February 26^th, 2014 was a day I couldn’t forget to see my brother actually play in his first basketball state tournament game. It was the #6 Taunton Tigers versus the #11 Brookline Warriors. I showed up to the game because of the long line. I showed up to the game in black and orange just like the school colors. The gym was packed for the first time in a while for a basketball game. The player’s family and students from both schools filled up the stands. You would think it’s a championship game the way it looked when you got in. Stands were filled, people wearing school colors, everybody cheering and being loud; the experience of being there was crazy.

The students and parents dress completely different. Guy students wear jeans or cargo pants, North Face jacket, either an orange or black t-shirt. For shoes there is a variety of them you have Jordan’s, Nikes, Vans, Adidas, Timberland boots etc. I’ve noticed that more guy students wear face paint than girls; I thought the girls would do it more too. Girls they usually wear black leggings, orange or black white t-shirt with a tiger paw on the shirt, some tie dye their shirts too. For foot wear a lot of girls wear uggs like they always do, or they wear some type of running shoe. Sometimes you might see a student wear a tiger suit which is very comical. The parents dress as a normal adult would like a jacket by any company, jeans maybe sweat pants for men, the moms would wear uggs or some type of running shoe, and men wear running shoes or their dress shoes from work. The parents don’t usually dress up in the school colors.

Are student section doesn’t really come up with cheers because some of them don’t want to do it or make some up. Whenever a player from our team is at the free throw line we put our hands up resembling a tiger paw. Sometimes when a player from our team hits a three point shot we put up three fingers. The cheer leaders they focus on their routines instead of pumping up the crowd. During breaks they will do some cheers but they consist of a lot of flips and stuff like that. One thing I find cool is that some of the girls on the cheer squad can do back flips from one side of the court to the other side, and it’s crazy because that takes a lot of body strength to do that.

The gym was decorated with black and orange balloons, and confetti it looked great with the new gym we got in 2012. There was a paper mache around the railings of the stands it looked like a professional decorated it. One thing that was bad was the Brookline student section sat behind my family, and me it was really annoying. They were so loud with their cheers I thought I was going to leave the gym with no sense of hearing. They even started singing random songs to throw off our players; their singing was terrible though. As the game was starting Brookline was on fire scoring on offense, and playing defense.  It was devastating watching Taunton not play with some confidence in the first half. When the first half ended and Brookline was in the lead, I could see it on the fans faces for Taunton that they were worried.

But what goes around comes around; Taunton came out on fire with a 9-0 run. The student section brought out some cheers and got louder than Brookline’s student section. The Brookline players maintained to keep the game within reach. The fourth quarter started and it was like a chess match, both teams were scoring keeping the game close. Every time Brookline scored their fans got loud, but when we scored our student section got louder. As the game was going to a close we ended up going to overtime. My thought process was as if I was playing on how to stop Brookline from scoring, that’s how much I was focused into the game it was crazy.

Brookline had this player named Elijah and I heard he has a lot of Division 1 school offers. I finally figured out why he was so good. He was going crazy in overtime with and-ones and completing his free throws, and free throws are important in close basketball games. With 5 seconds left in the first overtime we were down by 3 and we had the ball, everybody who was cheering for Taunton was on their feet. Hoping for a miracle to keep this game going. My friend Truly Parker made a 3 pointer at the buzzer to force overtime. I couldn’t stop jumping, clapping, screaming, that shot was that intense. The student section for Taunton was going crazy I thought some students was going to storm the court, like they do in college games. Second overtime wasn’t looking good for us we missed some key free throws to put the game away. And Brookline made their free throws, and we lost 82-84. It’s devastating going to a game cheering for your favorite team, and they lose in the first round of the playoffs. But I enjoyed watching my former high school playing their hearts out.

February 26^th, 2014 was a day I couldn’t forget to see my brother actually play in his first basketball state tournament game. It was the #6 Taunton Tigers versus the #11 Brookline Warriors. I showed up to the game because of the long line. I showed up to the game in black and orange just like the school colors. The gym was packed for the first time in a while for a basketball game. The player’s family and students from both schools filled up the stands. You would think it’s a championship game the way it looked when you got in. Stands were filled, people wearing school colors, everybody cheering and being loud; the experience of being there was crazy.

The students and parents dress completely different. Guy students wear jeans or cargo pants, North Face jacket, either an orange or black t-shirt. For shoes there is a variety of them you have Jordan’s, Nikes, Vans, Adidas, Timberland boots etc. I’ve noticed that more guy students wear face paint than girls; I thought the girls would do it more too. Girls they usually wear black leggings, orange or black white t-shirt with a tiger paw on the shirt, some tie dye their shirts too. For foot wear a lot of girls wear uggs like they always do, or they wear some type of running shoe. Sometimes you might see a student wear a tiger suit which is very comical. The parents dress as a normal adult would like a jacket by any company, jeans maybe sweat pants for men, the moms would wear uggs or some type of running shoe, and men wear running shoes or their dress shoes from work. The parents don’t usually dress up in the school colors.

Are student section doesn’t really come up with cheers because some of them don’t want to do it or make some up. Whenever a player from our team is at the free throw line we put our hands up resembling a tiger paw. Sometimes when a player from our team hits a three point shot we put up three fingers. The cheer leaders they focus on their routines instead of pumping up the crowd. During breaks they will do some cheers but they consist of a lot of flips and stuff like that. One thing I find cool is that some of the girls on the cheer squad can do back flips from one side of the court to the other side, and it’s crazy because that takes a lot of body strength to do that.

The gym was decorated with black and orange balloons, and confetti it looked great with the new gym we got in 2012. There was a paper mache around the railings of the stands it looked like a professional decorated it. One thing that was bad was the Brookline student section sat behind my family, and me it was really annoying. They were so loud with their cheers I thought I was going to leave the gym with no sense of hearing. They even started singing random songs to throw off our players; their singing was terrible though. As the game was starting Brookline was on fire scoring on offense, and playing defense.  It was devastating watching Taunton not play with some confidence in the first half. When the first half ended and Brookline was in the lead, I could see it on the fans faces for Taunton that they were worried.

But what goes around comes around; Taunton came out on fire with a 9-0 run. The student section brought out some cheers and got louder than Brookline’s student section. The Brookline players maintained to keep the game within reach. The fourth quarter started and it was like a chess match, both teams were scoring keeping the game close. Every time Brookline scored their fans got loud, but when we scored our student section got louder. As the game was going to a close we ended up going to overtime. My thought process was as if I was playing on how to stop Brookline from scoring, that’s how much I was focused into the game it was crazy.

Brookline had this player named Elijah and I heard he has a lot of Division 1 school offers. I finally figured out why he was so good. He was going crazy in overtime with and-ones and completing his free throws, and free throws are important in close basketball games. With 5 seconds left in the first overtime we were down by 3 and we had the ball, everybody who was cheering for Taunton was on their feet. Hoping for a miracle to keep this game going. My friend Truly Parker made a 3 pointer at the buzzer to force overtime. I couldn’t stop jumping, clapping, screaming, that shot was that intense. The student section for Taunton was going crazy I thought some students was going to storm the court, like they do in college games. Second overtime wasn’t looking good for us we missed some key free throws to put the game away. And Brookline made their free throws, and we lost 82-84. It’s devastating going to a game cheering for your favorite team, and they lose in the first round of the playoffs. But I enjoyed watching my former high school playing their hearts out.

I’ve been coaching for 4 years now and the experience is very precious to me. The connection I had had with my players and their families and the other coaches made us a huge family that’s how close we were. I knew this would help us win our first super bowl. I remember our super bowl Sunday as if it was yesterday. I went to sleep the night before at 3 pm and woke up at 7 am the game was at 1 pm in the afternoon. I had the pre-game jitters and this meant I was really nervous we were going to play against the number 2 team in New England the Wareham Tigers. At one point I thought we would lose because they were undefeated just like them. I started my pre game routine with a nice warm shower and what I call a 5 star breakfast, which was a bagel bacon egg and cheese sandwich this was the best thing I could make at the time and it was delicious. I even felt like I could start up my own breakfast spot. Then I listen to music preferably rap a couple of songs by some artists that I like.

I arrived to the beautiful Taunton High football nice turf it’s almost brand new either they had it for a few years. The day was nice warm with a little breeze here and there. The sun was so bright you have to squint to watch the game. Every game you can smell the food from the consecution stand I’m always craving food before the game and after the game it’s that good. We warm up weigh in and now we are on the field for the coin toss I noticed my attitude to this game was different from a regular season game. It’s a more serious attitude but on thin ice cause one mistake and a lot of things can go wrong. I knew my team was ready and I was ready also I was so excited that I could put on a helmet and shoulder pads and go help them. Wareham ended up scoring the first touchdown it happened so fast I couldn’t process what happened it was weird. We remained scoreless in the first half and I was anxious about the next half.

The start of third we came out on fire made a couple of defensive stops and scored two touchdowns. After we did that we shut down Warehams pride to win and we took over. We won our first super bowl all I wanted to do was have fun hang out with the team coaches and have a huge party. Which we did in my head coaches somewhat mansion which was really cool. A lot of food like pizza, pasta, hot dogs, burgers, and desert like cake, cookies, brownies it was crazy I made sure I was stuffed but stuffed enough to have the itis cause that would be bad.

The theme that i’ll be choosing is sports. I’ve played basketball and football for majority of my life. Those are the only two sports that I put effort into. I can write about the success and the downfalls for both of these sports. There are multiple things I can write about like The use of illegal drugs for players, Rule changes to make the sport safer, finacial issues with teams and players, managers, owners etc.