It was a good early morning, as me and my AAU basketball team spent a night at this hotel in Foxboro, Massachusetts. We all stayed here because it was a far travel from home. The whole team had breakfast and then, it was off to the tournament. We had a great day as we went 2 and 1 for the day and everyone played great. Then as our schedule turned out we didn’t play until the next day late at night. We were all happy that we had enough time to rest, until we found out who we were playing. The team that we were scheduled to play was a machine with kids that looked like they could play in the NBA. One of our parents during the day at the tournament went to see how the team played and they told the coaches, my dad and another players dad on the team, how talented they were. I overheard them talking and they still told us the same game plan before every game we play.

We all had just went back to the Holiday Inn Hotel in Foxboro after our games and as you know at a hotel with an AAU team, that is the best. We all had fun until it was game time and we had to eat at the restaurant in the hotel and then we drove to the gym. As we entered the building we had seen the team sitting down on the bleachers and I was a good distance away, but they couldn’t even fit on the bleachers. Next, as the horn sounded and the game before us ended an older brother of the kid on our team gave us a really inspirational speech and just said to have fun no matter who you play. In warm ups my dad said to not even look at the other team on the other end of the court and we didn’t. But, we could hear the sound of the rim shaking from the dunks they were throwing down.

Finally the time has come for tip off and as we went to the center of the court there point guard was at least 1 foot taller then me. The ref blew the whistle and said lets go boys and as soon as the referee threw the ball into the air our tallest player had no chance of getting it and in a matter of at least 10 seconds the point guard floated a shot that looked like an air ball until out of nowhere there player went up so high in the air and jammed it for an alley oop dunk. “It Was Insane”. The kid was over six feet easily who dunked it, it was just crazy the height they had on the team and on the bench how tall the kids were. It was shot after shot after dunk, after dunk and we couldn’t stop them. Finally, my dad called a timeout and we all agreed those kids weren’t in our grade. One of our players on our team said that those players might even be married with a kid, thats how old they looked.

Then, as our timeout was over it was time to make a name for ourselves and prove to this team that we have heart. The next play we got the rebound off the missed dunk and I screamed for the outlet pass across half court and as my big man threw me the ball I jumped as high as I could to get it and I did a little crossover to break away from my man as I drilled a shot from the elbow top get our team on the board. Then, we had finally found a rhythm and got ourselves going. We didn’t score a lot of points but we felt good whatever points we ended up with. Next the buzzer had went off and it was halftime with the score of 60 to 10 with Expressions Elite incharge. My dad the head coach, and the assistant coach took us aside and told us to keep doing what we are doing and to just give it your all and who cares if you win or lose, or what the final score is at the end of the game, but to just be happy when you're playing. Just play tough and play as a team so everyone can be involved and just to play how you play your own game.

Then the halftime meeting was over and it was time for the second half as Expressions came out firing and hitting shots left and right, but we stayed in there and giving it our best to make some good plays. The second half was coming close to almost over, but my dad wasted his last time out and brought us to the sideline. He said, “It doesn’t matter how good this team is and how they might seem like they are so good, but let them celebrate and yell all they want, but remember that we can always surprise them and show them what Storm brings to the court”. That speech gave us a good boost of confidence and we played with a lot more excitement and intensity to finish the game as a team. As the buzzer sounded and the final score read (Expressions: 120 / Storm: 40) I still say that we gave it our all and it was a fun game to play. When I look back to that game, still to this day I can still remember how talented they were and really how awesome it was to play these kids. I will remember that game and “No matter who we play, we can always compete with anyone, whatever it takes for us to do”. The one great thing is that I had my dad as the coach being chill and still into the game but giving us that boost to cheer us up. I can also say that I have played against future Pro players, thats how good they were and I think that it was an amazing experience to have and to tell people, how New England Storm AAU team out of North Andover, Massachusetts competed with a nationally ranked team in the country.