by Logan Gilman

After playing in my 90th varsity basketball game I walked off the court for the final time just a few weeks ago. As I left the court I felt a rush of emotion. Losing is never fun, but losing your first playoff game your senior year brings a lot of devastation.
As I sat in the locker room with my teammates for the last time, listening to Coach Lorensen give his final post-game speech, I made sure to take in the moment. I remember what the locker room looked like, the look on my teammates’ faces, the agonizing feeling of taking off my Mustang jersey for the last time. I’ve put my whole heart and soul into the game of basketball, playing year round on AAU teams and working my tail off at every practice, all with one goal in mind: To make the State Tournament.
Sadly, I never reached that goal. Actually, I never even won a district championship.
With all of this in mind, it was easy for me to feel sorry for myself and feel like a failure. After all, I wasn’t able to come close to my biggest goal. As I got dressed, I had many guys thank me and give me words of encouragement. While this was happening, I realized that just because we didn’t make it to State doesn’t mean my time playing ball at PCM was a failure.
Elijah Sperfslage thanked me for all I had done for him and told me that he learned a lot from me. This moment really hit home for me because this season I was the only person on the team, other than Luke Greiner, who had much varsity experience. A goal of mine was to lead by example. Elijah saying that let me know I had reached my goal of being a good leader. The more I thought about it, that wasn’t the only goal I had reached on the basketball court.
On Feb. 3, I signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Grand View University. It was an amazing feeling, like all of the hard work was literally paying off to help pave the way for my future. Ever since I can remember, it’s always been a dream of mine to play college basketball, and it’s an exciting feeling to make that dream a reality.
Besides giving me the chance to play in college, basketball has given me so many other things. I’ve been playing competitive ball since the third grade, and I have made many lifelong friends and even more memories.
The feeling of my career at PCM being over is still sinking in, but it’s an exciting feeling and such a blessing to be able to play at the next level. I couldn’t be more excited to see what the future holds, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the game of basketball.