Elijah Schleicher

Mr. Kristalyn

English 8

The Basketball Week When I Injured Many Players

     In the 2016-17 season which was my seventh grade season we had two tournaments in one week. One was during the week and the other in the weekend. Our first game occurred on Thursday. We were playing on a high school basketball court which is bigger than our standard middle school courts. The point guard was dribbling down the court. He passed it to the other guard who ended up passing to the opposing teams player in the corner. When I play defense I make it extremely hard for my opponent to drive towards the baseline. I’ll try my hardest to just cut the off but if they end up being to quick for me I just push them. When I push the opposing player I make sure that I push hard enough to make them stumble out of bounds. It was a good tactic because most people who play in the corner are shorter and skinny sharpshooters.

     In our second game there was a player who we knew was a very skilled shooter. The way I remembered him is that he had very long hair that flopped to the side of his head. He tried to drive so the next time I wouldn’t get all in his face so he could just get a uncontested shot. He drove baseline and almost beat me. I pushed him but since he was a small kid he flew off the ground and flew into where the concrete wall and the wooden floor meet. He made a very loud crashing noise as he hit the wood floor and slide into the concrete wall. He left the game after that and didn’t return. I was later told he left because his shoulder was in too much pain for him to return.

     On Friday we had our next game. We were playing defense around the middle of the second quarter. The opposing point guard drove into the lane and Max swiped the ball out of his hand and and the basketball went straight to the other teams center. During this scramble he didn’t that Jack was right behind him. He turned as fast as he could and tossed up a prayer hoping for it to be answered because he hadn’t been able to get a shot up with Jack, Josh, and I. Josh was right behind him and blocked him making the ball going straight up into the air. I jumped up to catch the ball. This one player who was very lanky was purposely grabbing my arm because other teams knew that if they got under our skin they could get us in foul trouble. I would usually start fouling out of frustration but it was never on purpose. In my mind if somebody tried to purposely foul me. I would try to get them back and I would keep going at them all game till I got them back. Whenever I had the chance to bully them I bullied them till I felt I got them back. It was later in the game and I was blocking out the lanky player whose arms were twigs. He grabbed my left arm to try to stop me from getting the rebound. I still caught the ball and he was still hanging on my arm so I turned and elbowed him in the head. The ref called a foul on the other player for reaching. The opposing coach was livid and wouldn’t stop yelling.

     On Saturday our opponents liked to pump fake the ball then drive to the hoop. In the corner a taller player who had a long nose like Pinocchio decided to pump fake and I jump knowing that I timed it well and could have a block if he shot the ball. He pumped the ball and started to drive baseline while I was in midair. My coach had told me over and over again don’t let anyone ever drive baseline while you are in. So what I did was stick out my leg. I was thinking that my leg would hit his arm or chest because he was tall and I didn’t mean to kick as hard as I did. I ended up jumping higher than I thought I could and kicked him in the face. I twisted like a tornado in the air and ended up landing on my back. The Pinocchio ended up flying down to the ground and the back of his head bounced off the ground. The ref called a blocking foul on me because he saw that I was trying to stop him but ended up injuring him.

     Now it was Sunday and it was one of the last games of the tournament. The team we were facing was very very skilled and won their previous games by sixty plus points. It was late in the fourth quarter and we were losing by forty points. I was a quite frustrated at this point. There was a kid who liked to trash talk all the time. I ended up blocking him out for a rebound. I jumped up and caught the ball. He was just waiting for me to turn so he could pop the ball out of my hand. He was all over me trying to steal the ball. Since I could feel him with my back I turned and elbowed him in the face. The kid instantly fell but I just acted like nothing happened by hesitating a second. Then I passed it to Aden since he is the point guard. The game went on for a couple of seconds when the ref blew the whistle. He called an injury timeout since the kid was crying on the floor. Also they called a foul on him during the timeout because I made it look like he was reaching. As I was waiting on the sideline next to our bench my teammate Max asked me, “Was that on purpose?”

     I answered, “Yes, He was reaching too much. I was just making sure he wouldn’t reach again.”

      Josh told me, “Eli, how many people have you injured in our basketball games by now?”

      I just answered, “I don’t even know anymore.”

     Since I was standing right next to the bench my teammates started laughing since I had injured many people in just a week.

     That was the story of how I injured four kids in a single week. In these tournaments we got first and second. All of my teammates to this day remind me of what I did to the players that I injured.