An extracurricular activity that has been apart of my life for a long time now is basketball. I’ve always been an active person and have tried out many different sports like soccer, baseball, track, and cross country. None of those sports appealed to me as much as basketball has. Something about basketball’s constant action and high intensity made it stand out among the other sports I’ve tried in the past. It makes for a great viewer sport and an even better activity to play yourself. Another thing that I like about basketball is the distinct culture that comes along with it. If you play the game enough, you start to realize there’s a certain atmosphere that follows the sport where ever it goes. You can hear it through the slang people use, the way players and fans talk, and you can even physically see it through the way players dress whether they’re on or off the court. So where in this big mess do I fit in? Well, my role in the whole thing is being a player.

I’ve been playing for around 6 years and have actually been playing in a competitive league for the majority of them. I’ve been to countless tournaments all around the lower mainland and even down in the USA. The largest event that I’ve ever participated in was last summer when my team and I travelled to Las Vegas to play in a tournament against some of the best teams in North America. Even some international teams from China and New Zealand made the trip to play in the tournament. We ended up getting second in our division (We were in the lowest division) which was pretty good considering our competition. All in all, it was really cool to travel to another place just to play a sport, and it’s an experience I’ll never forget.

 Basketball as a whole has been a major factor in my life and has taken up a lot of my time. Between the culture that surrounds this sport and the amount of excitement that is gained when playing, it’s clear why basketball is one of my favourite extracurricular activities.