Thank You Wootton Basketball

For those of you who are unaware, I am a senior at Wootton High School. Over the past couple of months I've gotten to watch and announce both boys and girls varsity basketball games. I got to see things that seemed impossible (as a fan) happen and I've gotten to call many amazing plays. You will read more about those moments below.

Quick thing

I wasn't alone in announcing. I had a partner who honestly made the job better because It gave me someone to talk to. I had a fun time announcing as a duo and I hope you had as much of a blast as I did.

Disclaimer: Because I know there are people who may not want their names printed, I won't be using them.

The first game

The first game I did this year was the boys first home against Walter Johnson. I was extremely nervous, mostly because I was scared that I was gonna mispronounce someone's name because that is everyone's worst nightmare. (Luckily I didn't.)

As the game went on I felt more and more comfortable and realized that the way to be a good announcer is to just say what happened instead of trying to use the "expert words.” As an announcer, your job is to keep the fans and parents engaged and having fun. So while you have to be respectful to the opposing fans, you can throw some jabs at them when they yell at you or are being jerks. In this game I had my first experience with that specific issue. The Walter Johnson fans were trying to distract a Wootton player so he would miss his free throws by counting to ten really fast, hoping to speed the player up. It didn't work so I said "Thank you, we all know how to count." Wootton fans found it funny at least! I also got to call a Wootton alley-oop, which was one of my favorite calls ever, and Wootton won the game 74-55.

Announcing losses

It's fun to announce a win because you can have some fun highlighting great plays and joking when visiting fans get cranky. When you lose, it isn't as fun.

Such was the case when Wootton played Damascus. Wootton would end up losing that game 73-53. Let’s all pretend that game never happened.

Then, to start the new year, we played Churchill. Churchill is Wootton’s biggest rival, and whenever they play it is always expected to be a great game. This game was indeed great ... for a quarter. Wootton started off strong and I was getting ready to talk about massive trash. Unfortunately, then Churchill got hot and dominated the game. Announcing this hurt because I couldn't find a way to compliment their team because, well, everyone from Wootton hates them.

Then Churchill fans started chanting “scoreboard,” which gave me the idea to say "Apparently people from Churchill can't read. I don't know how that's possible but I guess I'll have to tell them the score." The best part of that was that I got the Churchill parents to laugh. The final score of that game was 69-53 Churchill.

The Buzzer Beater( first girls game)

After the disaster of the Churchill game I got to call my first girls varsity game. This was Walter Johnson, which for some reason we played twice in the regular season this year.

In this game I got to see the best ball movement team in high school. The way this team passed the ball with such precision and speed was incredible to watch. The game was also nerve-wracking because Wootton blew a big lead. Then at the end I had the greatest near disaster call of the year. When the game winning shot went up I thought it looked good and was about to shout "Money!” Then as I was in the middle of saying that I looked at it and thought "Oh no, it's going to miss long." But it went in, so in the end my call sounded something like "mon … it’s good!" I’m grateful that shot went in because that saved me from looking like an idiot.

Ball don't lie

As we got further into the season I was trying to come up with a catchphrase to get the crowd hyped up. It wasn't until an official made a ball call and the opposing player missed the free throw and I spontaneously said "Ball don't lie,'' that I realized I had one.

It's funny because I learned that with announcing, sometimes the more you think about what to say, the worse you sound. It’s better to just say what happened instead of trying to explain in more detail like you think an expert would do. Assume people know what you are talking about and just say the simple things.

Wootton would end up winning both of the last two games I announced before the playoffs. I was looking forward to manning the mic in the postseason. But …

Comeback Kids

… I was unable to announce games in the playoffs, because students weren’t allowed to do it. So instead I went to games as a fan.

The girls had a No, 2 seed and a first-round bye, bye while the boys were the No. 3 seed and played Walter Johnson in the Regional Quarterfinals. The first half of the boys’ opening game was what many Wootton fans expected; a tight game but Wootton had a 29-23 lead at the break. Then came the third quarter, which was by far the worst quarter of basketball I saw from the Patriots all year. Walter Johnson outscored Wootton 24-8. During that time the Walter Johnson fans were talking all the trash they possibly could. I was honestly going to leave, but my friend who I was there with convinced me to stay. Thankfully I listened to him. Wootton started the fourth quarter on a 15-0 run to make the score 52-47.

Walter Johnson would cut the deficit to two points. Then, in the final minute, a bad inbounds pass by Wootton led to the Walter Johnson point guard throwing a full court pass that if it was an inch higher would have led to an easy layup and a tie game. But the closest Wootton player somehow jumped up and barely tipped it right to a teammate. Walter Johnson couldn't recover from that and Wootton won 62-58. Everyone in the Wootton crowd then proceeded to go to the halfcourt line and wave goodbye to the now-quiet visiting fans.

Moving on to the Regional Finals

The girls team had a much easier time to get to regionals because they got an extra few days of rest thanks to the opening-round bye. They ended up beating Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (BCC) to advance to play Churchill..

The boys had a much harder task as they had to play Whitman at Whitman. Well, that’s what I thought before the game started, but Wootton dominated from the opening tip. I also received a complaint from my friend to please stop pretending to be a TV broadcaster while watching from the stands. But I can’t worry about the critics. The boys won and they moved on to play Churchill as well. While the pair of rivalry games were exciting, some fans were extremely nervous because in the four years the seniors have been there, Churchill had dominated the rivalry.

The Churchill games

I went to the girls Regional Championship game to support the team, and again the community came out and showed their support. For the first three quarters, Wootton was the better team and were one quarter away from sending Churchill home. But unfortunately things didn't turn out the way they should have.

First, Wootton shots stopped falling and Churchill couldn’t miss. Second, the team struggled on the offensive glass as Churchill collected more rebounds. Third, and the biggest factor (arguably) was the officials. While Wootton had their chances to win, the officials decided to hand the game to Churchill with several blown calls. Look, I’m a referee too and I appreciate that everyone always blames the ref when their team loses, but watch the game tape if you don’t believe me.

After they lost, everyone from Wootton was shocked and depressed. No one moved for a bit. With that being said, the girls lost to a really good Churchill team and it was still an awesome season.

The boys game was the next night and the buildup to that game was significant. All over social media I saw Churchill talking trash like they already won. If only they had known what was going to happen …

I actually had a college visit scheduled, so my dad and I were in the car driving south instead of at the game (shoutout to all my fellow MCPS students who were also making that drive on I-85 and who I saw on campus the next day) so I was trying to figure out a way to watch. I called up my friend and asked if he could facetime me in the car so I could watch the game. Fortunately he did.

This was a defensive battle. Wootton had clearly learned their lesson from their first matchup as they played much better. That being said, Churchill ended the first half hot and led Wootton 35-27. I had told my friend that the first four minutes of the second half was critical because they needed to go on a run. What I saw then was a team that finally had enough of losing to Churchill. Their coaches had the best adjustments for the game and the players bought in. They started that half by going on an 8-2 run, which I'm sure got everyone on Churchill's side nervous. But that quarter ended with Churchill hitting a buzzer beater to put them up 50-46.

Yet despite being down four, Wootton kept fighting. The fourth quarter started off with two three-pointers from Wootton sandwiched between a Churchill layup to tie the game. This is where I must apologize to my dad because while he was driving I was giving him a play by play and he kept telling me to stop so he could concentrate on passing whatever truck was clogging up the highway. But I was too excited.

This was a back and forth game. It wasn't until 1:40 remaining where Wootton took control. Wootton stole the ball and pushed it up the court, and the point guard made a nice pass to Wootton's most reliable shooter, who in full rhythm hit a wide open three to put Wooton up by four. Then, up six with 11 seconds left, Wootton missed a free throw, but kept the ball alive and eventually came up with possession and got fouled again with 5.6 seconds left. That was it.

When time expired, the Wootton students at the game charged the court. The first people on the court were some of the members of the girls varsity team in their jerseys who just lost the previous night. I was screaming because I was so happy. Pretending to be an announcer I told my friend "there's going to parties at Fallsgrove, Rockville and North Potomac!”'

End of season

Winning the Regional Championship and making the state Elite Eight was awesome, but the state let Wootton down. Almost no Wootton fans could show up to their next game because Meade (the school they were playing) only sold 350 tickets and refused to sell more because their gym was under construction. You would think that the state would make sure a school had a functioning gym with actual seats in order to host, if for no other reason than ticket sales and other gameday revenue. But you would be wrong. Wooton ended up losing that game but it was still an incredible year, much better than anyone could have dreamed of when the season started..

Overall I am so happy that I was able to announce the season for both teams' basketball games this season. I learned how to be a better announcer and I was able to watch the boys make it to the state quarterfinals for the first time since 1985.

See you next time