Never Give Up and Never Doubt What You Can Do

By: Alexis Moore, 3rd Grade Student

        My name is Alexis Moore. I am a third-grader in Mrs. Wooten’s class. Over spring break I went to the NAIA National Championship with the Westmont basketball team. To win the national championship you have to win 6 games in a row against the top teams in the country. First, we went to Idaho. We had to win our first game to get to the Sweet 16. (We had a 'Bye' the first game which means you have an automatic win.) We had practice for two hours every day. They have to work really hard for two hours. Then they have to do games every other day. That is hard!

        We won over Montana Western by a lot. Then we advanced to the Sweet 16. Next, we had to play Lyon. Our team won that one too! That one was a close one. Then we got matched with Clarke in the Elite 8. They were a lot taller than we were. That comes as an advantage. But our girls are VERY fast and smart and always play their hardest! We kept winning and winning and went to the Final 4 in Iowa.

        Now we were in the Championship game against Thomas More from Kentucky. We were losing for most of the first half but fought back to win the National Championship. When the buzzer went off, all the fans cheered and confetti and streamers came flying down from the ceiling of the arena and all our team went flooding onto the court to celebrate. After a while of celebrating we got the big championship banner and trophy. They even brought out a box of fresh-made mini donuts from the concession stand. We cut down the nets and everyone got to keep a piece as a souvenir to remember when they won the championship.

        I think that we should never give up and never doubt that we can do something very, very, very, big. We have to always work hard and then we can do the big things we want to do. Here is something that Lauren Tsuneishi (One of our seniors, the littlest player in the whole tournament, and won the hustle award) learned while winning the National Tournament, “Even if you are down and the odds are stacked against you, you can always control your effort. At the end of the day, in everything we do as Westmont Warriors, we know that if we all do the work and give our very best and help our friends be their best, we can be proud of the results, win or lose.”