The 12th man

My name is Winston Betancourt. I am a 16 year old junior at Woodbridge H.S.  I was cut from the J.V. basketball team last year and I still don't understand why? I am not a bad player. Coach Rainsbarger says

I need to work more on my fundamentals but I crossed over the best player on the team! I even tapped on him but yet, I was still cut from the team. I'm sick of Coach Rainsbarger constantly putting me down  telling me that I need to develop a jump shot and that I need to work on being selfless. I pass the ball at times and I hit jump shots too. I will never forget walking into that locker room to see the list of players who made the team. I knew something was wrong because a few guys began handing me band-aids. I said to them, "what is this for?" " for your cut" the guys said. I didn't see my name on that list and I was devastated. I don't know how Frank Waterhouse made the team. This guy is garbage! He is as sorry as a soup sandwich. Somehow, he made the squad and I didn't. I mean, the guy dribbles with his head down for crying out loud and runs like he has two left legs. Coach likes him, because he is dumb enough to let Big Charlie take a charge on him. He also likes diving into the crowd for loose balls but he doesn't score. He pretty much just plays a little D. Big Deal.  I dropped 5 in summer league the other day! They couldn't do anything with ya boy. I made all 5 of my free throw shots but they kept hacking me and the ref's were hating on me. They weren't calling nothing.  I was still killing until this dumb coach decided to pull me out of the game with 25 seconds let and we were up by 20.  I probably would have dropped like 9 or 10 but the coach hated on ya boy. I don't get it. I dropped 5 points and now for the last 4 or 5 games I have been riding the bench? This is crazy. I got splinters in my butt from riding that pine. I asked coach "why are you not playing me?" he told me that I'm  lucky that I even have a spot on this summer league team. He also said that I don't appear to understand whats going on out on the floor and that when I'm in the games, I seem to go into a coma. So I screwed up on one silly play. Big deal. no one is perfect. I accidentally stole the ball from my own teammate and then passed it to the other team and they scored at the buzzer to win the game. It was a mistake. He thinks that I'm a disease to the team. I like the And 1 guys, so at times I do a few of their moves.  Coach says that I'm infesting the gym with garbage. He is just hating. well, summer league is over and the new school year is beginning next week. Try-outs for Varsity is in 2 weeks. I'm going to make that squad no matter what that dumb coach says. I am the truth. Stay tuned for the try-outs!