The Benchwarmer The smell of sweat surrounds me, but for some reason I’m not sweating. I hear the piercing whistles of the refs and I’m sitting on the edge of my seat wishing my basketball coach would put me in. Everyone around me is cheering my team on, but I’m too furious to clap or yell. I have a mixture of aggravation, discourage, and miserable feelings. Yup, I sat the bench, in fact, I sat the bench a lot. Sitting the bench is not exhilarating or fun, but that’s where I lived. This story is how I got off the bench and how it changed my life. Have you ever sat the bench? Let me tell you it’s the worst feeling in the world! I play travel ball and it’s way different from your regular school ball. Your team travels to different places and you have all the parents, coaches, and refs not only from your team, but from sixteen different teams on eight different courts. These tournaments aren’t a joke either, you can’t just go into a game without working or preparing with your team. These teams are usually strictly basketball and are big schools, me coming from a small school we don’t play one sport. So not working very hard in one sport it’s really hard to get off the bench and try to keep up with the other teams. …show more content…
I knew that my goal was to be one of the starting five, but how was I going to get there. I could work out, eat healthier, try harder in practice, and suck up to my coach. I’m kidding I didn’t suck up to my coach instead I proved myself to him that I should be starting on the court instead of the bench. So, what I did was run, lift, eat healthier, and eventually he started to notice me. I was getting faster and stronger than my teammates and opponents. My coach was proud of me and I started to come off the bench a little bit more, but I wasn’t a starter yet and I wasn’t going to give up