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.