It was a Tuesday afternoon, right after school had passed. Twenty-five boys walked into the gym, one of those boys was me, Jihn Rameriez-Junior.
Studying was one of my favorite hobbies, but I devote most of my fantastic free time on
The court. I have been waiting days, weeks, and probably months to tryout for the minor basketball league. I limbed to the locker room to get changed and as I did, I wondered what would I do if I didn't make the team.
I had stood in the locker room, gripping my baggy shorts and saggy no-name jersey. I stripped off my denim pants and my polo-shirt as I slipped on the shorts and jersey. Still, I had no idea what to do, study? I always got an honor role ever since I started in the 4th grade.
I had exited from the locker room and entered that "tryout atmosphere". Those other fifteen year old boys go to my high school, Father Patrick High. Some discriminated me because I was below the average height for a 10th grade student. I blame myself for being Asian. My uncle Juhn was the coach of the team and told me,
“Jihn, grab a basketball and warm-up.”
Twenty minutes had gone by, the boys and me lined up in a straight line from the free-throw line. My friend Aaron Carter-Louis took the two first free-throws to start it of and we just kept it going. After that we did a dribbling drill. Uncle Juhn asked them to do certain basketball moves and to finish each one, we would have to either lay it in or shoot it in the basketball net. I of course, did the specific moves and got a reverse lay-up in.
Time pasted by quick, we got a ten minute break after the free-throwing and the dribbling drills. I had suddenly had a flash back, a month ago, my uncle Juhn said that only thirteen boys make it… the rest would be kicked off because of the try-outs. This stirred in my mind. There is twenty-five of us, and only the top thirteen will make the team, meaning twelve of us would leave.
Our break time was over, right away we got back into action as we started the it of with the "Salom Run" as many call it and which normally college players and NBA player normally do, which is really hard for our level. My Uncle was concerned how I had the best time of 52.592 seconds. Many of the other boys were amazed how fast I did it especially at my age level.
My Uncle decided to do two half-court scrimmage games. We played by college ball rules, 40 minutes, 2 periods, 20 per minute period. The results were excellent, on court one the score was 66 to 81 and on court two, which I been playing on and we won 79 to 73.
