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