Cypress Basketball League Essay Winners - Summer 2006
Describe how you used the four pillars of character this season to display good sportsmanship.

Robert Fleming
1st Place, age group 5-6

Tommy Gallardo
2nd Place, age group 5-6

Marilyn Oliva
1st Place, age group 9-11
It has been a wonderful experience being part of such a great team. I have learned many new skills such as shooting from a different point and I also learned how to dribble with my left hand. I also learned to treat others with respect by who they are and what they do. The main idea of playing such a great sport is to have a positive attitude and healthy spirit. Every time I have to go to practice, I enjoy being around my coach and team. I demonstrate respect and honesty to my coach by following her instructions and participating with my team in a positive and respectful way. I also demonstrate respect, responsibility, and caring by not showing a bad attitude when my coach is telling me how to dribble or use any other techniques to do a better game. When I have a game, I have good sportsmanship by doing the best of the best cooperation with my team and by not getting mad if we lose. I always enjoy myself and I’m glad I can participate with such a great team and great coach at the Cypress YMCA.

Andrew Quinones Lucero
2nd Place, age group 9-11
When we lost our first game, I was sad but we did our best. When we won our first game, I was happy but I didn’t brag. I told them good game to the team that we played. One of the team’s players was calling me names in the game, but it didn’t bother me. We beat that team. I still told him good game. One of our team players got hurt. I helped him up and called timeout. I felt it was my responsibility to call a timeout so my friend could recover. Out on the court I learned to respect other players and their coaches. I respect them because they practice really hard and play really hard like I do. I am glad I met new people that ended up becoming my new friends. I would do anything to help my friends in any way because I care for them a lot. I hope next year that I will be able to play basketball with my old friends and hopefully make new ones.

Sacha Gudger
1st Place, age group 12-14
Good sportsmanship is nothing without respect, honesty, responsibility and caring. This season I used responsibility by coming to almost every practice and game. I also respected the other teams that we faced when we lost to them. I tried to never let my team down by not being a ball hog and noticing them during a game. I would also tell them where’ve I been if I haven’t been to a practice or a game. Most of my team shows sportsmanship.

The first thing sportsmanship needs is responsibility. Most of the people on our team show responsibility by coming to practice all the time. I tried to do my best to come to all the practices (especially the games), but I know that I haven’t been to some of them. People don’t realize that practice is more important than the game. What’s the point in coming to the game if you don’t know what to do because you didn’t go to practice? Those people let their teams down and that’s why sometimes they lose the game. For example, our third game was a little bit tough. Only 5 people showed up for the game (the people who came to practice), but we still won because those 5 people come to almost every practice. I say that the team that played was responsible.

The second thing that you need for sportsmanship is respect. You should always respect your teammates and other teams because you wouldn’t want to start a big mess. Just imagine there being no respect in the whole world. There would be riots, fighting, stealing, and maybe WWIII. Really without respect, there would be no responsibility or honesty, or caring. There wouldn’t be sportsmanship either. That’s how important respect is to most people in the world.

The third and last things that sportsmanship needs are honesty and caring. Honesty is very important in a game because you don’t want to lie and then start an argument with anybody (especially the referee). Caring is also important because that is what gives you the motivation to win a game or come to practice. If you didn’t care for any of your teammates and you never came to practice, you would probably lose the game because sometimes in a game people will be counting on you. Or maybe you didn’t come to a game and there were not enough players so we had to forfeit. Caring is when you think of your team and realize that you are part of that team. You also realize that there is no “I” in team.

Without any of the four pillars, there isn’t any sportsmanship. There wouldn’t be anything without those actually, if you think of it. Someone might say that “you shouldn’t care for the other team,” or “practice doesn’t matter.” Many people will say that, but it is your choice and that’s why the four pillars are so important.