Reflection

As I wrap up this blogging project, the last post on this blog will be about how I've changed over the course of the last year. I've changed a bit in the last year. I've become more proactive in the last year. Before I would always procrastinate everything. I was really lazy, if I could wait to do something, I would wait until the last possible minute to do it. Now I've done a better job with my time management and getting stuff done on time. Now I have more free time than I did before and the quality of what I do has improved. Also the amount of effort I put into things has increased. Before I would do things halfway and then just give up a lot. I wouldn't really finish things that I started. Also in sports I wouldn't put in as much effort as I could and now I've been putting more effort into what I do.

Image courtesy of The Shot Doctor

I've gotten bigger, faster, stronger over the course of the last year. I've started going to the gym and have been training a lot harder. Last year I couldn't last an entire game. If we were playing a good team I would be done by the half. Now I've been able to last longer. Not the entire game yet, but I can swim harder, longer and that has made me a better player. I've also developed a lot of my skills. My overall fitness level has increased as well as my health. This blogging project has also given me a new perspective on writing and I've learned a lot about this type of writing. Blogging isn't the same as writing an essay. It's a completely different style and requires a lot more creativity to write. I found that it can actually be kind of fun. 

Backpack

Yesterday, I had a JV game. I didn't even know that I was going to play until the day before. My coach just came up to me and told me that I was now aloud to play, because I was young enough. The pool was outside, and outside it was 40 degrees and raining. It sucked. It was freezing. Everything was cold and wet. I don't know who thought that it was a good idea to play when it was that cold, but who ever did should get fired. The game started and we went down early. They scored 3 goals in the first 3 minutes and our first goal came near the end of the first. At the end of the first quarter we were down 1 to 5. It didn't look good for us. The second quarter started and I scored a beast backhand. Then I scored another goal near the end of the second. They scored one more to make it 3 to 6 at the half. We were coming back, slowly, but it was happening. 

Image courtesy of TET

The second half started off very slow no one scored for the first 3 minutes. They scored two goals, then they subbed out their bigger guys and put in a bunch of guys that were our size. This made life so much easier. They got subbed in with about a minute and a half left in the third and in that time I scored 3 goals to end the quarter. We got the momentum back and the comeback was real. We were within 2 points now. The score was 6 to 8. Things were starting to look good for us and we thought that we had a real chance to win. The fourth quarter started and they scored a quick goal. Then I answered with a goal of my own. It was 7 to 9. Then they scored one more. Things started looking worse and worse, but I made some plays and scored 2 more to make it a one point game with a minute left in the fourth. We were so close, but then they scored and that was it. We lost. I almost made the comeback, but we lost.

Comeback Kids

Last week, we had a scrimmage against a team that we hadn't played in over a year. We had no idea how good they were. We didn't know what to expect. We they showed up, we found out that they were big, really big. We started the game and we scored the first goal. They couldn't swim very well so our counters worked well on them, but we weren't able to make any shots. At the end of the first quarter, we were tied 1 to 1. The second quarter didn't go very well for us. We couldn't really do anything. Our offense wasn't happening. We couldn't even get shots off. It was bad. They scored 2 more goals to make it 3 to 1 in the middle of the second quarter. The rest of the second quarter was pretty uneventful. No one scored and we still couldn't do anything.

Image courtesy of BBC

The third quarter started badly for us. They scored and went up 4 to 1. At then end of the third quarter, we started our comeback. With 30 seconds left we scored. Then we made a last second shot. I had the ball in the corner and the guy guarding me fouled me with 2 seconds left. I threw it up to someone in the middle and it was the worst shot I've ever seen, but somehow the goalie didn't block it and it went in. I have no idea how. It was such a weak shot and it just skipped right over the goalie's arm. We were back in the game. At the end of the third the score was 3 to 4. The fourth quarter started and we were feeling like we could comeback and win the game. We scored a quick goal to tie it up at 4. We started playing a lot better and our defense also improved a lot. Halfway through the fourth I got a wide open shot from around 8 meters and drilled it. We were up 5 to 4. No one could score for the rest of the game and at the end, the score stayed the same at 5 to 4. We had one. We came back from being down 1 to 4. 

Tough Game

We went to a tournament that lasted 3 days. It was far enough away that we had to stay in a hotel. We had one game on Thursday, two games on Friday, and another two games on Saturday. The first 4 games were really easy. We won every game by 4 or more points. This got us into the finals. The finals were in the afternoon on Saturday. We had played really well leading up to this game, but we were playing a good team. The game started and they scored the first goal. Then they scored again, and again. We were down 3 to 0 halfway through the first quarter. Things weren't looking good for us. Then I scored a goal to make 1 to 3 and the very next possession I scored again. We were within 1 point. At the end of the first, they scored one more goal to make it 2 to 4. The second quarter went really well for us, we scored 3 unanswered goals. We took the lead at 5 to 4. I don't know what happened, but we just started playing really well. We were all on the same page and knew what to do. At the half we were up by one.

Image courtesy of Daily News Hungary

The third quarter was back and forth no one could really do much. Our defenses took over they managed to score one goal, but we were able to come back with a goal of our own to keep the lead. We were playing really well, but so was the other team. No one had a clear advantage; the game could go either way. The fourth quarter started and we came our hard. We scored a goal within the first 30 seconds to go up 7 to 5, but then, they started to make a comeback. They scored one goal and then a few minutes later another one to tie it up at 7. There were about 2 minutes left in the game when we scored again to go up 8 to 7. Then they answered to make it 8 to 8 with a minute left. It was their ball. We stopped them and got the ball back with 28 seconds left in the game. We had one more possession to win. We called a timeout and talked over what we were going to do. We set up and 10 seconds into our possession, we get an exclusion. We were up a man with 15 seconds left. It doesn't get better than what just happened. We pass the ball around for a bit and someone took a shot and missed. We got the rebound and missed the shot again. The game was over. We went into sudden death over time. We won the opening sprint and set up our offense. We missed a shot and then they missed one too. On our next possession I got an open shot from around 9 meters and I barely missed it. On their next play we were caught out of possition and they scored. That was it. We lost.