The Parade College Writing Workshop – Jensen Miles: Diamond Valley v Frankston Blues basketball

 

By Jensen Miles

 

The game was on a Friday night in July 2018. Even though I can’t remember the exact date, I can remember it was a very cold day. It was a school day and I had been having a very stressful day. I had an important maths test and I had a history assignment due. On top of this, my representative basketball team the Diamond Valley Eagles were playing the Frankston Blues. Frankston were so good that they were a top five team in the whole of Victoria.

 

Frankston had a whole variety of different players. They had players ranging from small and skinny to tall and wide. They had every position filled to almost perfection. Their tallest player was six foot five, which is incredible. This player was one of the tallest players in the whole competition. In comparison to me, I was five foot seven at the time of this game. We were in under 14s.

 

The day started off rather regularly, with normal school classes and work. I wasn’t really thinking about the game that night because of the work that I needed to do that day. Once I finished the test and was satisfied with my work, I then started to think about the game. The fact that my team was ranked 14^th in Victoria and we were playing a top five team really made me nervous. The day went on for what seemed like forever.

 

Anyway, the time came for me to leave for the game. I had done everything to prepare for this game. I warmed up my muscles and I stretched. I even foam-rolled to really loosen the muscles. My brother also had a game on that night but was playing the game before mine. So, as my mum drove me to Community Bank Stadium in Diamond Creek, I listened to some music to take my mind off the game a little bit. Once we arrived at the game, I did some more stretching and I did some ball handling to help me stay focused on the game.

 

As I was preparing for the game I suddenly saw the Frankston team walk into the stadium. It was a little bit intimidating at first. However, as I looked at them, for some reason I wasn’t nervous anymore. Something made me relax. I don’t know what it was but it was something. It might have been that I realised the pressure was on them, or that I didn’t care about the end result as long as we tried our best. I still don’t know.

 

The time came for us to jump on the court for our official warm-up. My first two shots were pretty stiff, but as I loosened up I started to feel confident with my shooting. I was ready for the game. It started and we won the tip-off. Immediately I got the ball and I made a three-pointer. We were winning.

 

The first quarter score went up and down. It was pretty much score for score. At quarter time it was 15-14. We were down. The second quarter was not too bad, however, at the end of the half we were down by six points. I had scored 12 points at the half and I had made two three-pointers. I sat on the bench for most of the third quarter and at the end of it we were down by sixteen points. It was 33-49.

 

I started off the fourth quarter with a buzz. I made a three-pointer and the free throw for a foul, which meant we were down by 12. There were five minutes to go and we were down by thirteen points. Suddenly, I felt an urge. A final blast of energy. Immediately, I made a three pointer. We got the ball back straight away and I made another three.  Not even six seconds after the shot I made another three-pointer. I had made three threes in a minute. The crowd was going crazy. We were only down by four points.

 

I was double-teamed on the next play. Somehow, I still managed to shoot a deep three-pointer. I couldn’t believe it. We were only down by one. However, as the ball went down towards Frankston’s ring, I got tripped up and I rolled my ankle slightly. I was forced to sub out of the game. There were two minutes and 30 seconds remaining and the score was 57-60. Two minutes went by and no one scored a bucket.

 

There were eight seconds left and we were down by three points. Our team needed another three-pointer to tie the game. I pushed through the pain in my ankle and subbed back into the game to take the final shot. It was a privilege to be chosen to shoot such an important shot. Luckily, I believed I could do it. The ball was passed to me and I held it for three seconds to soak the time up. I then called for a screen and moved off it so I could shoot the ball.

 

The ball bounced a couple of times on the rim of the ring as the buzzer went. The couple of seconds seemed to go forever. Everyone watched nervously. It bounced once, twice and it bounced out. We had lost by three! I was so disappointed. I thought it was all my fault. But it was comforting and nice to see how well my teammates got around me. They all cheered me up. One of them even said to me “It’s alright! Even though you missed the shot, you created the opportunity for us to have that shot yourself”. Those words are words I will always remember.

 

 

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