We had a great team that year, but weren't really tested until the championship game. The opposing team had a lot of height and we simply couldn't match their depth (we only had 1 or 2 subs). They ran us out of the gym, sadly.

Towards the end of the game they emptied their bench, including a player with special needs. By that point the game was in the bag, so naturally they kept feeding the special needs player the ball to try and get him a bucket before the final buzzer. Of course, we played really soft defense on the guy and let him shoot his preferred shot: the Curry-range 3 (this was before Curry was even in college, btw). Poor kid wasn't even close to getting a bucket, but he seemed to be enjoying himself so it was whatever. Due to their height advantage, the opposing team kept getting the ball back and feeding it to the kid. Miss, rebound, pass, repeat.

This cycle repeated for probably 2 minutes and the kid was able to shoot roughly 8-10 shots, all really bad misses. Everyone in the gym was really enjoying this little game within the game. That is, everyone except me. I was frustrated from the butt-kicking and didn't like the way the game was ending. I finally determined that I had had enough and rotated around to guard the kid the next time he was fed the ball. It took all his energy just to get the ball in the air, so I had plenty of time to simply walk up to him and get my hand in the way of his shot. However, my anger got the best of me and I channeled all of my frustration into blocking the ball. What was meant to be a simple shot block turned into an absolute volleyball spike down the kid’s throat.

Everyone was so shocked that the ball just kind of bounced unimpeded down the court and out of bounds. When the ball finally came to a rest, it’s like we all snapped out of it. There were actually a lot of spectators in attendance (I would guess close to 100), and they all started booing loudly and telling me off for being such a sore loser. I was so embarrassed that I walked straight out the door and went and cried in the family van.

Looking back, the funniest part of the story to me is just how competitive I was and how angry I was at the way the game was ending. Like dude, it’s just a game of church ball. My friends and family still give me grief about that block haha