Down by two with one final possession in the game, Golden State Warrior Monte Ellis dribbles up the court with Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant playing smothering defense. In what could be the defining game of his career, Ellis fakes left, dribbles right, and leaps into the lane. As four Lakers collapse on him, Ellis flicks a no-look pass to Baron Davis standing out on the wing. Davis elevates and releases an off balance shot. Swoosh. Warriors win.

Through the course of my first two years in high school, I have found that one of my favorite distractions from the ongoing labor of schoolwork and other daily activities is sports. Through my avid following of sports, I have seemingly become a writer who focuses mainly on writing sports stories.

Coming into Paly, I followed one sport and one team only. Stanford Cardinal Basketball. Eventually, friends and family introduced me to other sports and teams, and sports slowly began to creep into my day. In addition to watching all the old teams, I started watching the new teams, and thus, copious amounts of time were being spent sitting in front of the TV.

First it was the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens. Then it was college football with USC (There is no way I can root for Stanford in that category,) and finally, the NBA with my Warriors and Mavericks. Without my TiVo box, I would have been permanently attached to the tube.

Slowly, this time-consuming distraction evolved into a full-blown “hobby” that began to eat up every spare minute. With roughly 82 NBA games, 16 NFL games, 13 college football games, and 30 college basketball games per team played throughout the year, it would be nearly impossible to watch every single game. To combat my inability to watch every game, I checked the scores online as soon as was humanly possible.

In addition to watching as many off these sporting events as possible, I slowly began to read more opinion stories on what was going on in the professional sports world. Whether I was reading the sarcastic humor of Gregg Doyel on sportsline.com, or the moral story from Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated, I always found myself thinking of how much fun it would be to cover sports.

I began to look into the various Paly publications to find what appealed to me. I wanted to be able to have free roam over what and when I was writing, so when a friend mentioned Voice to me, I jumped at the opportunity. Throughout the first two quarters, Voice seemed a little bit hectic to me, but now that I have gotten used to the break-neck pace, I am happy with my decision to become a Voice member.