MSA All State Competition Memories

Before coming to Texas A&M, I had heard of "Showdown." My siblings, friends, and acquaintances have always told me about their unforgettable experiences from the previous years, and now, I would finally be a part of it. MSA Showdown is a state-wide competition where the Muslim students across various universities would compete in sports and activities such as art, poetry, knowledge bowl, basketball, volleyball, dodge ball, football, soccer, Quran recitation and many more categories. This would be my first chance in university to play the sports I love, volley ball and basketball, along with showing my creative skills in scrap-booking.

We had very passionate team and amazing team members for volleyball and basketball, but not every member was well-prepared to play in a competitive setting. As the competition approached, practices increased, along with our school work. Making it to team meeting dates and practices was difficult for everyone, but very important if we wanted to win. Our scrapbooking continued to work even the night before the competition, and at last, competition day was here.

The Aggies had our jerseys on, faces painted, and were ready to cheer on our team. The sport our team was most confident about winning, volleyball, was hosted in the early morning at 7 a.m. Unfortunately, this year, our Aggie girls had to begin our competition with the startling and unacceptable fact that false calls and unethical players had already crushed our spirit and caused us to lose. Seeing the overbearing demotivation spreading among our team as discussion and disagreements occurred between opposing teams made me realize that we needed to move on. Volleyball had surely been our strongest sport, but we could not let unfair referee calls and cheating opponents ruin our spirit. I decided to gather the team and have them take a break from the court and explore the campus we were on, UT Austin.

Taking the team out of the court and into the lively streets, with the beautiful green campus diverted the minds of many of the team members, allowing my friend and I to rekindle the spirirt and team's motivation. Seeing the many frustrated faces, I said the words, "Look, I know we want to win, but we know that playing fair is more important than the score. We cannot let one defeat ruin our potential for the next sports. Let's have a good time, make fun memories, and contue playing." I knew my team was strong, but as a few of the members began nodding their heads while drinking the Dunkin Donuts coffee, the rest of the team was also encouraged. The team grabbed Baskin Robbins' ice cream and got back in the mood to win in the upcoming sports. After 2 hours of exploring campus and grabbing lunch, the MSA teams met again on the basketball court with the spirit I'm used to seeing. Smiles, laughter, and practice drills continued until it came time to play again. The bright, energetic atmosphere soon was replaced with complaints and arguments in dodgeball. It was clear that the teams were taking more of a competitive and aggressive approach, rather than an ethical one. We were down to 2 Aggie girls against 4 University of Houston girls. The competition was tough, but the poor attitudes of the opposing team was really getting to us. It came down to 1 Aggie against 2 girls, having the opposing team state "their way" of playing when we caught a thrown ball. It made no sense that they did not count catching the other team's ball as a player out, when there was 2 or less people left. If this was a rule, it should have been stated beforehand. After calling a replay, we decided we could not lose this one against the team who beat us in volleyball as well. Our player caught the ball and we screamed with joy, only to be interfered with the referee's whistle. Not again. The other team was debating that we could not win by catching a ball, and only by hitting our opponent. Our team would not let this one go. We argued with the other team and tried to make the referee understand that such rules should've been established beforehand.This debate lit the flames again amongst teams. The only thing I could say to support my team was the fact that other universities also agreed with A&M's point of view on the game and we knew we were playing fair. The Aggie girls had already lost in volleyball and dodgeball, next was our most intense, basketball, but at this point, winning was not the main goal; rather, trying to play without a dispute or ambiguous rules.

Throughout the basketball competition, our team was slowly becoming more aggressive and frustrated, due to the unestablished rules and overlooked fouls the referee was making. Everything seem unfair to the opposing teams, but after multiple times of trying to set rules, we decided not to argue. It was up to us to maintain a good representation for our university, and we could not let winning or losing degrade our image.We established good relations with our opposing teams and in order to get over our building frustration, we kindly asked the other teams to be fair throughout the game. There was no way that A&M could win in sports anymore, but at least we could maintain and uphold our values. I encouraged my team members to start cheering for opposing teams and support both sides, regardless of the color of the players' jerseys. The competitive sport then became a fun game as laughs began to spread again and players began to compliment their opponents. At the end of the game, we introduced ourselves and got to know the other teams' members, even taking a group photo with them (shown above). Even though we did not place, we were all very happy.

We realized that winning is not as fun as playing fair. We made new friends and maintained high spirits. Initially, after feeling unfair and bias calls were made, we completely lost motivation. Many of our strong players even shed tears, but what good was it to shed tears when nothing could be changed. As the Aggie girls walked away in disappointment, we received the good news that the Aggie boys won first place in soccer. In just an instance, our team's frowns were replaced by bright smiles and laughter. We walked to the art building and creative side. We were again blessed with the news that we won 1st place in scrapbook!

After this joy, we walked down the campus paths, chanting cheers and singing songs, completely forgetting the fact that we lost in all 3 sports. I tried to make the girls get in their excited, wild moods again by dancing down the path and screaming with joy about or victory in scrapbooking and soccer. Seeing strangers look at us and laugh did not hold us back from having a good time. We stopped along the way, taking pictures and group photos, remembering the fact that we were here to make memories and spend time together as a team. It would surprise the girls how energetic I was even after being defeated. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't put on a frown because I needed to lead my team and make them feel proud for playing fair! I'm glad that even the "rival" school could unhesitatingly state that Texas A&M played by the rules and were positive in all aspects.

On the trip back home, we realized that among all the disputes and disagreements, being together and having optimism was more important than cheating and having a broken team. We were proud to express the Aggie values of focusing more on doing it the right way rather than focusing on the score. Having one another to wipe our tears away, point out the positives, and especially create unforgettable memories with our new and old friends was an irreplacable experience. Being competitive is good, but "there are some battles we have to allow ourselves to lose." Showdown taught us that it is the people and the team we work with that can result in a good or bad experience, not the outcome of our efforts always.