One of the things I am most grateful towards my parents for is the fact that they really went above and beyond when it came to getting their children involved in sports at a young age. Those were different times and I am not being judgmental about parents these days because I grew up in a time where the concept of a tablet and smartphone was beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Back in the 80's if you were to approach someone at NASA and tell them that one day soon everyone will have a computer in their pocket that can access all of humanity's knowledge at the touch of a button including full-motion video they would have laughed at the absurdity of such a notion. In "my day" we had the option of watching whatever happened to be on the 10 channels of TV that existed, or going to the YMCA to play basketball. This was always a great option but it came with a catch: The library just happened to be next door to the "Y" and we had to go there and finish our homework before going to play sports.
Mom would drop us off for a couple of hours and since we all enjoyed playing basketball a lot, we rushed through our homework like mad so that we could maximize the amount of time spent on the hardwood.
There were 3 courts at the time and as you moves closer to one wall, the more competitive the games became. The main court was the only one where full-court games were played, and this is the one where only the best in the gym were invited to play.
I was always good at most sports other than baseball which for some reason I was terrible at until I hit my 20's. I would say that I was better than average at basketball but at just under 6 feet tall, I wasn't exactly physically designed for this game. My sister worked with the lack of vertical capabilities to absolutely excel at this sport but my focus was on soccer instead. I was still pretty damn good at b-ball though, especially for a 5 foot 11 white kid.
I was having a particularly good night on my half-court game in the 2nd (out of 3) courts and I was on one of those hot streaks where I just couldn't miss. While I wasn't driving to the hole that frequently, I was getting mofo's up in the air with head fakes and then raining down 3's like nobody's business. Try as they may, the opposition simply couldn't shut me down and I scored time after time after time to the point where if I had been the trash-talking type, I would have had good reason to do so at this point.
I wasn't a well-known face at the courts but they did have adults that were there that kind of selected who played where. It was there job to make sure that all the kids were included in games and made sure that everyone was where they should be to maximize the competitive nature of all the games. They were also there to prevent fighting but I never saw any of that. This has probably changed in today's times where it seems as though everyone is ready to fight at all times.
Well abut halfway into my 2nd or 3rd game one of the adults stopped our game and told me "hey kid, you are too good to be playing here, let's move you up to the main court."
This was a frightening concept to me because I had only ever watched the guys on the main court play and they were the kind of players that could dunk and not just a simple dunk, some of these guys could do crazy 360 dunks or windmills. The adult that was there must have saw something in me to put me on that court and it would end up not being the last time that I was invited there.
Here's the thing about competitive sports: A lot of your ability lies in your head. When I entered the game I was extremely afraid and was at first very concerned with taking a shot at all. I would pass the ball off to one of the older kids rather than take a chance at missing. Eventually the adult that put me on the court gave me some encouraging words saying something along the lines of "you know you can nail the 3's like you were on the other court...let's do this!" I don't know if he spoke to the players on the other team or if they were just expecting me to "give up the rock" every time it was passed to me but I found myself open in 3 point range with my defender giving me a lot of space so I took the shot....... and nailed it. Perhaps it was because I was new to the court, younger, whiter, and shorter than most of the other players on the court but the place erupted with cheers.
They guarded me a lot closer from that point forward and I only got a few more shots off for the rest of the game. I ended up making more than I missed but I do recall that one of my shots got swatted out of the sky. Keep in mind that I was around 12 years old at this point and some of the people on the court were legal adults.
It was fun and there were high-fives all over after the game was over and I made some friends in the meantime. Sport really can bring people together because some of these guys seemed intimidating to me from the sidelines but at the conclusion of the game they were actually very encouraging with one of the best players in the entire place congratulating me on my shooting ability and even saying that he "wished he had that sort of perimeter accuracy." To get told that by someone that you kind of idolize is something that sticks with you forever.
It was at least in part because of that ONE GAME that I ended up pursuing playing basketball at a highly competitive level and managed to excel at it and even get a regional reputation for being the guy that will drain 3's from anywhere - even at other schools and counties. I was feared when our team would come there and while this was annoying because it made it harder for me to actually get open shots, it did make me feel good that word of my ability had traveled to other cities.
I would eventually end up being coaxed out of playing basketball and American football by the respective coaches in order to focus entirely on football of the soccer variety - which was wise because I ended up getting a division-1 scholarship for that sport. Hell, you can't be good at everything forever.
I will never forget the Y days, and I definitely wont forget the one time that I was basically force to play at a more competitive level. I was NOT one of the best guys on my team that day and I wouldn't end up being the best on the other days that I would play on the big dog court in the future either. The fact that I was even invited to play on the top court at that age is something that i'm impressed with myself about though.
I sincerely hope the YMCA is a part of youth's lives these days. It was instrumental in developing me into the man that I am today.