I walk into the gym and everyone is standing on the baseline underneath the basket with their attention directed at the coach. The attention is now on me as I approach the group."You wanna explain to me why you're late?" I didn't have a legit excuse and everyone is starring at me as I reply, "ummmmmm" , the Coach then yells,"What language is ummmmmm!? I want you to run 34 lines with you're hands straight up in the air" GO Now!! I began running as everyone looked on. " No one shows up late here"!! He screams,"No one! If you are late, you will run until I'm tired and I'm wide awake, and well rested" I finally finished running the 34 lines. Coach wants everyone to form a single file line and to began a lay-up drill. He then tells us to do them left handed. I don't know about the other players but I'm doing great compared to some of them. I have not missed a shot yet. "Left handed Betancourt!", he yells. Come on, you look like a dog at a fire hydrant". We are now doing fast break drills. It seems like he just wants to pick on me because every drill we do he has something bad to say about my performance. In the baseline deny drill he yelled at me every time . " Quit letting that guy beat you to that baseline betancourt! You look like an usher at the movie theaters!" I sense that this coach hates me. I really thought that I was doing those drills properly but apparently, I wasn't. It's not as easy as I thought it would be and now I need to really focus because he's about to have us run some offensive plays in which I struggle at times.
Of course It's just my luck that he chooses me and four other guys to run the motion offense. He tells my group to switch our jerseys to white. I'm so nervous that I put my head through the part of the jersey that the arm goes through; It gets very quiet as everyone is waiting for me and watching me struggle with the jersey. Suddenly he says to one of the players, "Can someone please give him a hand , can't you all see that he's stupid? If you switch his brain with a birds , the bird would fly backwards". Everyone roars in laughter as I finally get the jersey on correctly. He then signals everyone to applaud me. I felt like I was in a Southwest commercial. (Wanna get away?) We are running motion and just as I imagined ,I'm screwing up. I cant remember the rotation and he is on my tail like flies on poop. " What are you doing Betancourt? That's not motion! You are just standing there frozen in time as if you're in a coma" He goes on," Now If the ball-side post is being fronted: the opposite post flashes to the ball-side elbow for the pass. Meanwhile the low post player seals the defender on his back, and the post at the elbow ,which is you Betancourt, passes inside to the low post for the lay-up." I was so relieved when he called the next group in to run the offense. It's just not going as planned and it seems that no matter how hard I try he is going to find something to discourage me. These are the times where you simply have to face adversity. You have to believe in yourself or you will fail.I tried my best to finish practice on a high note but I still feel like crap about the mistakes I made early on. I'm trying to hard to impress him and he doesn't seem to care one bit about a crossover or a dunk or a fancy pass. I thought going around the back and passing the ball would make him happy but It earned me 20 laps instead. He said there was no reason for a hot dog play and that I'm skating on thin ice. "Why did you make that fancy pass? The basic fundamental pass is what I'm looking for". There goes that dumb word again; Fundamental. I then reply to him, "My bad coach, It wont happen again." He was so thrilled with my reply that he decided to end practice early and no running. "That a boy"! you're learning responsibility". You guys can go home early; see you all tomorrow. "Teamwork on three, 1,2,3"
"TEAMWORK"!
