I was walking out of the visiting teams locker room, carrying my basketball bag on my shoulder and my head on the floor. It was our last game of the year and we had just lost to Umass,-Dartmouth in the championship game of the ECAC’s. I wondered what did we do to lose this game by only five points. I walked out of the arena and over to our big coach bus, put my bag in the storage compartments below and got on the bus to find my seat. As I at down, I put my headphones on and began to realize that I was now a senior and everything was different. I then thought about the time that all of this began.
At the beginning of my freshman year, I knew I wanted to play, as did our coach, but still I had to prove it to him. I walked into our first team meeting extremely nervous and realized that everybody was bigger than me; I looked like a baby. Now, I’m 6’4”, and skinny with light brown hair. The first few months were strange, but when I found out that I had made the team I got a little more comfortable but still had a long way to go. Practice was so much different than high school. It was extremely organized, strict and hard. There would be no crap taken from anyone, and we all knew that immediately.
Our first game was played at Foley Gymnasium located in the P.E. Center and from the moment I stepped into the complex, it was different. I remember walking in with my stuff and going right into the locker room to prepare for the game. As I walked into the locker room I saw my teammates, now friends greeting me with “what up man” and “Mikey boy”. It was good to hear that. I changed into my game shorts, spandex and a T-shirt and went into the training room to have my ankles taped. Our trainer at the time, Paul, asked me if I was nervous, I said, “a little bit”. He then said, “I think you’re very nervous because your legs are shaking vigorously”. I was busted. I was nervous and I wanted to puke all over the place. Each moment that came closer to the game, I felt even worse. When we finally got out there as a team, the stands were packed and I felt awful. But slowly that feeling went away because I knew that everything was going to be okay, and that most importantly we were going to win the game. We did. This was the feeling that surrounded me for most of the season. Although I did not play that much, I learned many things about myself, other people and about what it is like to play sports in college. Things don’t come easy but if you work at it you can achieve it.
My sophomore year started out a little differently. I wasn’t nervous going into our first game, just apprehensive. I did however look at the freshman and noticed that some were feeling the same way I was before my first game. At the time I thought I was the only one, but I wasn’t; we were all in the same mode. As we took the floor I once again felt confident that we were going to win the game. As we walked into the locker room everybody was quiet and confused. Confused as to what happened and why we lost. I have lost games before in my life but none like this. After leaving the complex, though, I felt that there was a glimmer of hope for the rest of our season. Even though the loss brought people down, we picked our spirits up and came out the next day to win. This new season brought on a bunch of new feelings that I would not have been able to feel until now. We had new guys that we all had to get used to.
During the first season I saw teammates do the same thing all the time and began to know them like brothers. One becomes use to that, but when it, comes down to it one has to understand where everybody comes from. In college you have to understand that people come from all different walks of life, but to become a good team you have to get together to be the best you can be. That season was trying because we had so many ups and downs. We had big wins and big losses. During this year I was also trying to get my grades up. The previous year I did my best but had a hard time adjusting to college. School, a social life and basketball became a lot to handle. I remember nights when I would get out of practice at 7:30 p.m., go to the cafeteria to eat dinner, go back to my room after that and shower just so I could get to the library. I would come home, relax for a bit and stay up until the wee hours of the morning just to get my studies done. It was a very trying time and I needed to find my way. There was a point my freshman year when I did not think that I would be able to get through school. It just seemed to be too tough at times, but finally I found my way and everything has been good since then. I look back and think that, yes, it was one of the toughest times, but I learned a lot about myself and about life itself. I thank God for that sometimes.
By this time now I had reached my junior season. I came into this past season trying to get more playing time than I had the season before and to continue to improve my skills. Right away I was playing well and enjoying much success as an upperclassman. Another thing that was quite apparent very early on was that this team had the ability to be very good. We had the players, the coaches and support around us; we just had to put it all together. To open the season we were in a tournament at Babson College in Massachusetts. We won our first game, but really did not play that well. Our next game was against a team that was very good and eventually made it to the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately we lost the game but played better. It would have been nice to win that championship but we knew there would be a lot more and better success for us down the road.
For the fist half of the season we struggled to find an identity. We would win two games then lose on; win two, lose one. It was hard because we knew we were good we just had to find out how to win all the time. After a few tough losses we finally got to point where we knew what we had to do to beat everybody on our schedule. Every team wants to hit this point during their season but if you can do it towards the end like we did, nothing is better. For those of you that have been watching the NCAA tournament on TV, you know that Indiana, who is currently in the championship game, hit their peak at the right time. That is what propelled them to where they are now. What happened to them is what happened to us.
Until this time I have never had an injury in my college career. With a few games left n the regular season, I was in practice and went up for a rebound. Unfortunately I came down on someone else’s ankle and turned it pretty bad. I was put on crutches for the next week because any pressure on my ankle would hurt. I found out a few days later that I tore two ligaments on the outside of my ankle and one on the inside. Although it was a bad injury I was back in two weeks, but not one hundred percent. From the point of the injury until the end of the season, I was in the training room six times a week strengthening the ankle so I would not hurt it again and so I could eventually be back to the way I was. The days seemed so much longer because of this and it was not fun at all. Still I have problems with it but soon it will be back to the way it was.
As I mentioned earlier we finally got to the championship game of the ECAC’s, but fell short. Playing sports in college has been quite the experience. I have learned a lot about myself and about other people. I have learned what life is like in the real world and how to get ahead. I think that sports has prepared me for life and shown me something that I would have never seen. For that, I appreciate it.