How a Varsity girl basketball player spends the day
There is a lot that goes into each day of a female basketball player. Being on any team requires one to be able to balance school and their social life, along with the stress of a sport. Being a varsity basketball player requires a lot of discipline, to make it to practice each day, physical and mental strength, to not get overwhelmed, and the ability to work as a team.
As a varsity basketball player myself, I have a lot that goes into my day, along with the rest of my teammates. My day consists of taking my fourteen year old sister to school at 7:15 a.m., when my dad has to go into work early. After dropping her off and heading back home, I normally eat some kind of breakfast and then go lay back down for an hour or so. I do not have to be at school until 11:50 a.m. most days, so my mornings are pretty relaxed. Occasionally, I will do laundry and clean my room before I begin to get ready for school around 10:00 a.m. When I get ready, I start with my hair. I wet my hair and put mousse or gel in it to hold my curls. Then, I put on mascara, and my outfit for the day and finally I brush my teeth. After I am ready for the day, I make my lunch and head to school around 11:20 a.m.. Most days I have to go to Nest time at Airport High School to do some sort of little assignment. Then, I go to my third block, calculus. Then, lunch, and lastly, fourth block, journalism. After school is over, we have practice from 4:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., but we never get out on time! As soon as practice is over, I head to my car and call my mom because I am starving. I tell my mom that I am on the way home from practice, and I always ask what we are having for supper. Once I make it home, I shower, eat supper, do homework if there is any, and some nights my boyfriend comes over to hang out for a little while. Then, it is off to bed around 11:00 p.m., after brushing my teeth. A long day's worth of classes, practice and some social time, calls for a good night's rest.
My teammates also think being on the varsity basketball team is important too. It adds to your day. Everyone finds it a little stressful at times as well, but we all still love it. When two of my teammates, Bre L. and Naizja R. were asked what their favorite parts and most stressful parts are about basketball, they responded like this. Bre L., a post player on the varsity basketball team, says, “My favorite part of being a basketball player is being able to play with y’all, y’all are my favorite. The most stressful part is losing and remembering the plays!” Naizja R., one of the guards on the team, says, “ My favorite part would be the team environment and how we lift each other up, and the most stressful part is how I always get hurt on the court.” Both of these girls on the team love basketball for the fun of it and the friends it brings to you, and that is the most important thing.
Basketball practice is what really sets us apart from all the other high school girls. Going to basketball practice takes a lot out of you. You get bumped and bruised, and you have to have a good attitude or else it is on the baseline, with a punishment of running. To go into a little depth of how basketball practice is for me, I will start at 4:15 p.m. At 4:15 p.m., all the girls on the varsity team come together in the gym and talk a little with the head varsity coach, Coach Amick. After a few minutes, we all do our team agilities together and then stretch in a circle. Once we have stretched out, we normally do full court layups, then some ball handling, then we run over plays to make sure they stay fresh in our minds. After going over all of our plays, our team splits up into guards and posts. I am a post player, so I go off with Bre L. and some other posts on the team, to work on making contact with our shots. Most of the shots we work on are floaters, layups and some jump shots, all from pretty close to the basket. This is my favorite part of practice because we get to work one on one with our assistant coach, Coach Hill. After post and guard work, our team comes back together to shoot free throws and then wrap up practice. Our coaches always tell us how they thought practice went and what their expectations are for the following day, especially if there is a game ahead of us.
There is a lot that goes into practice for basketball, but as long as you love the sport, you will figure out how to balance it all. That is what all of us on the team are doing. We just make the best out of each day. Sometimes it does get overwhelming, but staying focused and planning for the day always helps. Any extra time throughout the school day should be used wisely to get homework done and then watch some film to prepare for the next game. This keeps you from having extra work to do, once you get home from practice. You always want to be focused and that is how you become the best student athlete you can be.
