When The Time Is Right

When

Time

Right

the

is

Short Story
Individual
Grade 7
Accokeek Academy
By: Isaiah Nelson

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Short Story

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When the Time is Right

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Isaiah Nelson

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"Ten seconds left," Coach Shawn yelled out. We need a three to win. If there was one special thing I learned from my coach. It was to find an opening in the defense and attack. I am at the top of the three-point line. "five seconds left" Coach Shawn yelled out. My defender scooted up a little with his right foot back. Before he got the time to put his left foot up, I did an in and out cross. The defender stumbled, so I went past him on the left side. Then another defender was about to challenge me, so I stepped back and at the last second I sidestep and take a shot from the three." Errrrrrr". The Jacksonville Cheetahs won. That was the game to make it to the playoffs. I missed. It was quiet in the locker room. All the eyes were staring at me with frustration. After that, my best friend on the team said: "you lost us the game if we had another point guard you would be sitting on the bench and we would have won".

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After that Coach Shawn ignored him and said, "You waited too long to make a play and when you did, you should have passed Darian. Remember what I told you, Attack the basket when the time is right". That was the last thing I heard from Coach Shawn and the last expression I saw from my teammates that I thought of as friends. When I got home my parents told me we were moving to Brickswood. It wasn't that far away from where I was right now, Moresville, but It was far enough to the point where I had to switch schools and basketball teams. I didn't really care about changing schools, but I didn't want to leave my team on such a bad note. Regardless of how I felt, I had to move. The county team didn't make it to the playoffs, so I can join the team to practice for the summer league. I was 13 and the only child. My mom and dad were not poor or rich but the new house we moved into was smaller. I was too scared to even ask so, I just ignored it. My mom told me I had practice tomorrow for a new team so I went to sleep.

When I got to practice, I was early, so my mom and I met the coach, Coach Howard. He was a middle-aged, bald man with a big greyish black beard. My mom left immediately to rearrange everything in the house, so I was at the practice by myself. Usually, when someone is new on the team, the coach calls everyone over. Not this time though. Coach Shawnn told me to go straight to the layup lines and act as if I had been on the team forever. Everyone on the team could make layups, but some of them had to use both hands. After doing the layup lines, we starting running "suicides". Suicides are when you start at the baseline, then run to the free-throw line, back to the baseline, to the half-court line, back to the baseline, to the other free throw line, back to the baseline, to the other hoops baseline, and back to the baseline. It sounds like a lot, and it is. We did this three times and I got back to the baseline first every single time. I was a point guard, but it was kind of sad how slow the rest of the team was.

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When I got to practice, I was early, so my mom and I met the coach, Coach Howard. He was a middle-aged, bald man with a big greyish black beard. My mom left immediately to rearrange everything in the house, so I was at the practice by myself. Usually, when someone is new on the team, the coach calls everyone over. Not this time though. Coach Shawnn told me to go straight to the layup lines and act as if I had been on the team forever. Everyone on the team could make layups, but some of them had to use both hands. After doing the layup lines, we starting running "suicides". Suicides are when you start at the baseline, then run to the free-throw line, back to the baseline, to the half-court line, back to the baseline, to the other free throw line, back to the baseline, to the other hoops baseline, and back to the baseline. It sounds like a lot, and it is. We did this three times and I got back to the baseline first every single time. I was a point guard, but it was kind of sad how slow the rest of the team was.

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Then, we did shooting drills. The team was full of shooters. Only one person missed and that was me. After we did shooting drills we did a scrimmage. On the first team was the starting lineup, Dylan (PG), Jacob (SG), Luke (SF), Tim (PF), and Tommy (C). Then on the second team was me (PG), Patrick (SG), Tyler (SF), Connor (PF), and Gabe (C). In the scrimmage, I didn't do good at all and the coach noticed that. I definitely was not going to be in the starting lineup if I kept playing like this. Just like that, practice ended and my mom came to pick me up. I was disappointed in myself. "What's wrong?", my mom asked while she was driving us back to the house. "Nothing, I'm fine", I said. "Well, how was practice?", she said. "Good, everyone on the team could shoot," I said. Though practice was not good, I realized something.

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I have practice on the weekdays this week, but only on Tuesday and Friday the next week. Our first game was next Saturday. That meant I had seven practice days to prove to the coach that I should be in the starting lineup. Before the next practice started I decided I was going to try to score the most points, so I practiced dribble moves in my garage. The next day at practice we did what we should have done in the first one. Everybody introduced themselves. I was still the fastest on the team and the team could still shoot really well. Then came the scrimmage, this time the coach taught three simple plays. The amount of fingers the point guard holds up determines what play we use. One finger means a pick and roll or a pick and pop because usually, people pat their heads for that play. Two-fingers means the center sets an off-ball screen on the shooting guard's defender so they can get a wide-open two-point shot. Then three fingers mean the same off-ball screen but instead of a two-point shot, it is supposed to be a wide-open three-point shot.

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Two out of three of those plays were for the shooter, but I still wanted to score a lot, so I used the play as a diversion to fake pass and shoot. At first Coach Howard liked how I used the play, but when I used it too much he got mad and called me a ball hog. That is how practice ended that day. The next day we worked on the same thing because I didn't properly use the play enough. On the fourth day Coach Howard said we were going to start working on our endurance today and tomorrow. That day we did suicides, wall sits, and planks, and the next day we did suicides, wall sits, and planks. The only thing I proved to the coach those two days was that I had good stamina. Now I only have two days to prove to the coach that I should be in the starting lineup instead of Dylan.

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