My Experience

2008-12-10T02:29:00.000-08:00

Iris Adjei Manyah is my name. I am a student of May’s Educational Centre. When the game of basketball was introduced at May’s, I was very girly, I didn’t like interacting with boys and most of all, I was scared of the ball.

Our basketball team was founded one morning when the Queen of May’s introduced a huge, decent looking young man called Feranmi to us. He was to be our coach. When he was asked to speak, he said something which made my mates and I see how profoundly interesting and serious the game of basketball is.

However, as time went on, I started missing out on training sessions; I wasn’t serious. My mates kept telling me how important it is that I take the basketball training sessions seriously. But by then, I had lost interest in basketball because of the word “suicide”. It made me feel the coach didn’t like me anytime he said to me, “Iris, you owe me double suicide”

My absence from the team hurt the feelings of my team mates so I eventually became more serious with the training sessions. Upon getting back into the team, I grew to learn so much about the game of basketball. Through basketball, I learnt how to work with others as a team.

As I started understanding the essence of teamwork, I attended training sessions as many times as was expected of us team members. I became much better at the game than I had even realized.

On October 16, 2008, when our school had a match with Alpha Beta Junior High, I was seriously frightened. I thought to myself, “We would be playing against giants”. Our coach told us many times that, “basketball is not all about winning”. And rightly so because if you are playing a game to win, you will not enjoy it and that is not how to play the game of basketball.

This statement my coach made makes me very confident and very ready for any match regardless of who play against.

This is how the big game turned out:

In the first game, the girls from Alpha Beta played against the girls from Abosey Okai in the S.H.S division. The moment I saw the girls play, my spirit came down again and coach could see it written all over my face. He told me, “IRIS, JUST GO OUT THERE… DO YOUR BEST AND HAVE FUN”. The game between the two schools was soon over and the girls from Alpha Beta came out victorious.

It then got to our turn but I wasn’t part of the starting five. I however knew coach would substitute another player for me, sooner than later. The game was tight, and my team was falling apart because my teammates had no confidence in themselves. They thought it was all about winning but it was not. Our captain was seriously worn out so coach had to substitute her so he chose me to go in.

As I got into the game, I took everything out of my mind and I just relaxed and played the game. Surprisingly, I played according to all the rules except for a little pushing incident. All in all, I really had fun. I did marvelously well, and my dear coach was pleasantly surprised at me the girl who kept on saying, “coach I can’t play”, and it was the same me who when asked to pivot, modeled instead.

In the second quarter I was pushed and I fell, I was hurt but I still wanted to play. I played as well as was expected and everyone was so proud of me. I had learned that you cannot make it unless you try. I had done my best even though we lost to Alpha Beta. I was proud because I knew I did my best.

Even though we had lost I cheered and danced till I was worn out because I was so proud of not only myself but my coach and my team. So all you young people out there “Some things may not come to you naturally, they might even be hard but you will never succeed unless you try”

By Iris Adjei Manyah

ENCOURAGMENT AND BASKETBALL

2008-12-10T02:16:00.000-08:00

Basketball is an interesting game, but like anything worth while in life it has ups and downs like winning or loosing. You may be criticized or want to criticize, but I’ve come to realize that “Criticism does much, but encouragement does much more.

However, encouragement after criticism is as the sun after a shower. As young people we need encouragement as much as crops need rain. When we have received a good serving of it, we are in a position to dish it out to others

I have come to realize that appreciation is one key thing young people need, in the game of basketball as well as in life “the need to be appreciated is among the deepest human cravings of human nature. We all have it. But we shouldn’t forget that people need it too. We should all therefore appreciate everyone, no mater how disappointing their situations maybe

In a game there is only one winner. I’ve gathered from my experience, that “even in the darkest times there are lessons to be learned and treasures to be discovered.”

Anytime we are playing a game and we are loosing by some points my coach will say to us ,”this is no time to loose your nerve victory is within your grasp. Press on.

My name is Iris, I have had a lot of fun playing basketball. I’ve played bunch of games, sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t but I’ve never really lost. So regardless of weather you win or loose, play or watch, score or air ball just make sure that basketball is a positive experience for you.

And above all remember…

ENCOURAGEMENT IS OXYGEN TO THE SOUL

By Iris (Dynasty Mays Basketball League)

Dynasty Basketball Testimonials

My Experience

ENCOURAGMENT AND BASKETBALL