Chase Your Dreams

Smack! The crowd cheers as Jess, the starting freshman hits the ball. The crowd goes wild as the game gets closer and closer to the game point. The score was 24-23, one more point until the game was over, and the Wolves win the game. Bailey, the best server, was up to serve. It was such a nerve racking time for the crowd, and for the players. Bailey threw the ball up and hit it. The serve went over the net and the libero from the other team passed the ball. The ball came right back over the net. The ball was set up to Jess, Jess went up, and smack! She hit the ball and it hit the floor! The crowd, the coaches, and the team were jumping up and down and cheering! The Wolves made it to state volleyball!

After the game, the team came out of the locker room. Everyone was congratulating everyone. The team was going to go celebrate.

“Everyone can come to my place,” Bailey said.

Everyone hopped into a car and headed off to Bailey’s. Jess got in with Bailey, and then they were on the road. Bailey’s phone started ringing, but her phone was in her bag in the back seat. She went to go grab her bag and then the car started swerving onto the other side of the road.

“Bailey what are you doing? There is a car coming! Grab the wheel!” Jess at this point was screaming at Bailey, and then crash. Everything went dark.

“Get them out of here.”

“Start the IV’s.”

“Does she have a heart beat?”

That was all Jess could hear. She was put on a gurney and was carried to the ambulance.

“Grab her phone, find her parents’ numbers”.

All Jess was thinking about was if she going to be okay, and where Bailey was? Once again, everything went dark.

*At the hospital*

“Where is Bailey?” that was all Jess was saying to the nurse who was trying to help her.

“Where is she?”

“Honey, let's concentrate on getting you better,” the nurse replied.

Jess’ parents arrived at the hospital. They were sitting in Jess’ room while Jess was napping. The doctors came into her room and told them that their daughter was very lucky, and that she only has a few bumps and bruises and a sprained ankle. Jess’ parents asked how Bailey was, and they told them that she was not doing too well. She was suffering from brain damage, and she is in a coma, fighting for her life.

Jess woke up just in time to hear that “she is fighting for her life”

“Are you talking about Bailey?” Jess asked looking worried and now sitting up.

“Sweetie, Bailey is going to be fine.”

“No she’s not. I heard the whole conversation with the doctors” Jess said, now getting mad.

“Jess, she will be fine, she is going to live. She is fighting for her life right now. You are a lucky girl!”

“I know mom.”

*A few days later*

Bailey still hasn't came out of her coma. It has been 3 days and she still hasn't woken up. Jess has been going to volleyball practice because state volleyball was in just 2 days. She has been going to the hospital everyday to sit, and wait with Bailey. Today when Jess went to the hospital to sit with Bailey, the doctors came rushing in. All Jess could hear were doctors talking, and then a loud, long beep. That moment was the most devastating point in Jess’ life. Her best friend had just passed away.

The next day at practice Jess told the team. They were heartbroken, but now they had something to play for the next day at state. The team now was practicing harder than ever. They wanted to win for their best friend Bailey.  It was the end of practice, and the girls said that they were going to make t-shirts and bows in the color red because that was Bailey’s favorite color. They went out and got their t-shirts and made bows. The shirts said Bailey’s name on them.

The next day it was the state tournament. The team rode the bus, and it was just an hour before game time. They went into their locker room and got ready, then prayed for their best friend and hoped that Bailey was watching over them today. They were ready to play and win for Bailey, they ran out of the locker room and started warming up. The team they were playing was number 1 in the state, so it was going to be a tough game to win.

It was time to start the game, the announcer announced the starters names and then he asked everyone to bow their heads in silence for the death of Bailey. After the moment of silence, it was time for the game. The first serve was over the net, the ball was set up to Jess and she slammed it to the floor. The first point was the Wolves. The game went back and forth. It was almost the end of the game and the score was 24-23 the Wolves were ahead. It was the other team’s serve. They served it over and it was set up once again to Jess, she wanted to win the game so badly for her best friend, then she went up and slammed the ball again, right into the ground. The Wolves just won state Volleyball!      

Audible

“We are lined up in I formation, and it is a play action. They’re stacking the line with 7 men.  We’re lined up in the I. We are down by five, and there is one minute left on the clock in the fourth quarter. It is fourth down, and we only have one timeout left. Carson what do you do?”

“Call an audible and throw a screen to Ray.”

“Why didn’t you. You got sacked and we lost the state championship.”

“The play clock was at ten seconds, coach.”

“Then use the timeout and go no-huddle the rest of the drive. That’s what you would’ve done in a regular game. That is how you, the one, the only, Johnny Carson, play football. If you want to go play college football, you have to work on working under pressure.”

“It’s hard to think under pressure,” I whispered quietly.

“If you can’t think under pressure than I don’t know if I can play you this season. Your good, but there’s a lot of talent in those school hallways. To be an athlete in this sport you have to be able to do anything under pressure, and I mean anything from your school work to playing out on that field. Go home and some rest, we have practice tomorrow.”

I can’t believe coach just said that. There is no one else to put in. If he is benching me, he would have to play Gabbert. Coach Bryant knows he can’t do that because he had to start him last year when I broke my wrist, and his completion percentage was 30%. That’s not good at all.

On my way home he told himself, “I do not crack under pressure. I’m a junior in high school, and our school hasn’t had a state championship since the 80s.”

I didn’t get much sleep that night. I tossed back and forth thinking about what coach said. The words are still stuck in my head. I can still hear him saying those words.

“If you can’t think under pressure than I don’t know if I can play you this season.”

Those words haunted me. I don’t know what to do, and this isn’t exactly something that will be easy to fix. It will take time, so I will make time. I don’t do good in school, and I’m not good at any other sports, so football is all I got. Because I won’t get into college academically, I will have to go all the way in athletics, and I can’t even start on my high school team.

A few hours later I finally fell asleep, and I woke up ready for practice, but more importantly, I’m ready to prove coach wrong.

On the way to practice I went through what I have to do to get my starting spot back. First off, I have to work harder than anyone on the team, but more importantly, prove coach wrong. That’s just the basics. I have to be perfect at every aspect of the game.

Everything was going pretty good that practice. We had a scrimmage between our offense and our defense. We were down by five points with one  minute left in the 4th quarter. I saw Coach Bryant talking to Coach Johnson and Coach Taylor, our offensive and defensive coordinator. The defence stacked the line with seven guys and our offence was in the I formation. Deja vu. I knew coach was testing me, but he needs to do better than this. I called the audible and I threw the screen to Ray, but the cornerback charged up and took the ball back to the end zone. I threw a pick six, and that ended the scrimmage, and that was the end of practice.

Everyone headed to the locker room, and coach said he wants to talk to me after I’m done changing. Great. That is the last thing I want to do right now, but I have to do it.

I walked out of the locker room, and Coach was right there.

“You weren’t even paying attention to the corner creeping up on the receiver. You were going through the motions. When Ray is running the screen, what is Dex running?” asked coach.

“A fade route,” I answered.

“Why weren’t you watching the defense? More importantly, watching the other wide receivers?” asked coach again.

“I don’t know,” I replied.
To make things worse, school started the next day, and I’m stressed enough with football, but now school? Since I had nothing else to do, I went home, and I slept.

I woke up the next morning with no confidence in myself.

“What am I going to do?” I kept asking myself. “I can’t do this. I’m terrible in school, and now on the football field too. I decided to not go to school because there is no point. If I can’t play football then there is no point of going to school. If I can’t play football then there is no point of staying here. I won’t make it far in life, why not end it all now.

I went to my car, and I just started driving. I got to the highway, and I stomped on the pedal. I hit 120 as I sped past a police officer. I started to swerve into the ditch getting ready to end it all then it hit me. Why am I doing this? To be continued.

The First Pick

“With time winding down on the clock the Hawkeyes are losing 110-112 and there is ten seconds on the clock.” said the announcer. James called for a screen and he got it, he ran around his man and went for the three, game on the line. If he misses this then they just lost the championship. The clock was at three seconds when he shot it and at that moment James saw the clock hit zero and the ball rolling around the rim, the ball was doing the toilet and a few seconds later it rolled in. Everyone on the team was running at James who was on the ground cheering. Hawkeyes just won the March Madness tournament for the first time in school history.

It was June 24, the day before the draft and James was the number one overall pick for the 2016 NBA draft. James was in Brooklyn for a few days and that night James and his parents all had a goodnights rest. The next morning they all got up at around 10:00 in the morning and ate something. They had all day so they went out and had fun until about 5:00. They got ready to go to the draft and took off. They arrived at about 6:00 and talked for a while to other people.

Finally it was time for the draft. James was excited and nervous, but he wasn’t worried. He knew he would be drafted early, his parents did to. Adam Silver then comes walking out from backstage.

“Hello everyone, we are here with the 2016 NBA draft, we will start shortly.”

James was nervous but excited, he was finally achieving his goal of getting to the NBA. James's parents were rubbing him on the shoulder and telling him that he is finally here, in the draft.

“Hello everyone my name is Adam Silver and we are now starting the NBA Draft, With the first pick of the NBA Draft the New York Knicks select James Bookerson from Des Moines, Iowa.” The whole New York fan section was cheering and yelling, everyone else was clapping and James was smiling. James got up and hugged his parents and a few friends. He made his way up to the stage to get his jersey and hat. He shaked Adam Silver’s hand and took the Jersey and hat and put the hat on. He held the jersey and took a picture with Adam Silver.

The next day James and his family took a flight back to Des Moines and got all the stuff they needed. James grabbed all his stuff and took a flight back to New York, where he bought a house.

James started practicing with the Knicks and they had a solid looking team. James was starting the shooting guard position, since they had Carmelo Anthony at small forward, which was a great player. The off season training helped James a lot, his jumpshot improved and he had more dribble moves. But the preseason was coming and James was ready, first game they were supposed to face the Philadelphia 76ers.  The 76ers previous seasons were terrible but this year they got some good picks. We were playing the first game home which is a major advantage for us.

The first game was tomorrow and we were ready, we all came to the gym and had a shooting practice, two solid hours of just shooting. Coaches told us not to push to hard, because the last thing they wanted is for someone to pull something or hurt themselves.

Today is the day, the game is at 7:00 tonight so James shot from around 2:00 to 3:00. James went to the garden at about 5 for team warmups and go over plays. Now was the time, they all went out to the court and got in their positions. It was James’s 1st game debut and he needed to show people he wasn’t scared of them just because they are in the NBA. James had a good first half scoring about 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. at halftime the score was 54 to 43 with the Knicks winning. Coach was telling everybody to step up their game and that we should be leading by 20 at the minimum. James and the Knicks finished off the game 103 to 89. James score 24 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists. James’s debut was amazing.

The next few days they practiced hard and it was once again game day. The game was against the Boston Celtics, who were 0-1, which they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The game was another solid win for the Knicks who came out winning by 15 points, 105-90. The rest of the preseason carried out well they were 5-3 in the end. The regular season started though, which they ended up being 43-39. Good enough to make the playoffs, which was good saying last season they didn’t. The first round of the playoffs they had to face the Washington Wizards which they won 1 game against but lost 2. The Knicks and James came out strong though they won the first 2 games then lost. They won the next game to make the series 3-1. The Knicks then won the last game which advanced them to the next round, where they faced the Oklahoma Thunder.

They faced them twice during the regular season and lost both games. The Thunder came out strong and won the first three games but James and the knicks came out and won the next two. Though they won those games the Thunder came back and won the next game, which eliminated the Knicks. The Thunder went on to face the Warriors in the Finals in which the Thunder won.

James was proud of him and the Knicks though, they made it to the playoffs, James averaged 

20.4 points a game, 5.7 assists a game, and 6.1 rebounds a game. James also won the rookie of the 

year award. James then went on with his team to get better.

Bounce Back

This story takes place at very big school in The Hood of a small town called CharlesBerg, CharlesBerg, California. There sports programs are just not quite there. There football team has to wear practice jerseys to games because they can’t afford real jerseys. The basketball jerseys have holes on them because they have been used for the past 15 years. The school has very good potential they just have yet to find it.

On the announcements the announcer, announces that the football sign up sheets are in the office as is the new coach.The coach watches every single boy sign up throughout the day, the boys not knowing that would be there new coach. Practice starts on Monday they read on the signup sheet. Be ready to work hard. Most of the boys that go to the school are African-American, and most of them have attitudes. Most of them are criminals and are into drugs. The coach's goal is to change that.

“Alright how’s everyone doing, I am your new coach, Coach Vandi”.

“I am your new athletic director”. “Now that you know my name why don’t I start by asking what your names are”.

The Coach learns all the names and they start practice, some not wanting to do things and some people are just being lazy while doing it. “Now listen kids, or I shouldn’t say kids let's say young adults”. “I am here to get you better and this program better”. “I don’t know about you but I want to win a game this year”. “I know this is only the first day of practice, but you have to want to get better”. “Now if you're not up for that than you can leave”. The thing coach see’s is half the team start to leave, as they are leaving the coach starts shouting,

“Everyone get back here”. He starts to give them a lecture and gets them all to stay. They keep on practicing for the next 2 weeks.

“Alright guys guess what time it is”, “It’s time to pick positions”. “I have thought very hard on this”. ‘These are sometimes hard decisions and it was this time”. “Devon you will be at quarterback, LaShawn you will be my running back, Raymond you will be my Halfback and others will fill in as needed”. “Is that clear”. “Now our first game is in 1 week”. “Who thinks we're ready”? No one raises their hand.

“Good answer”. says coach. They keep on practicing.

“Alright boys, you ready for tonight”. The boys scream in excitement and jumping and stretching and running getting themselves warmed up. They will receive the kick. The cheerleaders are chanting,

“Let's go Jaguars”. The coach is screaming “get your blocks, get your blocks”. They get pummeled at the 15 yard line. The quarterback Devon Jacobson walks out onto the field they get huddled up and call the play and get on the line. Next thing you know Yellow flags are coming up from everywhere. They didn’t have 11 guys on the field they only had 10.

“Come on guys we practiced this so much how do you get it wrong”. They get 11 guys out there and Devon says hut. They attempt a handoff and get caught with a 5 yard loss. They try a pass and its intercepted and taken to the in zone.

“I don’t know what to tell you guys”. “We practiced it so much how do you fail”. “These guys aren’t that much better than us”. “This second let’s go show them what Jaguars can do”. “Coach they're just better than us”. Says Devon.

“That’s what you think Devon”. “They are not better than you”. “Now go out there and win this football game”.

They get ready for kickoff. They have everyone on the field and they are ready to go. The crowd is screaming and cheerleaders are dancing. The kick is off and sadly it only goes 15 yards. “It’s okay guys we will work on it, now defense on the field and make a stop”. The first drive the Jaguars sack the titans 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. The next play sadly the Titans just run it down the Jaguars throats and score 75 yard touchdown run. That really brought their confidence down a notch. The final score ended up being 14 to 54.

“I thought you guys were ready”. “Tomorrow come to practice ready to go, because we're gonna get things done”. “Remember boys our goal is to always get better”. “Now go and get a good night’s sleep”.

“Alright how’s everyone doing today”. “Is anyone sore”. Almost everyone raises their hand that’s a good thing and a bad thing.

“Ok good”. “That means you played hard and worked your muscles”. The temperature is above a 100 degrees today. The coach insists that they still practice though. Everyone is sweating and looking like they're about to drop dead on the ground right in front of the coach.

“Alright boys you can go in the locker room and take off your shells and pants, but then i want you right back out here”. They go and get changed out. Next thing you know it’s been a half an hour. Coach starts to wonder.

“I’m going to go and check on them”. “Coach is real dummy if he’s gonna let us come change out”. says Devon. Devon says that not knowing coach was now in the room.

“Hey Devon maybe next time since you know I’m a dummy i won’t let you come and change out”. “I let you guys and change because you looked like you were about to drop dead”. “You reward me by doing this calling me names that isn’t a very good reward i will tell you that right now”. Coach starts to get frustrated and starts to scream at them. They just sit there with their eyeballs almost popping out of their heads.

“Now get out there right now and be ready to run gassers”!

“You know what coach this is stupid, why you havin us practice outside in this ridiculous weather”. Says Rashawn.

“You know why Rashawn, because of your ridiculous actions”. “Now everyone on the line”. Coach blows the whistle, they run until almost every single one of them pukes.

“How are you liking this”. “You wouldn’t have to be doing this if you would have just got changed out and came right back out here”. “No that was to hard for you all obviously”. “Changing out doesn’t mean go take cold showers then come back out here, it means take off you pads and get out here”! “I will see you all tomorrow and you better hope I’m in a better mood”. “Get a breakout”. They get a breakout from Devon and they all start to walk inside in breathing so hard they can barely talk to each other.

On the announcements they hear that practice will be taking place inside the library. They all scream with joy and happiness, until they find out what it’s about. “What are these”. He hand them their grade printouts.

“I’ve never seen such bad grades in my life”. “We're gonna fix these today”. They continue throughout their season starting progress. They won their 5th game finally. They were so excited.

“That boys is what it feels like to win”. Next thing you know they start to work hard in practice and start to win more games. Then they get to districts.

“Alrighty guys this is when it starts to get hard”. “We are 8-4, that's not too bad for us just getting our first season started”. They go into districts they win their first 2 games.

“Ok boys this is the game that counts”. “If we win this we're going to state”. They are playing a team that 12-0. They go out the first quarter and just get smashed at the end of the 1st quarter it is already 35-0. At halftime it is 49-28. They made a somewhat of a come back.

“Guys we can comeback from this, it won’t be easy but we can”. They go out and score their first drive. It's the start of the 4th quarter and it is 49-41. They have made a comeback. The first play the jaguars pick the ball off and score. It is a tied ball game. There is 23 seconds left in the 4th quarter and the jaguars are at the 10 yard line. They go for a pass. It is sadly picked off and they break through all the tackles and score. That will be the end of the season for the Jaguars.

“It was an honor coaching for you guys i will tell you that right now”. “Don’t worry I will be back 

next year and we will go for the title again”. “It just didn’t work out that way today”. “I want to wish the 

seniors good luck as they move on in life”. “You will be missed”. “Let’s get one last breakdown”. 1 2 3 

Jaguars. The team packs up their stuff in frustration and sadness. It was a good season once they put their mind 

to. You can do anything once you put your mind to it.

A+

34...35...36...37...38...39...40, just 40 3’s in a row and no problem and also just a couple of

hours before the NCAA final four game. Kentucky and Duke are playing against each other

tomorrow and we're about to play Notre Dame, i’m still thinking on how I even got here to all of this

being on watch for the NBA and being one of the best college players of all time, but still no title.

             At the age of  9,  my dad put me in a basketball game that I had just wanted to watch,  

they had a teammate get injured and nobody else was on the team of his position,  Point  guard.  I

was a lot shorter than the rest of the players,  I was very un-athletic and very intimidated by the

other team.

      

            After a while from getting ready,  I had gotten my name called by my dad and I had

 gotten nervous, because he was known as the best coach in the eastern part of  

Chicago, due to his several years in the NBA, and I wanted to impress him.

 “ Alright Jeremy, get in there.”  As he said my name.

We were down by 35, we weren't gonna win and we all knew it, so I felt like having fun with it.

It was in the 3rd quarter with 7 minutes to go, and also with me not knowing anything but

football, so when the ball was inbounded I grabbed it and ran to the other end without dribbling,

and I stiff armed the guy in front of me; so it turns out that you can't do that. I also didn't know

what three pointers were, so when my dad told me to shoot a three, I thought he meant shoot

with three fingers. I did, and I got subbed.

At the end of the quarter, we actually were winning by 35. I didn't know how to read the game

scoreboard. The 4th quarter was starting, but since I was benched, I was gonna go gets some

popcorn and some drinks because I  thought I wasn't gonna play anymore. Time passes,

some big fat lady is done getting all of her food, and after her scooter almost runs over my

foot. I somehow got through the crowd of people and there was cheering, it's not a very exciting

game to be cheering, but it turns out we were tied 70 - 70 and 3 seconds to go on our possession.

I get back and coach was telling me to sub in for number 46, so I went in and after i got the ball, i

dribbled as the clock went down, I shot the ball just before the 3 point line and I

made it for the buzzer beater. After that, I had played nothing but basketball, I played in AAU

tournaments and made it varsity in every grade I made the nba teams like the Chicago Bulls and

The Lakers, along with The Celtics. And I also got attention from Oregon, Michigan and Duke,

shortly after that, i decided to pick Michigan.

It is my final semester until spring break and I want to have all A’s and I won't go to the NBA if

I don't get a high GPA, it's just that simple. I could be an NBA legend and get paid millions of

dollars, but not yet, just as long as i'm getting A’s and I haven't ever gotten an A on anything yet , so

yeah.

But here we are, at the NCAA tournament and tipoff is in a couple of seconds, Notre dame has

no chance against us because we are an undefeated team. Just about another couple seconds and

we are gonna start the game, my dad in the stands next to the court is cheering my name and so is

my brother, The announcer is telling everybody to take their seats and stand for the national

anthem as the whole arena lights dim and fade until there is only light from the sponsors and the

circle of light from the spotlight illuminating the singer. My only question is how did I come

from a 5’5” freshman to a 6’3” future NBA hall of famer. The atmosphere of the arena, from the

loud people quieting for one song and standing as stiff as if they were soldiers, it makes me

pumped. Just about getting ready, I can hear the announcers for T.V. on the sidelines, I can

also hear them saying my name. Here we go, I thought as the stadium lights get brighter and

brighter to the point i'm sure everyone is blind. The ref has the ball and is walking towards the

middle of the college ruled court. Everyone is yelling our school's mascot and there is paintings

on their faces. The ref finally gets here and holds the ball, he throws it and our center is tall

enough to get the tip, it's our possession. I go up to the three point line and just shoot a no brainer

because the pick and roll i had set up right before had him caught up. Now we are in the lead by 3.

At around halftime, we are keeping up the pace, the score is 50 to 13 and we are winning.

the coach says we are taking too many 3 pointers and we need to drive to the basket. I can dunk

like Jordan, but coach doesn't let anyone dunk, it always has to be layups. We get back out there

and 5 minutes in the second half, the pick and roll that our center had set up had caught three

people at a time, I had the ball and it was clear to the basket, so I ran up as fast as I could and I

went for a dunk, I hit my head on the rim and got a concussion from hitting the ground face

first. I miss the whole rest of the season and we won the whole championship undefeated, and

i’m the number one pick in the NBA draft selected by the Chicago Bulls for 5 million dollars.

Although i’m the first person in my family to go pro after my dad, I am also the first

person in my family to win the MVP in the NBA, Along with Defensive Player of the Year

award, and multiple titles. I am happy that I did it while having good grades, which was hard for

me, because I was stupid at most of the time.