By Aseel Barghuthi,
Amman Baccalaureate School,
Amman, Jordan.

In the first quarter, you're alive, you're born, you're ready to conquer all. In the second quarter, you slow down, develop, and focus. In the third quarter, you push yourself to play harder to earn those points. In the fourth and final quarter, as the outcome begins to unfold, you reach down to find something more-because YOU determine whether the end holds a loss ... or a victory.

I love the ambiguity of the fourth quarter. I love not knowing what the end result will be. I love knowing that a win CAN take place, but only if my team and I work together. I love changing the ambiguity into a determined outcome. Fourth quarter victory is the best victory.

Right now, my life is more or less in the fourth quarter. I recently received an e-mail from an assistant coach of the Duke University Women's Basketball Team, telling me to send in a video of myself playing, so that they can analyze my abilities.

Today I was filmed during practice. It was slightly ironic that I chose this day to completely mess up. (Maybe it was the camera.) But the camera's presence also made me analyze my team a little more. It feels like my team isn't as mature as last year's team (which makes sense, I guess, since the former seniors are gone). Right now, our offense is very stagnant. I try very hard to get my teammates to try new things, but it feels like we're stuck with the PG passes to SG, SG passes to Center, who passes to the Forwards, and back again. Systematic methods do sometimes work, but I'm eager to fast forward ahead to later in the season when the newer players have gotten used to their starting roles and begin showing more creativity.

Sometimes I wish I was back in the U.S playing high school ball. That's when I first starting playing. But, to be honest, the road was rocky back then, too. So, to keep my mind off the "Duke tape" and my nostalgia for the seniors I played with last year, let me tell you "my basketball story." It basically all started when I moved to Athens, Georgia ...

Basketball was never number one on my list. I wasn't even good enough to place it anywhere near number one. You could sort of say it was a "preliminary hobby." After moving to Athens with my family, I was sent to Prince Avenue Christian School (PACS). Being so far away from home, and seeing that I wanted something to take my mind off home-sickness, I decided that I wanted to take a shot at the basketball team. Oddly, I made it. I still maintain that I made it because of my speed and not my skill, but that's besides the point.

My team was filled with talented players who made me feel small, unwanted, and unneeded (may I also add that they had played on the team much longer than I had). My determination, however, inspired me to persevere and try harder. But no matter how hard I tried, the discouraging atmosphere around me forced me to realize that the team was better off without me. Even my own mother suggested I leave the team, as she thought I was embarrassing myself by even being on it. It saddened me to think that I was so bad at something I had truly grown to love. It also saddened me to think that my team, my first real team, didn't need me.

A year later, we moved back to Jordan, where I was determined to flaunt my newly-found basketball skills (or what was left of them). I made the team in ninth grade, and again in 10th, 11th, and finally now in 12th grade. I really don't fully comprehend what happened in between to inspire me to be a better player, but all I know is that I kept pushing myself to the limit, telling myself that I needed to be quicker, sharper, and smarter.

The medals I've accumulated in the past three and a half years may not measure up to the medals that any average U.S high school team obtains. But the most important aspect about them is that I played a part in earning them. And to me, that makes all the difference.

So here I am today, 7:11 P.M on a weekend, doing what I love to do-talk about basketball. Regardless of whether or not the Duke coaches like what they see in that videotape, I'll still work my hardest to make this fourth quarter of my high school basketball career the best it can be. I'll push my teammates to improve along with me every day, and I'll try my best to turn the ambiguity of the fourth quarter into a definite win for my school and myself. I know I want to win, but I also know that victory only arises from being a strong player, complete with endurance, perseverance, and most of all ... determination.

Poem of the Day:

The greatest player, I may not be,
The greatest shooter, is perhaps not me.
But I try my best and I try all the same,
Because my life is a basketball game.

kEeP oN pLaYiNg
#68

Aseel Barghuthi is in her senior year at Amman Baccalaureate School, in the country of Jordan, where she plays both point guard and shooting guard on the school team. She has also lived in the United States (Athens, Georgia) and England. She hopes to play college ball next year back in the United States. To contact Aseel with any comments or suggestions, e-mail her at aseel@index.com.jo