For those of you who have followed my blog from the beginning, you read about the $20 bill that sparked my interest in sports. If not, you can read it here, then come back. Now, I’m going to tell you about the bribe that made me a true competitor.
As a rec league athlete and a die-hard Tar Heel, I attended Sylvia Hatchell’s basketball camp five years in a row. I was a regular. The players knew me and expected me back each year.
For five days every July, I would pack a duffle with all my UNC gear and my Carolina blue Nike basketball shoes, then head to my favorite place in the world. My parents would drop me off at Granville Towers West after setting up my twin size bed and meeting my roommate. They left me with my TracFone, reloaded with minutes, that was only used for summer camps.
For reference, this is what we were working with in 2008.
I do not have too many vivid memories of the camp but here are a few things that stand out. Each day, we would load up Holiday buses and watch Michael Jackson music videos on the short ride from Granville to Woolen Gym. Once at Woolen, we ran drills and practiced with our teams for the upcoming tournament at the end of the week. During our breaks, we crowded around the orange Gatorade coolers out back and tried hard to dodge the bees that knew there was a sugary drink nearby.
After a long day of basketball, my friends and I would hit the now, non-existent pool at Granville or the Quickie Mart that is now also long gone. For my fellow Carolina students that didn’t experience Time Out and Ken’s Quickie Mart right next to Granville, you missed out. But the new Target definitely has its perks.
I also remember playing countless rounds of Knock Out with fellow campers and players. The current Carolina players knew me as the camper that could knock down free throws and beat Sylvia Hatchell’s best players.
Everyone liked me. I have always been an agreeable and likable person. I hate confrontation and very rarely have any kind of issue with people. This is something that has defined me most of my life. Teachers, coaches and friends’ parents always considered me a pleasant and friendly personality.
I don’t have a problem with this. I want people to like me.
Unfortunately, this killed my competitive edge. At Coach Hatchell’s camps, I was awarded Best Camper over and over again. My parents referred to it as the Happy Camper Award. Trust me, this was not an endearing nickname. No matter how camp went, I always came out at the end of the week with the same recognition.
Again, my dad wasn’t pleased. It was time for another bribe. I had been begging my parents for a golf cart so I could drive around our neighborhood and pick up my friends. I had been shut down time and time again. Turns out, it was an excellent motivator.
My dad told me that if I could win the Best Offensive or Best Defensive Player Award, or just anything besides Best Camper, he would buy me a golf cart. Obviously he didn’t think it would happen because of my track record at camp. But he didn’t realize how badly I wanted that golf cart.
I would love to say I went to camp that week and dominated every game and competition, but I really don’t remember. I guess I did something right because my parents showed up at the end of the week and were in total shock when the coaches announced that I won the Best Offensive Player Award.
My dad held up his end of the bargain and bought me the golf cart.
I am not sure I would say this was a healthy way to inspire me to play a little harder or to be more aggressive on the court, but it worked. It paid off because as a JV player at my school, I played up with Varsity team. Then, when I moved to Virginia, I worked out at the Salvation Army with my brother and several guys from our high school. I was the only girl, and when I say the Salvation Army gym was not a happy place, it was not a happy place. I got my butt kicked, but I wanted to compete with the boys and show them I could be just as good or even better.
This was all thanks to the golf cart bribe of 2008.
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