Play hard, play smart, play together

During my life I've tried many different sports; gymnastics, soccer, swimming, skiing, snowboarding, and horseback riding. But there is one sport I love the most, basketball. I started to play basketball when I was six, and I played for 10 years. In Finland we don't have sport teams at school; we have club sports, and we play almost all year long. During those 10 years I learned a lot, experienced great things, got a lot of good memories, and made new friends. My team became like a second family for me. We traveled all around Finland playing in tournaments, and also got to play outside the borders; in Sweden, in Italy, and in Iceland. 

Italy

Sweden

The last couple years playing with my old team weren't that good. We got a new coach, who was awful, and some girls quit playing. My six friends and I also had enough, and we decided to start playing in another team, the team in the neighboring city. At the beginning of the season we had playoffs, which separated the teams to different divisions. We won our playoff games, and made it to the highest level, where the best 12 teams in the whole country played. That was my last year playing in Finland, and it was really competitive. At the end of the season we got the third place! I will never forget that feeling, it was one the happiest days in my life. 

After that I decided to quit playing, because it just wasn't as fun as it used to be. But still I didn't want to leave basketball, so I started to work as an assistant coach for young girls. Twice a week I went to their practices, and once a week we had a game. I coached them for 10 months. It was a great way to keep basketball in my life. 

When I came here, I had so much pressure before the basketball season. I don't know why, but everyone thought I was so good at basketball. People said me things like ''We are going to be good this year because you play with us'', or ''I heard you're like a star at basketball''. I was so nervous, because I hadn't played for a year. But luckily when the season started, everything went fine. Well, we didn't win as many games as we wanted; we had many tough losses, but also some great wins. Playing here was different than in Finland. Also the rules, but especially the atmosphere; the Pit and the band, we don't have those in Finland. Having sport teams at school is way different from having club sport teams. Playing here made me like basketball even more. I miss basketball season already, and I will never forget it. 

  -Aino