Tyus Battle, James Donaldson and Gary BattleWhat’s up basketball world, it has been a great week, but a very tiring week.
On Monday I had my semi-finals game at the Union Catholic tournament with my school team. In my opinion we played well. We executed plays, played good defense, and we also communicated on both ends of the floor. After the game a few of my teammates became very nervous when they heard that we were going to play Good Sheppard in the championship. I knew a few of the kids on the team such as Nathaniel from Team Izod, Temple from Team Scan and also Bryce from Team Scan. So I knew that we had a very tough game in front of us.
Tuesday was the championship game against Good Sheppard. They started the game knocking down 3 consecutive threes and my teammates were turning the ball over a lot. We looked intimidated by their speed and skill level. My team and I had a horrible first half only scoring 9 points to their 29. I had a lot of trouble scoring in the first half as well because of their double and triple teams which resulted in me only having 2 points. I was frustrated on how we were all playing and we had to wake up for the second half. In the locker room during half time coach pulled Idris and I over and told us that we had to score the ball. We played much better in the second half scoring over 36 points. I had 25+ points in the second half myself. My teammates also began to look more confident. Unfortunately we still lost the game by about 25. Even though we lost, I think it was a large step in the right direction on how we will play later in the season.
Thursday I woke up at 5am to workout before school. I had lot of trouble getting up because I was up all night the night before finishing an essay. At the gym we lifted and worked on moves to the basket. After school I had to study for my science test that was on Friday. My dad picked me up from our house at around 8 to go workout with Bryce Stanahope from ImPossible AKA Micah Lancaster training. We did some great ball handling drills with a heavy ball to get my handle faster and a lot of other drills that were challenging.
Friday I had school practice. My coach talked to us about our tournament and how we played in the championship game. This practice coach really tried to get some of my teammates in better shape by running a lot of sprints and suicides. We also worked on taking charges, which we do not do as well s we should.
Saturday we ran a four-hour clinic at Iselin Middle School. We worked with kids in kindergarten through 8th grade. I was surprised how well the younger kids listened and did some of the drills. After the clinic my former teammate and friend Jeremy Gaskins came over my house to hang out after my dad took us all out to eat.
Next week, I will make sure to tell you how my week went. This is Tyus Battle signing out.
Peace
