Throughout the fall, the basketball program ran workouts where the athletes not participating in a sport were expected to attend. At these workouts we would do all sorts of running and other agilities. They weren’t the most enjoyable experiences, but we knew it was a necessity to be successful this season.

One day Coach Vanderwall came in to workouts with a new device to make us quicker and stronger. It had two separate belts that you and your partner would put around your waist. Connecting these two belts is an elastic band. Coach wanted a demonstration to be done in front of the large group, so of course I walked right out along with Zach Johnson, who is considerably bigger than I am.

The first time I was in the front. I started running as hard as I possibly could and before I knew it Zach got launched in front of me due to the force from the band. Once we got to the other side of the gym, Zach was the leader, making me the follower. Prior to Zach running, thoughts kept running through my head. “When am I supposed to start running? Do I let the band get fully extended before I start to run?”

Due to my hesitation, Zach began to run and I got yanked right off my feet and did a nose dive right into the hard gym floor. Sure enough, I got floor burns all over my knees and arms. It felt like I had flown through the air for about twenty feet before sliding another five to a sudden halt. The very first thing I heard was everyone in the gym dying of laughter. Here I was, a big bad senior demonstrating how to do something in front of a bunch of little freshman and I make a fool of myself. To add to the embarrassment Jillayne Kurtz and Kelsey Byxbe were up on the track running when this happened, and of course they saw it. While everyone was still amused by the fact that I went flying through the air, I just laid on the ground confused as to how this all happened. While on the ground with my face beat red, I could hear David Krombeen’s laugh getting closer. Like a good friend would, he stood right over top of me laughing as hard as I have ever heard him laugh with a finger right in my face.

The next thing for me was to gain the courage and face about fifty underclassmen dying of laughter. The laughs started to die off as I got closer to the group, but I felt like it was best to handle the situation by laughing at myself instead of showing the embarrassment. Once I got to the group I proclaimed, “Make sure to start running before the band gets fully extended!” Everyone started laughing again, but they were cut off by coach asking me if I was okay. I assured him that I was fine and he moved on to explain the rest of the workout. During the hour we were running, things got a little better when a couple of underclassmen did the same thing.

Later that night at the football game it was evident the story was out and parents were coming up to me asking me what happened, and of course the laughs just kept coming. Prior to this experience, I had been pretty fortunate to not have too many embarrassing moments, but this is by far the most embarrassing moment of my life so far.