December 6, 2005. Mesa Jr. vs. Paradise Valley.
First of all, this was the longest bus ride ever. It was even longer on the way back. McEvers only played six guys this game. I was still in his inner circle and was Guy #6.
We were still confident from playing Fremont closely for a quarter and had a 14-11 lead after the first quarter. Lorenzo didn't score and we had a lead. That's crazy.
Sometime in the second, I was standing under the hoop waiting for a rebound when Greg King inexplicably passed me the ball. I was open, sure. But I can't catch a basketball. And I sure can't throw one. I was too surprised to have any composure and just threw it where I thought the hoop was. It bounced high off the backboard and went in.
We went into the locker room up 22-21. That was an excited locker room. It was our first lead of the season! We were super giddy. Unfortunately it was short lived. I don't know if it was because Mesa High's JV squad and coaches had arrived to play after us and were watching, but we got outscored 14-5 in the third quarter. One Adrian Bernal trifecta and one Lorenzo Velazco field goal. That's all we could muster.
Our fourth quarter efforts were matched by Paradise Valley. 46-38 was the final. We were pretty ticked off after this one to say the least.
December 9, 2005. Mesa Jr. vs. Brimhall.
As you can see, we'd slowly been building confidence and learning how to play together. Honestly, during pregame warmups, I looked at Brimhall's team and thought we were gonna lose. Greg sat this game out. He said he was sick. Load of crap. I got the start because of that.
I don't remember much of the gameplay in this one. We were up 14-4 after one. 24-15 at half. After getting some third quarter minutes, I was replaced. As I went to sit down, McEvers had his hand out toward me. I didn't notice. After sitting, he came and towered over me with his hand extended. I was tired and my mind wasn't functioning properly. "I don't know what that means. I'm sorry," I said.
"Shake his hand!" yelled Luis Hernandez, our 'manager', from behind. So, I shook his hand. He squeezed as hard as he could, leaned in and said, "You will sit the rest of this game."
With his nicotine-laced breath hanging there, I said, "Ok," and checked out mentally. He must've seen this as bad sportsmanship by me. As me being pissed off that I was being taken out. I honestly was just tired and not very cognizant of the situation. This was the turning point of the season for me. I had been given a lot of playing time up to this point. I had been the sixth man up to this point. This mental slip moved me straight to ninth man and official benchwarmer.
We were up 41-27 after three. With Greg out, McEvers only had nine players and was forced to put me in the fourth quarter to get one of his starters out. I couldn't focus though. We ended up winning our first game of the season 56-40.
December 13, 2005. Smith vs. Mesa Jr.
The guys gave Greg crap about not playing. Telling him he shouldn't play anymore and we might keep winning. I think we may have been a tad overconfident coming off our first victory.
We were up 7-4 after one and 17-12 at halftime. Trailing 29-26 after three, we felt like we could win.
I really only remember one thing about this game. In the closing minutes, we were trailing. I don't recall the exact score and situation, but we needed a three. Adrian Bernal, our sharpshooter, was literally four feet in front of me. I had as good a view as anybody. He caught a pass on the right wing, pump faked, took a dribble and repositioned to the left to take an open three. The ref called him for a travel. Awful call. I saw it as good, if not better than that ref. There's no way that was a travel. He would've made that shot and we would've been right back in the game.
We wound up losing 44-38.
3 comments:
9th grade was a good year, but I would never go back--maybe High school--but never jr. high. But sounds like your years were productive. And funny that you asked Mrs. Dennison to let you into Biology--brave kid. Also you had Mrs. Peralta? I wanna see a picture of her--I think I had her for 8th grade english. Yes, a pushover if it's who I'm thinking of.
Never check out mentally, especially when you're involved in something you love so much....and never give up...
miracles often happen when you least expect them!
This has been an educational and entertaining blog read this morning. What made you decide to write about your jr. high experiences? I agree with Kim; I hope you keep these blogs for your journal. I remember running the mile everyday in P.E., and I got to the point where I had some decent times: in the nine-minute range, which was good for a chubby kid like me. I didn't realize you were in to drama. I remember Dad told me he and mom took you to dinner at a restaurant when you were in chorus at school. You went to the bathroom and were gone so long that Dad went to check on you. He opened the bathroom door and heard you belting out a song. He said you must've been enjoying the acoustics in there. Was that during jr. high, too? Keep posting.
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