As my first year both as a student and at athlete at UNIS, I was both thrilled and intimidated to make it onto the Varsity team. I had heard a lot about the rigorous APAC tournament and how tough it would be, but did not necessarily allow me to fully grasp the true nature of it. But after nearly three months of training for four days a week, I saw first hand what the APAC tournament was all about, and learned through the season what it means to be a successful athlete and basketball player.

1. Teamwork

Teamwork is the key to success in a game like basketball. Basketball is a team sport and the players rely on their team and the team relies on their players. By taking part in APAC basketball I definitely became better at working together with my team. Basketball is very effective in creating bond within the team which makes the  players trust their teammates even when they are not on the court.

2. Focusing

Too put it bluntly, I’ve never really been good at focusing. But I quickly learned to fix that during basketball season; in a game of basketball, if you don’t focus the other team could and most likely will take take advantage of it. I now have firsthand experience with that this is like and now I understand how important it is to forget about everything else that goes on in your life and just focus on the present. This has translated to my academic life as well: even if you have a test tomorrow you should concentrate on today first, because if you don’t then you could end up messing both of them up. It is important to fully devote your attention the task at hand. And this segways into…

3. Time Management

It is difficult to manage your time when you are part of the IB. It is even more difficult when you are part of the IB and play sports. Some people have to quit their sports because they cannot manage to juggle all their priorities effectively. Yes, it is hard. Sometimes people have to take away time from other activities so they can put more time into other activities that matter more to them. It is very important to manage your time well. At the moment I haven’t fully grasped the skills to manage my time, but I can say that I have gotten better at it.

4. Working Hard

It was my first time doing an APAC sport and I might have not been the best, but I kept working hard with the team to get better. I always pushed myself to the limits, because I knew that no matter how hard it was to run those 10 suicides, it would make me a better player during the game.

5. Achieving a Better Physique

Like I said, all that hard work eventually pays off. Since joining the basketball team, I have lost around 5 kilograms, my vertical jump increased and my quickness increased. Doing any virtually any type of physical sport (not ESports) improve your physique to some degree, and that’s definitely important for leading a healthy lifestyle – and getting all the honeys!

6. Learning from Mistakes

Something that my coaches really emphasized this season was that making mistakes is fine as long as you learn from it. I guarantee every person made mistakes during APAC basketball, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, because it teaches you to get better and how to improve in your areas of weakness. I made loads of mistakes right up until the season ended, but I always made to try to not repeat them.

7. Anger Management

I think I have gotten my anger fully in control thanks to APAC basketball. I would like to give a special shoutout to Michael Emblem, who did a great job in helping some of our teammates control their anger and frustration on court. There is a huge amount of frustration that comes from playing sports, both when you make mistakes and when you see someone on your team doing something wrong, but like I said before, nobody’s perfect. At the end of the day it is just a game, and we are all trying to improve.

8. Discipline

Sports undoubtedly increases discipline. It is always okay to laugh and have fun with friends, but it is also important to know when to buckle down and get serious. I think most of the qualities listed above fall under discipline. But it also revolves around respecting the coach; listening to them while their are talking and not dribbling the ball, and being respectful of his criticism. Because in the end, coach decides how many suicides you run.

9. Not Losing Hope

I think the most important thing I learned from APAC basketball is not losing hope. In our APAC tournament it was really clear when at one points of the game we gave up, which allowed our opponents to take advantage and beat up on us. UNIS is not necessarily the strongest team in the tournament, but I have confidence that we are able to keep up with any of the teams that we played last week, but all comes down to not giving up and continuing to fight – even when you’re in pain and you’re outmatched and you’re in foul trouble. After hope is lost things start to go down hill. Hope is like guiding star- if it is lost it is very hard to find it again in the darkness, but if rediscovered it could lead you to your destination 🙂