This is a post I have been waiting to write since last year. This is a post that I deserve to write. This is a post that I am proud to write. And this is a post that caused tears to stream down my face as I wrote it. This is a HAPPY post! Finally!!!!! (So yes, for a first time in a long time, these are tears of joy. It's about damn time I had some of these.)
Today my basketball team won the mother-fucking New York City title. That's right, we did it!! After losing a heartbreaker last year in the same exact championship game, we had our redemption this year and pulled off a one point victory. We went 24-0 for the season and are going to Albany on Friday for the state tournament. This is so surreal to me. I literally cannot believe this right now. We did it!!!! (FYI, my Illinois peeps, I know where we grew up it was all about who won State and that's what everyone cared about. It's different here. Because New York is so big, the city championship is like the equivalent of winning state at home so this is kinda huge. We'll go on to state and play there, but it's not a big deal. We got that city chip and that's all that really matters.)
After the season ended last year, I was crushed. I cried for days. And I honestly thought my chances of winning a city title were done with for a while. We lost four seniors, three of which were starters, and I wasn't so sure this season was going to measure up to my first year. However, we got two fantastic freshman and two returning senior girls, ones who actually get very limited playing time, stepped up as true leaders for the team. When the season began, we were blowing teams out yet still trying to find our true identity as a team. We had two close games before the New Year and managed to keep our composure and win. In our MLK tournament, we won the championship game by one point (to a team that ended up losing in the final four of the city tourney to the team we beat today). After that win, we began to find ourselves and what we really wanted to be as a team. We were running and gunning and playing together more. The intensity and the teamwork were finally presenting themselves prominently. As a coach, it was truly a beautiful thing to witness. In February we were invited to the division showcase which takes the top eight teams in the city for the higher-ups to see us all play and get a better idea on seedings. We were in the headliner game for this, but as the away team. To us this was an insult because that meant we were currently being viewed as second best and we knew we were for sure not second to anyone. We knew we were the best. We ended up winning that game and after completing the final two weeks of the regular season we received the number one seed in the city for the second year in a row. Wow.
At the start of playoffs the reality hit that if we didn't win the city title then our very first loss would be our very last loss. It was truly one and done time. We had proved to ourselves we could win the close games, but would we be able to keep it up? After a first round bye and an easy second round game, our third and fourth round games were both very close games against good teams; but again, we kept it together, didn't panic, and came out with the wins. In this championship game we were facing a team we had previously beaten earlier in the season and one that we knew we could handily beat if we played our game. But we had to do just that.
I barely slept this entire week leading up to this game and truly believed we deserved to win; however during the game my girls foul trouble, lack of boxing out, and lay-up missing was getting in the way of that. The entire game had the score going up and back with many lead changes. At one point, I thought I was going to throw up on the sideline from anxiety. And I wasn't the only one. With about two minutes left in the game and the score constantly flip-flopping, my entire bench was in tears. They were anxious, fearful, and just couldn't believe this was all happening. It was almost too much for them to handle. I had three girls on the court crying as they were playing the final minutes. So yeah, shit was intense. However, down the stretch they managed to keep it together, actually hit their free throws and we got the win. And we went nuts. Everyone was crying happy tears. Tears of joy. And tears of relief. We did it. We were crowned city champions and it couldn't have been sweeter. Or more well-deserved.
I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of these girls. They practiced every day with me. They practiced over winter and February breaks. They practiced on the weekends. There really wasn't that much complaining and there was very little drama. All their hard work and dedication paid off. Whether it was the last girl on the bench or my star player, everyone had a hand in the success this season and I really could not be prouder. They were all really a part of something special and this is something they will never, ever forget. It is definitely something I will never forget. It was that incredible of a feeling.
This win meant more to me than the basketball part of it. It was bigger than that for me. Of course the actual basketball championship is a huge part of my current happiness because of my love for the game and my dedication to this sport and my team, but this victory held so much more value to me. I've mentioned numerous times that 2015 was not my year. It was shit. Nothing seemed to go right and I felt I was in one giant funk with a permanent cloud circling over my head for the entire year. It seemed as if I couldn't catch a break and nothing that I did, no matter how hard I worked or how bad I wanted it, went right. It sucked. Plain and simple. This win was something I needed so very badly. It was not only an actual victory, but a moral victory for me too. Perhaps a turning point for me for more good things to come. I've been trying to keep a more positive spin on things and keep my head more focused on all the good that can happen for me. I've been visualizing my success and when I catch myself with doubts, I immediately try to "change channels" mentally and get back to the positive one. Maybe it's actually working. But for now, I can only bask in this. I am on cloud nine about this. This is something I deserved. This is something I worked hard for. This is something I can be proud of. This is something that I am happy about. I can finally exhale after about three weeks of holding my breath. It's about fucking time. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
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