All or Nothing

By Aaron Worten

This is it. My last ACSC and basketball tournament as a high school player. I woke up at three in the morning, and my dad drove my sister and I to Dalat. I saw all my teammates with messy hair and tired faces. A senior on the team, Onyu Kwak, even forgot his bag, the one thing he needed to bring. We sat around for everyone to arrive, and we got on the bus to the airport and started our journey to Manila.

This ACSC basketball tournament was unlike any other ACSC in the history of the conference, due to the coronavirus. Many teams dropped out of the tournament, and this was the first year where boys and girls would be traveling together. It was a bit disappointing at first hearing that there would only be four teams coming to the tournament, but as a team, we decided that we were going to make the most of it. The four teams coming were Grace, Faith, Dalat, and Morrison. When we arrived in Manila, we got more bad news, Morrison had come, and they got detained and had to go back to Taiwan because of the virus as well. That made it even more disappointing, but our team still went in determined to win.

After the opening ceremony, the first day of the tournament started with pool play. We played Faith first, playing them close the whole game; but we ended up losing by two points. After our first loss, we were down, but we went on to the next game ready to play hard. Even though we played hard, Grace beat us by a lot, and that brought our team to an all-time low. We were down and frustrated. The next day, we knew we had to win and start playing better. We went on to win four straight games and won 2 of those games against teams we had also lost to. We finished pool play with four wins and two losses.

Heading into tournament play, we knew we were as good as any team there and could possibly get first place for the first time ever in Dalat history. We were the second seed playing against Grace who was the third seed. We played them close the whole game, but they ended up pulling away at the end and beating us 46 to 38. We would then play the third and fourth place game, winning it by a large amount of points.

Even though we didn’t place first, I couldn’t have been more proud of how my team fought and played hard. Senior captain Wansuk Kunawaradisai (12) said, “I am proud of everyone on our team. Even though we placed third, we worked hard and were able to knock off the first and second place team in pool play. It was also fun getting to know my teammates more and being able to help serve the people there in Manila.”

Senior guard Onyu Kwak (12) also chipped in, saying, “ACSC was a time for us to bond with people from different grades. We slept together in one room and were able to tell each other more about ourselves. It was a very bonding experience.”

After the tournament was finished, we came out better players and people, growing closer as teammates and friends. We bounced back and even though we didn’t place first, we tried our hardest and were one of the best teams there. We competed, and I am so proud of how our team performed.