Well ladies…this is the day you’ve dreamed about your entire lives. From the moment you picked up a basketball you’ve thought about what it would feel like to be playin’ for the Girls Indiana State Championship.
Guess what…you’ve been able to feel it for the past week. Now that it’s game time what are you willin’ do with that feelin’? Are you goin’ to continue to bath in it or are you willin’ to take advantage of the opportunity to prove all the doubters wrong?
You’ve already earned a spot in the title game by beatin’ all of the teams that were supposed to be here. You knocked off three of the big dogs on the drive to Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Who comes into the state tournament unranked and beats three Top 10 teams in as many weeks? Wheredeydodatat?
They put North Central in the road and you ran over them. They stuck Pike in the intersection and you blew through the light. Then they made you travel all the way to freakin’ Jasper to play a game that you should have been able to play right in this city. When you got there you didn’t allow the atmosphere to intimidate you and you got rid of Bedford North Lawrence like some straight up champs.
So at 8:15pm this evenin’, in this lifetime, you’ve got the opportunity to finish what you’ve started. Not only are you reppin’ the East Side but you’re reppin’ EVERY hood in this city! You’re the only team from Indianapolis playin’ for the state title today! It’s Warren Central or bust for the big city.
There isn’t anyone holdin’ us down in Class A, 2A or 3A!! It’s all on you playas!!! You ARE Naptown today. Everybody’s countin’ on you to be what you’ve been for the past several weeks.
What y’all been hollerin’ around here “Can’t Fold Won’t Fold?” Now it’s time to put up or shut! You’re here because you deserve to be here. You have been predestined to run out of this locker room to show the state that you belong in this moment. Now that you’re here, what are you gonna to do with the opportunity? It’s not enough to just show up, to bring your camera and soak it all in. Your efforts didn’t get you this far to have a field trip. So what are you prepared to do this evenin’?
Championships are not won on game day because the game is only a culmination of events. This championship was won durin’ the off season when the other teams were havin’ a good time and you were puttin’ in work. When everyone practiced for two hours and went home and you stayed to put in extra reps everyday. When everyone was asleep and you got up at 5am to put in work in addition to your regular workouts. At that moment, you put yourself in a position to be become a champion.
The trophy was bein’ engraved when you decided that you weren’t gonna let folks tell you what you could or couldn’t accomplish. Your ring was sized the day you cut off friends that weren’t goin’ in the same direction that you were goin’. Your name and picture was immortalized in the book of champions the day that you bought into our mission. Every diamond in the settin’ of that ring represents the sweat that you put in to get to this very moment.
Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”
So as a result my young sistas, this game is just a matter of formality. It’s just another part of what you have to do to show the state what you’ve already become and that’s their State CHAMPIONS!
Now who’s got the intestinal fortitude to last the 32 minutes you’ve been given to decide this thing? You don’t have to be the best team; you just have to be the best team durin’ this allotted time. It’s just that simple!! You’re playin’ on the same 84 foot long and 50 feet wide court and shootin’ on the same 10 foot basket. The free throw line is still 15 feet away and the the refs are still the same ole suckas from Footlocker tryin’ to sell you some repeat Jordan’s from twenty years ago. If you can remember that when you run out of this locker room, you’ll return as champions and become immortals in the “Indiana Girls State Basketball Book of Greatness” forever.
However, if you allow the moment to get too big, you’ll fail miserably and 24 hours from now you’ll be irrelevant. You’ll have what the ole timers would say, “A face that only a mother could love.” So how do you wanna do this ladies? I say you go out there and put yourselves in a position to be relevant tomorrow!” LET’S RIDE!!!!!”