Heart Of A Champion

Canton Charge

"Success, Franco! The Canton Charge officially offered you a tryout tomorrow night!" Alex said, making me jump out of my couch. "What?! This is absolutely crazy dude! I can't wait! We'll be there!" I said, excited.

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Tryout, Canton Charge, 7:00 P.M.

"Wow, we really have a lot of players here. 27 to be exact. Now the question is, can you really play? That's what we're going to see tonight. Feeling nervous? No need to be. I'm Nate Reinking, coach of the team that you are trying to be in. Now, we need 2 players on our team. So 25 of you will be eliminated. In fact, I was surprised to see that we need Guards because it is the most popular position for today's players. So I called out all of you. These 27 people in front of me are Point Guards and Shooting Guards. So I might not be surprised by some ankle breakers tonight. But yeah." Nate, maybe my future coach, said. "So here's what you need to do. It's easy. It's just going to be a 1-on-1 tournament. Of course I'll classify all of you as a PG or an SG and then group you." He added.

As the coach reads the papers of the players he will be judging, I was sitting on a bench. He calls me first. "You go here." He said. So it's 13 PG's and 14 SG's. "Okay, so it's not a good thing. We cannot do a tournament because there will be one left behind." The coach said. "So I'll just group you like this, this is Team A, you got Franco Brown. This is Team B, you got John Richard. And then, we will do something like a draft. Now in this game, I will remove 3." He added.

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"Only 1 quarter, lads." James said.

The coach planned me on the starting point guard spot. Tip-off was won by the opposing team. John Richard goes in front of me with the ball. Crosses to the left, and back to the right. I guarded him easily. So he passed the ball to Jonas Cowens. Jonas fakes, then drives inside and got the layup to go in.  2-0 with 11:37 remaining. I dribble up the court. I passed it to the left wing to Hunter Bradley. Bradley drives and passes it to Shaun Bryan but it got intercepted by Jonas. Jonas the goes coast-to-coast, dunking the ball hard. I was shocked. But then the guy screams over the place suddenly saying, "Y'all can't guard me! Y'all can't guard me!" So I set him up under the rim and dunked on him. Ooo's and Aaa's from my fellow players came in the gym. "Better luck next time." I said. 4- 2 with 10:43 remaining. Richard goes in front of me again, but I had an inch of a second to tap the ball away and I did. I stole the ball. I dribble up the court and three people were there already so I was affected by the contact while attempting a layup. I passed the ball behind-the-back and Bradley was the receiving end. He shot the three. And made it.4-5 is the score and we took the lead with 10:34 remaining. Then the opposing team called a timeout. First substitutions came and everyone from the starting lineup was subbed out. We never got back to the game until the last 2 minutes where we are already trailing by 6, 18-12.

We have the ball. We swing from left to right until I found someone backdoor. It's Shaun Bryan! He throws down the jam! 20-12, with 1:43 left. With the clock ticking, we managed to lockdown their players and they received a 24-second shot clock violation. 1:19 left. I passed the ball to Bradley, who loses it to Richard. Richard suddenly pulls up a three and makes it! 1:07 left and they are only down by 5, 20-15. Michael Jones inbounds the ball for our team and the ball got intercepted by Richard again, and pulls up another three, makes it! 20-18 with 57.3 seconds left. It's time to put in some work. Cross to the right, back to the left, behind the back, between the legs, spin move, fade away, and... I made it! 22-18 with 47.2 left. Richards in front of me now, he's been struggling to find an open lane the whole game. He decides to pass the ball to Cowens and he's got it! Three-point shot is in. 22-21 with 33.5 left. This is a great game and I can not avoid to be nervous about what's gonna happen next. Half spin works, he's leaning, I step back to the three point line, and made the shot! 25-21 with 25.2 left. Clutch, baby! Richard pops the three in front of me, and made it, too! 25-24 with 14.2 left. They fouled me to stop the clock. I made both free throws. 27-24 with 12.3 left. Bradley stole the ball! And that ends it! We won!

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"Nice job, lads," says Coach. "I found the three guys that will not proceed to the next round," he added. We are all nervous. "First is, Andrew McCay, second, Michael Jones, Victor Hatfield is the third," Coach said, which suddenly relieves all the remaining players. "I appreciate that you have spent your time in this try out. Maybe next year, boys. Goodbye for now," he said.