Sporting memories: Getting cut from a team despite being one of the better players

There was a time when I was in high school where my father got relocated and I had to move to a completely different area where i knew no one and had to enroll in a school system where none of the people in the sports programs had any idea about my capabilities in various sports. At that time my sports of choice were many including soccer, american football, swimming, and basketball.

But the coaches had no reason to watch me very closely but this still resulted in me getting on all of the teams. All but one of them and I think they regretted this choice later on, as I will explain towards the end of this.

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I was a freshman in high school (year 9) and this was a nerve racking situation for a kid this age. I like to believe that being thrust into a new school at this very vulnerable age ended up making me a better person though because I had to sink or swim in sports and in social situations in general. I did end up making friends and did do well on the teams that I was chosen to be on - thrived actually. But the week of basketball tryouts was a bad one, because I had come down with a pretty bad cold and almost didn't go to school at all, let alone run around and prove to a coach that I had what it took to be on the team.

I explained to the coach that I was ill, but he was one of those drill-sergeant type of coaches that feels as though he needs to be mean to everyone at all times in order to inspire us. He basically didn't care that I was ill and when I had to leave the court early it wasn't because he was concerned about me getting others sick, it was because I physically was drained. This was viewed as weakness by the coach and even though I knew I was better than most of the people that made the team, I was cut. It was kind of humiliating in the hallways because very few people knew who I was anyway but now I was that guy that got cut from the freshman team - which is the easiest team to make.

After tryouts they had this thing organized after school just called intramurals and I suppose it was just a way of trying to keep the kids from smoking weed and getting into trouble on the streets of Illinois. I saw it as a chance to compete because I knew I was good. I formed a team in this group really quickly because my abilities were noticed by other players on the very first day of me not being ill during regular play.

The team that didn't get cut like me, was practicing in the same gym that we had our games in and they would cat call over to our group every now and then. But my team was actually good and I was raining down 3's and perimeter shots like nobody's business. Very few people could stop me and unless you were a foul machine, you couldn't usually get the ball off of me either because I was very good at keeping it away from you.

I had head fakes to get you in the air and pump fakes to accomplish the same only to slowly walk around you and put in an easy bucket. If a 2nd defender came at me I would dish to the guy that he was supposed to be guarding and the same thing would happen. I was establishing myself as a quality point guard and well, now the guys that "made the team" weren't cat calling anymore.

My redemption arc comes now though. It is common in these after school pickup games for the coach to come and ask (or in this case demand) that one of the non team squads play against this coached squad for their practice. One of those days the team that was playing against the "real" team was mine. We were a team of guys that either didn't try out of the real team or didn't make the cut.

It was a game to 21 by normal basketball rules, full court, 5 on 5. I won't bother with the play by play but I will never forget our very first possession. My team did an accidental pick and roll just based on where we were standing and I went far corner, pulled up, and nailed a 3-pointer, nothing but net. The next two possessions we scored 2 more times with me scoring a jump shot in the paint and then doing what I said before about luring a 2nd defender then dishing to my boy who was standing under the net unguarded. We were up by 7 before the "real team" even scored at all.

The real team got their stuff together and drew even with us in the mid teens but at the end of it all we won 21-17. The cat calling was reversed at that point and dickhead coach that was so mean to me when I was sick and trying out for his team actually started making excuses and giving us (the non real time) advice on how we could improve our game and pointing out portions of the game where we "cheated" even though he was refereeing during the game and could have called these supposed cheating incidents when they happened.

He just didn't want to admit that we bested his chosen squad. While I wasn't a jerk about it because I respect my elders even when they don't deserve it, I did ask the coach if he remembered me. He said he didn't and then I told him that he cut me from the freshman squad. I didn't point out that it was the same squad that we had just wiped the floor with in a scrimmage. I didn't feel the need to get sent to detention for being rude...even though I was correct.

I would later be approached by the coach to join the team about 3 games into their season (they lost all 3 games) but I refused. I was already thinking about the other sports I was going to play that year.

I ended up only attending that school for a single year, but I began to shine during that time and even though I hated it at the time, I think it was instrumental in me becoming a force in both soccer and American football. It was also around the time that I kind of gave up on basketball because it was evident that I wasn't going to get much taller and therefore, pursuing it at an elite level was kind of a waste of time. There are not many people who have made it that are only 6 feet even.

I excelled in sports after this because even though they didn't do it on purpose, my parents threw me to the wolves where my reputation was unknown and I would have to prove myself all over again. I think because of this I actually practiced, worked out, and tried much harder than the other people on the teams and this turned me into a much better athlete. But looking back at how that new school treated me, which wasn't very well, I am quite happy that I never got to be a member of their arsenal.

I would spend the next 3 years of high school playing back in the same city I attended elementary and middle school in and in soccer we won our division all 3 of those years. In American football, which I stopped playing by my junior year, we were also a contender and a team that other schools were afraid to play against. This is also the time where I finished 11th in the state in swimming.

I don't know if any of these things would have happened had I not been moved to a new school my freshman year. I strongly suspect that I wouldn't have been a part of them had that not happened.

So sometimes I think that something terrible happening to you can actually be a blessing in disguise if you use it right.

I do know one thing. I will never forget that drill sergeant coach (can see his face in my head now, 30 years later) that denied me, and how he very quickly lived to regret that decision though.