"I’ve been on a lot of competitive sports teams in my life. I have played competitive soccer, baseball, basketball, track and field, and Ultimate Frisbee. One of my favorite sports moments was winning the state soccer tournament this year. When I was young, the teams were meant to teach us how to play the sport. As I grew older, the purpose gradually shifted from education to competition. Last year, though, my friends and I wanted to play a sport just for fun.

The ten of us decided to start a recreational basketball team, the “Magnolia Geese.” All of us were horrible at basketball, and we thought that “Geese” was the most fitting name for our team (or at least more fitting than the “Globetrotters” which was our other idea). We never won a game, and we lost some by more than fifty points. We still enjoyed ourselves though, and by the end we were more dedicated to the Geese than many of us had been to some of our more serious teams.

The first step for the team was to teach the basic rules of basketball to the players who had never played before. Next we organized. At the beginning, a friend and I, the two tallest members of the team (6 feet 3 inches and 6 feet 5 inches respectively), were the guards. Normally the tallest members are forwards or centers, but we were the only ones who were able to dribble well. We filled in the forward spots with our shortest players who were both 5 feet 7 inches tall. The next step was to start making up trick plays. We started playing in November (the middle of the NFL football season), so we decided to design some football plays.

“No one would expect a football play,” we thought. “It would be impossible to defend.” So the first plays were the “Hail Mary” and the “Double Reverse.” Neither play worked very well so we had to come up with more. The “Flying V” offense was next. This play uses the entire team to run down the court in the shape of a V. We also used quadruple picks on the same defender. If all else failed, we never hesitated to take a half-court shot. In our final play, which unfortunately was whistled dead in its only attempt, one player ran out a side door of the gym, around the gym, back in the front door and onto the court.

One of my favorite parts of the games was watching how the other teams and the referees would react to our playing style. At the beginning of play everything was serious. The refs would call our team for frequent traveling and double-dribbling problems. We would face tough defense and complicated offenses as well. Once the other team felt safely ahead though, usually with a lead of about twenty points, the game would change. For some teams, the competition turned more towards street ball where the goal was to do impress the crowd. Others would turn the game into a three-point shot competition. In any case, the refs would usually relax and allow us to play the way we wanted to, even if it was against the rules.

I learned from this experience that sometimes it’s more important for me to be with people that I like than to win. We all had some of our best sports experiences even though they had nothing to do with winning state or finishing first. We just went out and had a good time together. As we were leaving one of our games, still smiling and talking about the game, a referee came up to my dad (who was the coach that day) and said, “Your team really has a lot of fun when they play.”

“Yes,” he replied, “I think that’s why they all signed up.”


Ryan Quarfoth, University Prep Class of 2005, Harvey Mudd College Class of 2009.