my athletic path

By Thien N

Growing up around a family that loves sports, watches a lot of sports, and even played sports, I quickly gained interest in one specific sport and that is basketball. As a child, I loved partaking in physically-demanding activities such as playing tag, rock climbing, and just running in general. I was then invited by my dad to play basketball at the local park one day. And we would end up going every weekend. He taught me the fundamentals and everything I needed to know. I always looked forward to going back every week.

But of course, adults are often busy so he stopped taking me. Yet that didn’t stop me at all from playing basketball. I took the basketball we had at home and played every single day at recess. I played with friends and of course, I looked forward to it just like I did playing with my dad on the weekends. I transferred schools a lot, but every single school I went to, I quickly gained titles of being extremely skilled. It wasn't until I ended up at Stonegate Elementary where I played competitively. Even though it was recess, I still thought of it as a competition. We played every single day and I would practice after school everyday too. I took the sport so seriously that I ended up making a rivalry with kids I played against.

Rain was no problem to me; through rain and anything that tried to prevent me from playing basketball, I still continued to play no matter the circumstances. I would play everyday but got bored and wanted to play at a higher level. Once I got to middle school, I was eligible to play for the basketball team at my school. I tried out my 6th grade year and made the team. This made me have an even higher ambition for basketball. I’d practice all day and night to get better. Even through a world pandemic, where people are highly advised to not go outside and stay away from human contact because it is easy to contract the virus, a dedicated boy in the 7th grade still practices basketball at the local park everyday till he’s tired.

When the pandemic ended, I went back to my normal routine of playing basketball at school every single day until the season for basketball at my school started. The season started and I was stoked; everyday I was excited to go to practice or even just to get to play during break. My first game was against Shirakawa, a neighboring school to us. We ended up blowing them out by a score of 65-20—I scored a majority of the points.

From this, the coach titled me captain of the team. We ended up winning the rest of our games until our last game, where we went against our rival school and ended up losing. I wasn't humble starting off the match and thought, “This will be another easy win.” My pride and my shame in losing caused me to cry. I stopped playing basketball from that day and was just pissed at myself.

A couple months later, I refreshed myself and decided to play another sport: volleyball. I found an enormous amount of joy playing this sport and just continued playing for a really long time. Volleyball season started and I joined the team. I again ended up receiving the title for captain and continued playing volleyball even after the season ended. I played at my local community center every single day and thought of this sport as a break from basketball.

One day, I was offered to play AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball and was unconvinced at first, but I joined either way. I came to their practices three times a week for two weeks. I still found myself not enjoying basketball at the moment and quit immediately. Then I continued playing volleyball for a while at my local community center. I felt the same way for volleyball as I did with basketball a few years ago. I played competitively at the center everyday with my friends and I honestly really love the sport. I competed in tournaments and my team absolutely destroyed our opponents.

Starting off high school, I got the realization that I finally have to let go of volleyball and get off my break for basketball. Basketball now again is a priority to me and I should start practicing again. I tried out for Yerba Buena’s basketball team, gave my best of efforts, and ended up on the junior varsity roster. In my journey of sports, I've learned a lot, and experienced a lot, both mentally and physically. I’ve grown throughout these experiences and I'm glad that these sports have had a major impact on my life.

For the Warrior Times, this is Thien Nguyen.