“Starting, your really nervous.”
“You don’t know what to expect.”
“There’s so much pressure.”
Staring into the face of your opponent, this is it. After years and years of hard work, playing your senior year of high school basketball where it matters the most. All of the feelings catch up with you. But if you screw this up, who knows the next game you will start. This is your time to shine.
The time to forget the nerves.
Don’t stare, intimidate.
These might’ve been the thoughts running through starting point guard Travis Picquet’s mind before playing against University School on January 23. The University Preppers are a very beatable team this year, with (at the time) the same record as Eastlake North, 4-8. With this being the first time University School was not in the Rangers’ conference, so they would only have to play them once on their home court. With almost the same playing style as each other, many thought either North would take the game or it would be a very close game, like the last time the two met, going into overtime.
That was, if all went well. And wistfully, all did not go well.
The Rangers fell once again at home 61-42 in probably one of the worst ways to lose. Well, you see, when a referee is completely against you the whole game, allowing the other team many points in foul shots, you start to fall behind. That’s exactly what happened on that cold, depressing Saturday afternoon. Going into the second half, about 10 fouls were called and North trailed 20-26. But it didn’t get really bad until the second half of the game when a technical foul was called on Eastlake’s coach for speaking his mind and standing up for what is right. Usually I don’t include my own personal opinion in my articles, but this is one I simply cannot keep my mouth shut. This is unfair and not right. High school referees shouldn’t be able to regulate the score of the game by calling ridiculous fouls. It’s discouraging. Basketball, or any sport, is not soft, it is a very rough sport. You cannot tell a kid to play with intensity and aggressiveness then shoot him down by calling fouls. I’m sorry, it’s just not right and I can’t stay silent any longer.
“We could’ve beaten University, the officials just didn’t help us.”
No, they did not.
By: Mollee Ryan
“You don’t know what to expect.”
“There’s so much pressure.”
Staring into the face of your opponent, this is it. After years and years of hard work, playing your senior year of high school basketball where it matters the most. All of the feelings catch up with you. But if you screw this up, who knows the next game you will start. This is your time to shine.
The time to forget the nerves.
Don’t stare, intimidate.
These might’ve been the thoughts running through starting point guard Travis Picquet’s mind before playing against University School on January 23. The University Preppers are a very beatable team this year, with (at the time) the same record as Eastlake North, 4-8. With this being the first time University School was not in the Rangers’ conference, so they would only have to play them once on their home court. With almost the same playing style as each other, many thought either North would take the game or it would be a very close game, like the last time the two met, going into overtime.
That was, if all went well. And wistfully, all did not go well.
The Rangers fell once again at home 61-42 in probably one of the worst ways to lose. Well, you see, when a referee is completely against you the whole game, allowing the other team many points in foul shots, you start to fall behind. That’s exactly what happened on that cold, depressing Saturday afternoon. Going into the second half, about 10 fouls were called and North trailed 20-26. But it didn’t get really bad until the second half of the game when a technical foul was called on Eastlake’s coach for speaking his mind and standing up for what is right. Usually I don’t include my own personal opinion in my articles, but this is one I simply cannot keep my mouth shut. This is unfair and not right. High school referees shouldn’t be able to regulate the score of the game by calling ridiculous fouls. It’s discouraging. Basketball, or any sport, is not soft, it is a very rough sport. You cannot tell a kid to play with intensity and aggressiveness then shoot him down by calling fouls. I’m sorry, it’s just not right and I can’t stay silent any longer.
“We could’ve beaten University, the officials just didn’t help us.”
No, they did not.
By: Mollee Ryan