It was game day, February 22nd, 2013, time to play the Pontiac Phoenix. Games against Pontiac are the closest, most competitive, and most physical games you will play as a basketball player on my school's team. We entered the dimly lighted gym, getting the dirtiest looks that anyone could receive from Pontiac players, students, and teachers, it has always been evident that Pontiac and my school don’t have a friendly relationship. Despite the low hospitality, we all proceeded to set our bags down by the bench and begin our warmup. Going into our layup lines of two rotations from the right side, left side, and middle, we needed to loosen up as much as possible as we knew that this wasn’t just going to be a game, it will be a battle.

Warm up time was coming to a close and us Wolves headed to bench and you could tell that we were nervous, coming into a game versus a JV Pontiac team that hasn’t lost in 3 seasons. Disappointed, I sat down on the bench, I was not starting this game, I had been an on and off starter but when Dayton Wallis, a fellow sophomore, was brought down from Varsity to get some playing time, took that spot with ease. We all huddled up and Coach Colling began his speech, “This is going to be a tough game, you all have to come out ready to play, Pontiac relies on 6 or 8 point runs to win games, you have to fight through them and not let them get to your, play hard, play smart, and play defense.” The team puts their hands in, “1-2-3 Defense!”, the usual huddle break for us.

Both teams took the floor, lined up, and the referee through the ball up for the opening tip, Pontiac won it with their unbelievable jumping ability. Right off the bat, Pontiac goes into an 8-0 run and this is exactly what we wanted to avoid, it was evident that we were playing nervously. This continued into a quick 15 point deficit and Coach Colling turned to me and said, “Jacob, get Wallis, play some defense.” It showed that he trusted me to help cut the lead that Pontiac had and bring us back in the game. I kneeled down beside the table and the ref signaled me in after the next dead ball. I ran onto the court and yelled, “Dayton!” while signaling to him that he was coming out. Right as I go in, I get the ball and nervously walked up the court into the infamous Pontiac 3-2 half-court zone that pressures ball carriers heavily into turnovers. I turned the ball over, leading to an easy Pontiac layup, it was a rough start to my entrance and at that moment, I realized that I had to buckle down and play smart. I received the ball out of the inbound again and successfully passed it to the wing to relieve the pressure off of me. As I was passed the ball back, I noticed an opening in the defense and drove into it and scored a layup. After a successful defensive set, I came back down to the offensive end and noticed the same opening in the Phoenix zone, once again taking it, I was fouled and proceeded to make two free throws. Pontiac came back down and lost the ball, in the fight for the loose ball, my teammate Daniel Jokish took a deadly elbow to the nose in the heat of the battle, he screamed a cry of pain as I looked over to see that his nose was easily broken. This brought a fire in me that further motivated me to play my hardest and do what I could to win this game. We had recovered the loose ball and I knew that I was getting into a groove, proceeding to swing the ball to the right side, receiving it back almost instantaneously, with the defense adjusted to my driving, they had sagged off of me and with no hesitation, I launched a confident three pointer that went in - it was game time, Pontiac called a timeout.

We all get in the huddle and Coach Colling says, “If this (Jokish’s broken nose) doesn’t motivate you guys, then I don’t know what will, do not let up, keep up the intensity and dig out of the hole that you guys dug yourselves into. After playing for quite some time, Colling had left me in, reinsuring the trust he had in me to help the team. Coming back onto the court, we were all determined to come out of this game with a W. We set up into our help defense based man to man as Pontiac passes the ball in. While I was in position to help on the drive, the same player that broke Jokish’s nose got passed our defender and was headed straight for the basket. I noticed this and with no hesitation I step in front of him as he is mid leap for a layup to take a charge and in this moment I felt absolute fear, as #14 was headed straight for me. On contact, I fall back and take the successful charge and my teammates, the parents, and the varsity team erupt in cheer for I had made a great play, but little did they know that on his way down from the shot, his elbow came right down on my nose and lip, putting me unconscious instantly. Due to being knocked out, I had no control of my body as I fell backwards, my head had direct contact onto the court, after a few seconds, there was blood all over my face, I was curled up into a ball, my eyes rolled to the back of my head, and I was having severe convulsions in the middle of the paint under our basket.

After 20 seconds of seizing and 60 seconds of being blacked out, I regain consciousness, I look to my left and I see Coach Colling with a smile of relief, I look to my right and see my mother full of tears and I could feel the sadness and fear that she had in her. “I love you Jacob, I love you.” She says repeatedly. I replied, “I love you too. What happened mom? I’m going to be okay.” I knew something had gone terribly wrong, I tried sitting up but the Pontiac trainer held me down and said, “Don’t move, just lay down until paramedics get here.” I laid back and tried to think about what happened, I realized I had just taken a charge and now I’m laying in the middle of Pontiac’s court with a trainer holding my neck still. In my mind, paralyzation crossed my mind for a split second as I felt so much fear that I jerked my leg just to see if it could be true, needless to say, I was not paralyzed. As I was laying there, I was feeling severe throbbing in my head and the trainer was asking me question after question, “What year is it? Who is the president? Where are you?”

“2012, Barack Obama, Pontiac.” I replied, getting two of three questions correct. After the questioning, a stretcher arrived and I was lifted onto it and raised up, as I was elevated, I glanced at my teammates and the varsity team, to see all of them with their face buried in their hands or staring at me, with tears rolling down their faces. I then performed the cliche act of putting my thumb up while being wheeled off and instantly the whole gym stood up and clapped vigorously. During that 8 second period, I felt so cared for and loved with all of the support and the sadness that was brought to the ones close to me after they saw something so terrible happen to me.

I was transported to the ambulance and looked around to notice that they were not putting any IV’s in me, bring a sense of relief to me as I felt that this was a good sign. After arriving the hospital, my dad and sister were waiting for me to support my injury. The doctor came and asked me the same questions that the trainer had asked me but this time I successfully got all of them correct, he also asked me what had happened and I had told him the whole story and he replied in complete shock, “I am so surprised you don’t have any memory loss.” I was very relieved to say this as it was another sign that it wasn’t as serious of an injury as expected. After flashing a light into my eyes, checking blood pressure, and testing my reflexes, I was being moved to the MRI room. I had never gotten an MRI before and I have always been pretty claustrophobic, I was feeling frightened. To my surprise, it was not nearly as bad as expected as I laid down inside what felt like a human sized medicine pill bottle. After the test was conducted, I was transported into my hospital room where I got settled in with IV’s and I instantly plugged in my dead cellphone. After the phone turned back on, it vibrated for at least five minutes straight, I had received 54 text messages and countless twitter messages comprised of prayers, support, and love from my fellow friends and family, I truly felt thankful.

After about a half an hour and a great enchilada that my dad had brought me, my brother walked in with tears on face. I will never forget the connection and love from the hug my brother gave me, we have always been close, but hugging was a very rare occurrence. He looked at me and said, “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

I chuckled and answered, “Don’t worry, I wont.”

“Your teammates played with so much passion and determination for you, they overcame a 20 point deficit and won that game by two for you guys.”

In complete shock and disbelief, I felt so close to my teammates through their dedication to win even though I was 20 miles away from them. They won for me.