My Life as a Player V

In her fifth entry, Nichole describes the emotions of winning the district championship and preparing for the Washington State 3A tournament.

Entry No. 5 / March 6, 2007

It is a great feeling going into Washington State 3A tournament being the super No. 1 seed. We had a long road to get to that point, though. West Central District wasn’t easy by any means; it was a great chance to see some good competition before leading into state. Our team has worked very hard at everything this year and knows what it takes to get to the championship game, which we hope we get that chance.

Nichole at State in '06

We had to battle every game because we have nothing to lose and everybody is gunning for us. Lakes High School and White River High School each gave us a good fight. Going into the championship game, we knew it would be a rough one; everyone knows it’s very hard to beat a team three times in a row, especially when they’re aggressive and scrappy, but we held our ground defeating White River to win West Central Districts.

After the game, the team headed to Red Robin to celebrate and begin focusing on state. Sunday morning, Katie Grad, Stephanie Wilber and I headed with the coaches up to Renton, Wash., where the tournament bracker draw was held. We ended up getting Issaquah (and my old club teammate, Alyssa Shoji) for our first-round game at 9:00 a.m. at KeyArena (are you kidding me!).

We have a great 3A State tournament coming up and a short week ahead of us to prepare to be center stage at the championship game on Saturday night. We’ve already committed ourselves to working even harder than we have in the past so we can play for the state title. We can’t imagine the feeling of being state champs, but we also don’t want to know the feeling of not getting where we want to be after all the hard work we have put in.

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Nichole Jackson has been a fixture on HoopGurlz.com, as she was a perennial selection to all-tournament teams in youth-basketball events conducted by the website. Last year, Nichole started as a freshman for Auburn Riverside, which advanced to the semifinals of the Washington State 4A tournament. As a sophomore this year, Nichole will run the point for a team expected to be one of the top two in the Washington State 3A classification. A member of the National Honor Society, Nichole hopes to study communications in college and go into broadcasting. Click here to view Nichole's player profile.