Hoop It Up

I played basketball growing up for ten years. It was my favorite sport to play. I really loved it until my senior year of high school, which was a total let-down as a player. Since high school, I haven't played much. Sure, in college, my friends and I occasionally played in intramural leagues, but they often only lasted a month or so because there wasn't enough interest from other females to play. Co-ed intramurals is perhaps the most unenjoyable basketball I've ever played because all guys want to do is dunk and there isn't much actual playing involved.

The basketball I liked to play growing up was the basketball that required running set offenses and defensive schemes. Offensively was usually a battle because my team always had at least one ball hog and we never actually ran offenses they way they were intended to be run. I loved playing defense, though, because I usually was able to defend the other team's best player and I enjoyed this challenge.

This summer, a few friends convinced me to join them in a women's league held at a local high school. There are six teams in the league, two teams of high school students and four teams of older alums like myself. Some of these women are just plain crazy - they are obsessed with this league and it's basically the biggest thing they look forward to once a week. On the other hand, I'm really not that overly interested in it. I agreed to play because it's good exercise and mostly to see my friends. I didn't sign up to play because I thought it would be fun because basketball stopped being fun for me a long time ago.

I was on my road trip and missed the first game. The second game, my first appearance, confirmed my initial expectation - that this experience wouldn't be much fun and that I don't actually like basketball. Needless to say, I wasn't excited to show up for our third game this past Sunday.

My team has a lot of busy people with outside commitments so we haven't had a week where everyone could play. On Sunday, we played with only 5 total players, so we had no one to sub for us to give us a breather. Back in the day, I didn't need a sub, but since it's clearly not 1999, forty minutes of basketball is pretty rigorous, despite the fact that I did get myself into pretty decent shape the past few months.

We battled on Sunday. The best part about the game was that we actually played well offensively and actually did make great passes which lead to open shots. Defensively was much tougher because we played a team of 16-year-old high school girls who are in their athletic prime. They strategized to play us full court in the second half, which really winded us and took some energy away. Sadly, we lost our third game in a row. But surprisingly for me, I actually really enjoyed this game. I honestly had fun. I really didn't think that was possible.