Childhood Friend

When I moved into my new subdivision way back in 1995, my family's house was the fourth one built, so the availability of friends my age was slim. The first friend I made was a hockey player named Zach who moved from Michigan to Naperville, Il.

My main sport growing up was basketball, so to suggest that Zach and I would have any type of relationship involving sports was seemingly thin. Not to say that we didn't have anything in common, but our relationship did not revolve around sports.

However, often times we couldn't decide on something that satisfied both of our interests, so we alternated with our favorite sports.

Although we never played ice hockey, we did play roller hockey. I actually bought roller blades and appropriate hockey equipment just to play. Although I tried, I was never actually any good at hockey. It was always hard for me to multi-task, I was never coordinated enough to handle the puck while skating, or shot the puck while skating.

I had fun, and Zach remembers it very similarly. He pointed out how I was always over competitive in everything that we did. Hockey for him was his chance to beat me and make sure that I knew I lost.

Self admittedly, I am a trash talker, so he really handed it to me in hockey. We even both recalled not talking for an extended period of time (extended means about four days).

However in basketball, it was a complete role reversal. I handed it to him and made sure to let him know. Unlike myself, Zach was a little less willing to play basketball. Not because I would always win, rather because it wasn't physical enough. He always made fun of the sport, claiming it was too soft, and that fouls were called when somebody got poked. Although not completely true, he had a point, especially compared to hockey. We still dispute the physically of basketball and why little touch fouls are actually fouls.

In any case, what resulted was a compromise of both of our sports, and the creation of ZBA. It's official name is Zach Basketball Association. Pretty much, it's fight club with an objective to score. However the scoring soon turned into, "Whose Line is it Anyways," where the scoring didn't actually matter.

We soon found ourselves playing ZBA constantly and as a result found many more aches on both of our bodies.

ZBA only last one summer, but the memories have lasted more then 12 years, as well as the scars.