard just

like the rest of them

so with the craziness of coven 19 i

thought now would be the perfect time to

share my story because everyone’s

hearing stories and news online

now back to my first basketball team

ever

i hated it because i was terrible and

the boys on my team never ceased to

remind me of that fact one of them being

my brother so

it was especially hard to hear now

i showed to every practice and every

game just like the boys on my team

and i worked hard every time because

that’s the way i was going to get better

but i

cried after every game in every practice

and i begged my parents to quit

and guess what every time they said the

same thing

quitters never win and it seemed like

they’re always just trying to shut me up

like come on tyler quitters never win

but you know what it became so much more

to me

it has grown throughout my life and

helped me become who i am today

so now my first team wasn’t a co-ed

league and i was one of two girls

my second team co-ed league

my third team co-ed league my fourth

team co-ed league

and they were all the same i hated it

all but i was getting better every year

but i still felt like an outsider just

because i was a girl

and now this created a chip on my

shoulder and it tapped into a

competitive fire inside of me that i

didn’t even know i had

i wanted to work harder i wanted to get

better and prove these boys wrong

so now okay that’s great i was terrible

at basketball

and the boys told me about it that’s not

that bad but now here are some facts

that just really make me think

that i wasn’t the only one to go through

this because

in 2008 45

of kids age 6 to 12 played some sort of

organized team sport

and nine years later in 2017 that number

dropped to 37

in the united states there are about 40

million kids

in that age range so that means 3.2

million kids over nine years just

stopped playing organized team

sports now i mean

some team sports are expensive so that

makes sense but that can all be about

the money

so here’s how i think the competitive

nature of sports

and the physical and mental challenges

players are faced with deters them from

playing

now that’s kind of a bold claim so i

have another fact from the new york

times

the same website where the other facts

were from

80 percent of youth athletes quit

playing their sports by age 15.

okay that can’t all be about money so

here’s how i see it

athletes are faced with one of two

challenges

one girls are seen to be a certain way

in society as they become teenagers and

adults

so it deters them from playing your

sports or two

the children of this generation are just

lacking that true competitive nature

because of

participation trophies and the more

hand-holding way we’ve

gone around growing up playing sports

now obviously it’s not fun to be told

you’re bad or to be the worst on a team

but that competitive nature to work

harder that it was instilled

in me since i was a kid has been

instilled in the rest of

the united states which is shown from

these facts

okay so you’ve heard

my beginning story and some facts about

sports but like how does that all tie

together it’ll make sense soon

it wasn’t love at first sight for me in

basketball because i was terrible

and i had that competitive nature so i

didn’t like to lose i didn’t like to be

the worst on my team

i wanted to be good and to get cheered

on for doing something good not just

participating so going into my

seventh grade year i had played a few

years of girls basketball so i was much

more confident on the court

also i had grown a bunch i was about

five nine so i had more skills and more

hype so more confidence

i decided i was gonna try out for a

girls travel team this travel team was

an 8th grade travel team

so i was going into the tryout as one of

the younger girls but i was one of the

taller

there was only one girl taller than me

but she was going to be an 8th grader

now the coach of this team was a dad of

a girl who had played with for the past

three years in girls leagues

so i knew that i could compete with her

or even above her level

so i went in very confident after the

tryout i thought i did a great job but

the coach told me

you just don’t have what it takes and i

was

devastated i cried the whole car at home

guess what my dad said

quitters never win in that moment things

started to come together

i realized that and that i actually had

a decision now i was old enough i could

have just

taken that summer and hung out with my

friends but i decided no i’m going to

work hard

make another team and beat that coach

and beat that team

and those girls and show them that i

have what it takes

and i could have been on their team and

i could have helped to make them better

because now i was old enough to know

quitters never win

is really about do you want to just

forfeit and you don’t have to take

you don’t have to like lose but you are

losing because you don’t even have the

chance to win

and this competitive nature that was now

instilled in me

was shown throughout my entire life and

one great example

of it off the court was last year in my

junior english class

now english not my best subject and in

this class

i was not i’m not great at english but

that’s besides the point

so my teacher handed out a worksheet and

said

i lost my entry key so whoever finishes

this first will get a piece of candy

she was gonna race too it was a vocab

worksheet

really not great at vocab but of course

a chance to win

i’m gonna compete so she hands out the

papers and says go and i start writing

as

fast as i can my hand was cramping so

much

i was so nervous but i said whatever i

want to win

so i finished i held up my paper and the

whole class looked at me because i did

jump

up because i’m a competitor being done

first was exciting

my teacher looked at me and she was like

you’re done and i was like

yeah do i win she’s like well let’s hear

your answers

so i read out my answers she checked as

i went and they were all right so she

walked over with a bucket of candy and

said congratulations

i’m surprised you did so fast but here

you go you won i said

i’m all right you can give my friend a

piece of candy she was so confused

i wasn’t eating candy at the time but i

wanted to win so she looked at me

i was like what i was like i just like

to win and she laughed

gave my friend the candy and walked away

but that’s just an example of how this

competitive nature inside of me

takes over my whole life because even

though the physical prize wasn’t

something i wanted

the win was worth more than that to me

because i just have that fire in me to

work harder than

the person next to me and anyone i

possibly can

now my last story and challenge

i’m gonna tell you doesn’t have a clear

winner or loser it’s not like a game

where someone has more points than the

other and that’s it

i’d say it’s a moral victory but it’s

also

a physical loss but i look at it as

something i’ve grown from and it’s

great greatly helped me going into my

junior season

on varsity basketball i’d played two

years previously on varsity so i had

high hopes for the season

so one fall league practice we were

running sprints

and all of a sudden i felt shooting pain

go up and down my entire right leg

like nothing i’d ever felt before i was

really nervous

i had no idea what was going on but

we’re running sprints so i was racing

the girl next to me

so we’re running and i just i couldn’t

it hurt so bad but i couldn’t stop

because i’m racing the girl next to me

so i finished the sprint i finished

practice my whole leg was

felt like nothing i’d ever experienced

before so my coach

could tell by my face and i lost every

sprint by a lot but i still tried

and he was like what’s up and i was like

then my paint and my leg it’s

just shooting pain the whole thing i

don’t know what’s wrong he’s like

it’s probably just sore take a few days

off

now i’m a competitor that’s what i’ve

been talking to you about i didn’t take

a few days off i practiced for the next

week

and it was awful it was unbearable i

couldn’t i couldn’t do anything so my

coach said okay you’re done

sit for a week i thought that was the

worst news i could possibly hear

but i have an abundance of caution my

parents were like let’s get an mri and

just see

so later that night we found out i tore

my meniscus

i was devastated i cried

the whole night and the whole next day i

had no idea what i was gonna do

but the doctor said six weeks sit out

see how it goes and then maybe it’ll be

healed and you can continue to play

so for those six weeks i tried to keep

my head up i tried to stay

positive but it wasn’t fun being off the

court

i was watching my heart was breaking i

loved basketball i wanted to be out

there competing with my teammates

and then the doctor told me six weeks

later

you’re out for season you have to get

surgery to repair your meniscus

my world was over i had no idea what i

was going to do

it was my junior basketball season i was

a captain i wanted to

lead my team to wins and win league and

i had all these goals for myself and my

team

i couldn’t be on the court now i was i

was absolutely distraught

so three or four practices go by

i didn’t show up to a lot of them and

when i did i couldn’t even look at the

court without breaking into tears

so finally my coach pulls me inside and

says tyler

you’re supposed to be a captain wake up

let’s go

and it was like he pulled me out of a

fog all of a sudden i had my new

competition

i needed to be the best captain possible

and help my team

reach their goals from from the

sidelines by keeping their energy up

and pause and always being positive so

from that moment on i was up high-fiving

my teammates after every huddle

after every scrimmage always trying to

be positive and keep them happy

now keep in mind i was on crutches for a

lot of this time

but i still showed up to every game

every practice and i was at some

practices

before the rest of my teammates and even

towards the end of season i was calling

players by the sidelines

now it wasn’t all great because

it was a competition for me and usually

in the past if i have a big game coming

up

or i was competing i’m going to tell all

my friends and family come watch me

come support me come see me compete but

in this case i couldn’t do that

i couldn’t talk to my friends i couldn’t

tell my teammates how i really was

feeling

they couldn’t know about this

competition because then that would

negatively affect them on the court and

negatively negatively affect their

mental state

so i had to be positive and keep a brave

face

on for months through season

missing out on the game i love sitting

from the sidelines cheering them on

while i was absolutely destroyed inside

and after the season my teammates

they were positive they did notice me

they appreciated it

they acknowledged me after they said

thank you but you know what

it was hard for me but in the end it was

a victory for me because i was able to

help them

they all got better they all won games

they had a great season

so it might have been the worst season

ever for me

but i did win that competition i had

made for myself because i helped my

teammates

now without this competitive nature from

the boys at a young age

doubting me or from not making a sixth

grade team

i don’t know if i would have made it

through this season because that fire

inside of me wanted to work harder

even if it wasn’t on the court it was in

my head the whole time and i was

competing against the fiercest and most

stubborn competitor ever

myself every day was a battle but i was

able to embrace that

in within me and work hard to helping

everyone around me

and that has taught me that this

competitiveness that i’ve developed from

basketball

goes to so much more than that because

i’m able to stand up for myself

girls basketball and anything i ever

want to help

because of this fire inside of you

helping me work harder

so now with this i’m able to go up

against any mental

or physical challenge the rest of my

life