Does everyone belong into a community? I believe it's a choice to be in an activity, club or any community someone wants to be involved in. Communities should share values and have something that keeps them going and staying together. People can be involved in more than one community; they could be involved with the town, sports, and church. Also a lot of people may not think so but family is a community. I would like the girls' basketball team is a community and a community that I am involved in.

Jane Howard wrote an essay titled, " In Search of the Good Family." In the essay she mentions what makes a good family or what they have. She names ten major characteristics on what makes a good family.

As said in the wrote in the essay written by Jane Howard the first characteristics says that good families have a chief or a leader. The leader in the girls' basketball community would be Coach Bowlin. He keeps the community going; the team would not be a team without someone to teach us how to be a team. We learn every practice, scrimmage, and game something new to improve on. Bowlin sets goals as a team for us to achieve. We wouldn't be able to achieve those goals if we did not have him as a leader. As him being the leader we trust each other. The whole team leans on each other; we would not be able to win without teamwork. Our team switchboard operator would be Bill; if we cannot talk to the head coach we go talk to the assistant, which is Coach Bill. The switchboard operator knows everything the leader knows, so we can go to them too for things.

Our team has leaders, the leaders are the older players, and they are looked up to by the whole team. The team depends on them, if they are down the whole team is down. Team members put trust in the older girls, they are the elders. Younger girls respect the elders, they go to them with questions about what is going on.

Good families have a sense of place; the gym is our team's place. The team looks forward to going to the gym. Everyone on the team has a choice to be there, and it is somewhere everyone on the team wants to be. A lot of the girls cheer up just being in the gym because it is somewhere they enjoy being at. The girls know you are a part of a team and just knowing that makes you feel like you are part of something. When we are in the gym we are a family, and we all try to get along the best we can.

Rituals the Iowa Valley girls basketball team are playing Ten Up before game day at practice. Ten Up is a shooting game, kind of like knockout. The first person with ten points is out. We have an annual 5K fundraiser for the team. The money we raise goes towards a trip the team takes in the summer. A lot of these rituals brung the team closer. The players love doing them and look forward to them. As the team being so close and doing things together, like most good families we are affectionate. We show it by high fives, arms, fists, and hitting each other's butts. High fives and all those hand gestures show that we are happy or proud of our team mate. Also we have each other's back by reminding each other with team pictures or what we are suppose to wear.

Iowa Valley girls' basketball team is my community. I have improved a lot on my social skills and my attitude toward things. Being part of a team, clan, tribe, or community makes me a better person and makes me part of something. We all share values of winning and enjoying ourselves doing the same thing. We all have a place we can go and someone we can talk to, whether it is a coach or an older player. Our Community does not just stay in the same place; we are a team no matter where we are at or who we are with.