I devot a lot of my time to my travel team and so does my coach. But sometimes I feel like I just want to leave my travel team but I don't because I am loyal to my coach and I don't want to just abandon my team but sometimes the enters my mind of leaving my team but what stops me is that my coach built my team around me. But sometimes they won't give any effort in a game and make me work harder to make us look half decent and embarrass my travel team by not giving an effort what so ever. For example this weekend we played in a tournament in San Diego and my coach drove some of my team mates down to San Diego with a ruptured achilles because he cares for us so much. So the first game at 9:00 am we play is pretty good then the second game we played at 2:00 was horrible and the only one that gave full effort and came to play my coach said was me the rest of my team was to scared to do anything and if they missed a shot or messed up they would walk back to defense and since they walked backed the other team would score or my team mates would play lazy defense in the game I had rolled my ankle which meant I had to be subbed out of the game so when I was subbed out my teams defense was horrible and did I mention we got creamed. After the game my coach talked to us and said all he wants from us is effort and to play at least a good game to show compassion for our parents who had to drive us down to San Diego. After he talked to us we had 40 minutes to rest before the next game my team went inside and I stayed outside but when I went in I was so angry to see that my team mates were laughing and playing around as if we just played a great game and I told my coach I can't believe it doesn't even bother them the way we just played. I sat out the next game and when I was watching my team play they were playing like chickens with there heads cut off it was bad. I just can't believe they way this weekend ended up....

Sometimes I feel like I am not good enough to compete with the girls my age because I started basketball later. When these thoughts enter my mind I can't help but want to quit basketball because I feel like I will never make it if I can't compete with the girls now imagine when I am in high school and college trying out for the schools basketball team. The main thought that surrounds all of this is feeling like I will never be able to compete with the girls my age and being scared of not being the best at what I do. But there is also motivational thoughts that enter my mind when I think I am not good enough I ask myself what have I been doing to try to get better. It also helps me work harder because I keep telling myself I can be better and that I need to improve and that I need to push myself through the pain I get during practice because to get better you have to push yourself through the pain and fatigue thats how Kobe and all the greats got to where they all are now by pushing themselves.

Playing basketball on the Portola basketball team has its fun and hard times. Our practices consist of a lot of running but our coach only runs us when we mess up after he told us the right way to do it so we cause ourselves to run. But when ever my coach stops us and corrects us or if he makes us run that's how we know he cares a lot about us and making us better at basketball. When he pushes us in practice its so we are prepared for high school. We also do a lot of defensive drills and all the other fundamentals. The hard parts of practice are when we run because we don't just run and then we move on we are timed and if we don't make it we go again until we make it which isn't very fun.  Another hard part about practice is when we do push ups because if someone doesn't  do them right we have to do the push ups again or the coaches tell us when to go down and when to come up. But all the hard things that we do make us a stronger and better team.

Basketball is a very tough game, you have to be mentally and physically strong. You also have to have basketball IQ. Basketball IQ is looking at the floor, making smart plays, being aggressive, and playing smart. You have to be able to think and make smart plays when you are tired and worn out. When you only have a little energy left in your body is when true basketball players shine; because they are able to think even when they only have a drop of energy left in their body. Basketball involves everything being physically and mentally strong, you have to ration your energy throughout the whole game. You can't just go crazy in the first 5 minutes, you have to be able to not let your fatigue get you in a game. You also have to be able to do all that and still try to beat the other team.

My ultimate goal in life is to be a professional basketball player. When my travel team got invited to play at the Staples Center, I didn't think we were going to play on the actual Sparks' basketball floor, When I found out that I was going to be playing where Lisa Leslie had played, I nearly died. She was the first woman to ever dunk which is awesome because most women can't dunk. Lisa Leslie inspired me to want to accomplish the impossible. When I stepped on the floor I felt the excitement running through my veins as if I was playing in the championship game with a sold out crowd. When I looked up into the stands, I imagined my coach and parents in the crowd feeling so happy that I was able to make it to the big leagues, I felt that I wanted to be in the WNBA doing the thing that I love the most... playing basketball.

My teammates are like my sisters. To play good you have to be able to trust each other but you build trust by bonding through pain and we also bond by going on team trips to the beach and going on bike rides together. We also bond in games like when we are in a tough game and are fighting really hard against the other team. When we are going against other teams we have to know each others strengths and weaknesses and we find out each others weaknesses through bonding and playing with each other. Another factor that comes in when we are playing tough teams is trust. The reason trust is a factor is because you have to trust that your teammates are going to do their part. When we win, we bond because we used all of our strengths. When we lose, we bond and learn what to do better and how to help our teammates more.

Before a game it is sometimes hard for me to get in the zone. The zone is where I am just a beast on the court and I see nothing but the ball. And it feels like the world has stopped. I love when I get in that zone. Basketball is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I say that because I am a person who likes to plan for the future and basketball gives me a future, so every time I try to get into the zone all I think about is one day when scouts will be at my game and that game I cant afford to play horribly. So before a game I just pretend that there are scouts in the crowd and that if I do an amazing job at the game I will be drafted into the WNBA which will lead to an amazing future. That is why I try to play as well as possible in a game and try to play consistently to be prepared for when I play in the WNBA. And being in the zone is part of playing consistently.

When I started basketball I was the worst player. So I had to work hard to be able to compete with the girls my age. I mean I was the girl who played in her running shoes and just knew what team I was on and didn't know anything else. So you could imagine how hard I had to work to become the great player I am today. The thing that helped me grow into a better player is when I was chosen to play on the minor girls all star  balboa team in 2014. Which I had only been playing basketball for 3 seasons before all stars. But when I played on the all star team the thing that I was amazing at was defense and my aggression. Offense was not one of my strengths. But today I am good at offense and an amazing defender. And today I play at the gold level which is the highest level in girls travel ball. When I started basketball I never thought I would accomplish the things I have today. And I never thought I would ever be where I am right now.

My coach Corey is not just an amazing man but a mircale worker because when he invited me to practice with him I was the worst player out there. Though I was a really bad player he was not like other coaches who just walked passed me and didn't even care to try to make me better. But my coach was the only coach to stop and actually train me and make me better. And now that I am a beast on the court all the other coaches that walked right passed me and didn't care to make me better. Now they all stop and look and want me to play on their team. But I stick with the coach that wanted me when I was horrible. I don't play for the coaches that only want me now that I am an awesome player. Loyalty before anything else.

Basketball is what helps me get frustration out and whenever I play I feel like the world around me has stoped and the only thing that hasnt stoped is the game. And I love when I get in the zone because I feel like nothing else matters but the ball and how to stop the other team from scoreing. I also love when I'm in a game my team is working together because me and my team havent had the easiest road to go down. With my team at first it was hard because my coach brought in players that where a little rough around the edges. And there was also problems of not all the girls showing up to practice so when we played in games it was hard to work together. Then after a few months we went to a UCLA basketball camp and during one of the games 2 of my teammates started getting catty with each other which brought of back to having to rebuild the bond with our team. And me as a team captain got mad at my team mates because they made my coach look bad and made of travel team look bad. Which also meant we had to develop trust on the court again and we had to make sure that that never happened again. Today a lot of things are better we win a lot more games and we injoy these wins because we had lost a lot of games in the begging.

The life of a basketball player is pretty tough because there is so much competition for the spot that you want. So you have to be willing to work harder than anyone else. For me luckily I have a coach who sees a bright future for me so he pushes me harder than anyone else on my team because he knows I am willing to work for it. When I started playing basketball I was 10 years old almost 11. But when I joined my travel team there was no team for my age group so I had to play with girls 3 to 4 years older than me. And that first game I had playing against girls 3 to 4 years older  I was working so hard on defense and offense. That is when my coach saw something special and made a horrible player into a great player. And sometimes it gets hard practicing a lot and getting pushed harder than anyone on my team but it is worth it when I play in a game and I can do so many amazing things.