Diary Of A Female Baller: Lauryn Swann 24' Teaneck, NJ - Valley Stream North School - NJ Sparks - Entry #3
Lauryn & Kateri Poole
Hello basketball world, checking in with week 3 Diary.
Monday 1/13
I woke up at 6 and got ready for school. The day went by normally and after school I watched the boys junior high team play at 4. Then I had a light practice and we goofed around a lot because our coach was in a good mood then I went home and played around with my dog for a while then studied then went to sleep.
Tuesday 1/14
Woke up at my usual time and went to school. In all of my classes we’ve been reviewing and studying for the whole period because mid terms are on Friday. The only mid term I’m stressed about is my Social Studies mid term. I missed a month of school when I moved from New Jersey to New York because of the process of getting into a school and I missed a lot of the work that they did do I have to catch up and learn what I missed but my teacher has been helping me out with catching up as best as he can. I had a Vocabulary quiz in Science which i’ve been studying for all week and then the rest of my day went on normally. I had practice after the Varsity Boys team’s game so I watched them play and they lost by two but it was a good game. We had a light practice of running plays which was really boring but that's what we needed to work on for tomorrows game. After practice I went home to chill, eat, and go to sleep.
Wednesday 1/15
Woke up at my usual time and got ready for school. I spent the whole day studying and going over review sheets which was putting me to sleep. The whole day was extremely boring and dry. Finally the day was over and it was game time. The bus driver was mad late as always and I spent the whole bus ride kind of nervous because this was suppose to be our first win of the season and I didn’t want to choke. When we got to the gym and started warming up none of my shots were falling. I was think “this is gonna be a terrible game”. Once the game started they went straight to a box and 1 on me (which I hate) so it made it a little harder for me to score but my teammates were hitting shots so we didn’t have to worry about scoring but the thing that was killing us was our defense. They had one girl moving in slow motion scoring all the points for the other team so we had to start pressing to shut her down. Finally I start to get my momentum flowing off of a put back and from there on there was no holding me back. It was a close game at half time and we were only up by 5 and my coach was yelling at us to get our heads in the game. The 3rd quarter starts and I open the half with a 3. Then a steal that leads to an easy lay then the other team calls a time out. The other coach calls a time out and for the rest of the game we were all killing. I ended the game with 24 points. After the game we had to rush back home because we were having dinned with overtime Chloe and we needed to pick up some food. We got some pasta and had dinner. We talked about my grades and a lot of basketball and how girls she be allowed to show their emotions on the court just like boys without getting techs. We played a few games and talked for a little bit after and then that was the end of the night.
Thursday 1/16
I woke up at my normal time struggling to get out of bed to get ready for school. The whole day was spent studying for my finals tomorrow and I had an easy quiz in Spanish and studied some more in all my other classes. I hung out after school then went home to do some homework and feed my dog. Then we had an easy practice from 8-9:30 then i went home and went straight to sleep.
Friday 1/17
I woke up late today and I knew I was going to be late. I had my timbs on for the first time and I DID NOT want to crease or mess them up in any way so I was walking carefully which made me move slower than I usually do. I had a debate today in English about a book we read as a class and some major conflicts throughout it. My plan was to wing it because believe it or not that’s how I work my best. Whatever I thought of off the top of my head i said it and it always works in whatever I do so why not? I was struggling for the first about thinking about what I should do but as me and my debate partner got to the center table that's when the panic kicked in. The set up was nerve wracking. For desks in the middle 2 facing the other two and the rest of the class in a square surrounding both debate teams. That meant all eyes on you while you were talking for 5 minutes and to my luck my debate topic was the most difficult topic. As my teacher was explaining how the debate would work an idea finally popped in my head last minute. Start off asking the other team a question. That was probably the best idea I’ve had all weak. I knew I was getting a 100 after I asked that question. Everyone else was like “ohhhhhhhhhh” and the other team just sat there dumbfounded. The debate had just started but it was already over. After English the rest of the day went my normally except we had practice from 3-4. After practice I watched the boys junior varsity play for a little bit then went to get food then went back to school to be picked up and dropped off home. At home I played around with my dog and studied for a little bit then went to sleep
Saturday 1/18
Today we play the best team in our conference and I’m really nervous. We only have a few games left in the season and I want to finish out with a winning season. I got to school and we waited for the bus for about 15 minutes. When the bus came we walked out and the JV coach walked on the bus and was talking to the bus driver for 5 minutes meanwhile everyone is standing out side in 25° weather waiting for them to finish talking. Finally the JV coach steps out the bus and says that the bus has no heat. That's 35 minutes with NO HEAT. We all got in the bus and it was colder in there than it was outside which was ridiculous. My toes were going numb after like 10 minutes. Once we got to the gym it took like 40 minutes for my toes to defrost. When the JV game ended we started warming up and i saw that the other team had 2 really big girls so my plan was to attack them and foul them out. It didn't go out as planned though. The 1st quarter was slow for me but we were only down my 6 at the end of the 1st. My mom wasn’t there and I needed her to tell me how bad I was playing (i don't know why but when she tells me i’m playing bad it makes me play harder.) Right before the second quarter started my mom walked in. And right off the i bound I made a floater. We got a steal and I hit a fast break 3 then the other team called a time out. After the timeout we didn't score for like 2 minutes and the other team broke away with the lead and we ended up losing by 30. I was disappointed that we lost by so much but there wasn’t much more that I could’ve done. They had the height advantage by far. After the game I went home to change my clothes to go watch some games in Brooklyn. After the games I got home around 9 and I knocked out from exhaustion.
Sunday 1/19
I refused to wake up before 10 am. I needed a day to “sleep in. I woke up throughout the night and kept going back to sleep and waking up 45 minutes later which was really annoying I finally slept good until around 10:30 and then got ready really slowly. We left the house around 12 to go watch some games. The games were mostly really boring and long but I couldn’t go home because I was waiting to watch my big sister Kateri’s game at 7:30. All the games were an hour behind and her game didn’t start until around 8:45. I was tired before the game even started but I figured it would be exciting game to watch and Kateri killing everyone would wake me up but Kateri wasn’t going hard until the game got a little close by the 4th quarter and she went 4/4 from the three in the fourth quarter only. South Shore ended up winning the game by 7. After the game we talked for a little bit and then I went home and relaxed for a little bit then went to sleep around 12.
