The next morning, I went straight to the school's gym and asked the coach about the tournament. He was looking at me with a gaze of how did I know about the tournament. He moved away from his table and came near me he said: " Son, let's go to the gym ". Entering the gym, I saw it being empty. We both looked at each other with disappointment, knew to get into the tournament we have to get a team.
He was leaving the gym when I said it out loud as it echoed in the gym, " Give me a week, I will get you the team. " He knew that a high school excited kid would say that, so he left with saying a word. Yet, I knew that he agreed with me on that and, I had 7 days to get 7 players to enter the tournament. During the class, I started thinking about what I told my coach, so I thought before leaving school, I will list out the guys who are fit for the team. As soon as the interval began, I had a walk in the entire school I knew few guys who could be great players, but for a team, I needed 7 players including me who could support each other. At that point, after roaming the entire school, I understood that it would take time to find and build a team.
The next day arose, I started the analysis of which boys were better to play, so I went to different kinds of guys and told them about the league. Some were excited, some eager to join while others just ignored it. At the end of the day, I again had nothing and no one who might fit. It continued for 2 days, now only 3 days remaining I could find were remaining and my patience was being tested, so I thought to myself I had to have a different approach. So now, I made a list of guys I approached before, I was going to approach and who can be converted into a team player. I made a list of qualities a player should have which included being a team player, hard worker, persistence, leadership, and love for the game.
4th day came, I went to talk with the people whom I put on my list. I spoke with guys who seniors to me, I went to guys with experience in playing, however, I could only turn 2 out of 13 players on my list. I went to these players, they had the names "George and Stephen". I made a routine to play with these guys, every day after school. As we were playing, we got to know each other very well and became best friends. All we talked about was basketball, they had the " Passion ", unclear on the execution part. Day 5 came, I made a new list, approached the players with looking for the same qualities. Made another guy join the team named " Austin "and
we started practicing after school and during lunch hours. As the day went by, six new people came and asked: " why are we playing the game? "
The sixth day was half remaining, then 2 guys approached while were shooting some hoops during lunch. I told them about the league, they were more than excited to join the team. Now we had 6 guys with a single guy remaining. I had a computer, which we all used to sit together and watch the great game of basketball play. The internet was a connection that I had, which made it easy for us to learn the basics of the game. We googled most of the stuff, we learned how to dribble and shoot a basketball.
Day 7 arrived, time to pay a visit to coach, and we went to school, till lunch we couldn't find anyone to join the team. As most of the players were to join the soccer team, we went to coach Barton, who was the head coach of the sports of the school told him, about the tournament, team, and the practice which we have gone through. He told us that we were short of one player, I said " Sir, can you recommend any player to us, I will go talk to him and make him join the team ". He rejected at the very moment and reply was " No Team, No Tournament "
I was really upset, by this point in time because we worked so hard to gather a team, make an amazing group of friends which resulted in nothing. Suddenly, a guy with a side bag came running through the door of the gym and screamed " I want in, I want to be on the team! " as he was catching up with his breath. I said, " Yes!" without thinking twice. I said to the coach in an excited and energetic voice, " Now we have a team" and he said, " Tomorrow we start preparing for the tournament. " I spoke with myself, " Come on, this is amazing! I am excited, Yeahh!"
We were so happy we didn't even realize the time we were in the gym talking with the coach and 2 hours had passed away. The school was over by evening, we all George, Stephen, Austin, Matt, Paul, Cole, and Me were walking home together celebrating our success.
Life Lesson: Creating anything new takes time; have patience throughout the process and believe it has already happened.
Here's a quick recap of Episode 6 under 15 seconds-
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