Conditioning The Heart

C h a p t e r 3. Coaches and Conversation 💬

"5...4...3...2...1... Time's up!" My coach Leigh, calls out. We all stop, most of us with our hands on our knees, gasping for air. " Okay, ladies you can have a 2- minute water break and then come back and we can end the practice," she tells us.

We all nod and head to the bench to get water, and catch our breath. " Ash, my shooting needs to get better or else, why am I doing this. It's torture!" Clarke says with a sigh, retying her blonde hair into a messy bun. She's sweaty and tired and still looks gorgeous.

I laugh at her dramatics, her shooting is the best on the team so she can't be complaining, cause she does the best at these drills. " Oh come on, you make every basket easily, and you only miss like, once. And coach never yells at you for technique or anything else"

" Yeah, but during defence drills, I'm at the butt of every comment" She replies.

Coach Leigh blows the whistle and we all come running back towards her so she can explain the next drill.

"Great effort today! Next practice we'll run the offence and work on the left side. Now hands in" Our other Coach Jo tells us.

We all put our hands in and yell " Hustle on 3. 1 2 3 HUSTLE".

We break apart and start talking as we head to the change-room to change out of our sweaty clothes. I look for Clarke when the coaches call us back. " Clarke, Ash, and Sam can you all come to my office after you get changed?" We all nod and keep walking to the change-room.

"What do you think that's about?" Sam asks me. "Not sure" I reply and we head into the change-room

We get changed, saying bye to the rest of the team, and go to the coaches office. When we enter we see the boys coach Bolton, and the boy's basketball team captains, Ellis, Zeke, and Justin.

They're all standing at the far side of the office. Zeke is leaning against the wall, Jack sitting in the chair, and Ellis behind Justin. They seemingly just came from an after school open gym as they're all in basketball shorts and various t-shirts.

" Are we in trouble or something?" Sam asks.

" No, on the contrary, we have something special for you guys," Coach Leigh says. " Because of your car wash fundraiser, we have a bit of extra money in our budget. So we decided to do some extra conditioning practices."

Coach Bolton says "The best teams are the ones who can run up and down the court, all through the game. You also have to have other traits like patience, and more. But, both of the teams have been working really hard and we want to help you become the best you all can be"

I look and Sam and Clarke and I know that they are on board too. We really want to win this year and I know that the conditioning will really help our team.

" Our team's down for it. I think it'll really help our team, and I'm sure the boys would agree with me." I look over at the boys. I can't really tell what they're thinking, but I'm hoping they agree with me.

" Yeah, our team wants to go all the way this year, and we're definitely in for anything that will help us get there," Zeke says, looking over at me for a brief second with a smile.

" Okay we can only afford 1 session every 2 weeks, so I was thinking on the off weeks if you captains could organize one. If we do it like that, when we get closer to the championship we can have 1 every week." Coach Leigh says.

" We can do that! But could we have the actual conditioning coach to go first that way we could use some of the exercises from there?" Clarke asks.

" We can coordinate that. We'll let you know once we get the finalized first date for it. But as of right now it will be on Thursday's starting next week" Coach Bolton says.