FanNation - The Republic of Sport

                The date was Saturday, January 19, 2008. The 15-1 St. Ursula Bisons take on the one loss Mother Mary Lange (I'm not sure of their exact record because we play in 3 leagues.). This game has been anticipated by many. The top two teams in both divisions facing off.

                Its game time, 8:30 PM at St. Mary Govans in Baltimore, Maryland.  We come onto the court with our starting five. We look at their starting five and see they have 2 players that are at least 6 ft tall. We knew we would have our work cut out for us with our tallest player (me) being only 5'9". But we play with a lot of heart and we know we have a good a shot of any.

                In the early first half, the lead was see-sawing. We were not getting the rebounds but we were faster getting the ball up court when we did. There were many calls that went without a whistle. These silent calls did not go both ways. We were getting reach in calls on us. There was not one reach in call on the other team. Every time we got an offensive rebound, we were fouled without a call. I know this for a fact after being bumped around at least 3 times after every rebound. Yes, this would anger most teams. It did to us to some extent. But, our team is as united as any and we overcame this. But we did not end the half strong. We ended the half down 8. Most teams would give up, but we did not.

                Down 8, we come out with the refs against us but our head on a victory. We battled back to get the game within one basket towards the end of the game. At this point, I guess the ref was feeling bad for his biased calls earlier, started calling calls that should have been called in the first half. Three seconds and offensive fouls started to being called. But there was still no fouls while shooting. But we digress. It comes down to this: about 1 minute left and our SG at the line down by 3. He drills both of them. They get the ball out of bounds. We foul them. The come to the line, hit both. Taking the ball up court, I get hit with a pass in the line. I go to drive. I get bumped and then travel. But there is no call. I fire the ball up during the bump. I drill it. I get no foul call with the shot which is ok because there was no travel call either. I heard the opposing team's parents yelling from the stands for a travel. I just turn, smile, and shake my head. I was 100% sure were gonna win this game.  Some time has passed. We turned the ball over on a bad pass and we are down 2. Coach calls a TO and says we need a three. He said he didn't care who took it. I get the ball in the corner somehow off the rebound. I had to guys on me. I knew I could just shoot a jump shot because it would be blocked. So I decide to jump and shoot, basically, with my body. I get fouled by both of the people twice, once by both during the shot and once by both after the shot. But guess what? No call we foul again on the inbounds. He goes to the line and misses #1 but makes number 2.  So now we are down three and I must take the ball out of bounds. They laid off the press so we couldn't get an easy up court pass. I give it to our best pure shooter on the team, our PF. He dribbles up court to the top of the key, takes an NBA range three, and completely misses it. Time expires and our player is on the ground. He is spitting up blood from the last play. But guess what? No call once again. How can you not call a foul when the shooter is spitting up blood? It's not like he punched himself in the stomach.

                You are probably asking yourself, ‘Why is this entitled motivation?' Well, today I jogged/sprinted/walked 5 miles around Parkville High Track. It was 23 degrees with wind chill that made it feel close to 0. What kept me going was one thought, MOTHER MARY LANGE. I was jogging and caught myself saying, ‘We are coming for ya Lange. You can't cheat yourself to win this time.' I also often found myself cussing out those refs that had an obvious bias towards the other team. (This bias would be more obvious if I told you, but it may start problems).Yes, it was cold, but I didn't know that anymore. I was buried in thoughts.

 I didn't run the 5 miles for me. I ran the 5 miles for the team. I ran the 5 miles to be that much better. I ran the 5 miles to beat Mother Mary Lange by that much. I ran 5 miles for the TEAM.