19 Experiences Everyone Who Played High School Sports In The Mid ‘00s Know All About

So, so many Eastbay catalogs.

1. Having to choose between your best friends and your favorite teammates on your MySpace Top 8.

Myspace

This was as much pressure as catching a ball, hitting a ball, putting a ball into a basket, or whatever thing it is that you did.

2. Looking through Eastbay catalogs.

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Even if you couldn’t actually afford stuff, it was fun to flip through the pages and dream.

3. Burning lots of mix CDs so you had music to get you in your zone.

Michael Verhoef / Via Flickr: nettsu

Especially if it was an away game that required you to get on a bus and ride to some other school. There was no filling your phone with music back then, so you had to make each burned CD count.

4. Getting your pre-game pump up to Fort Minor’s "Remember the Name."

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Honorable mention to "Let's Go" by Trick Daddy and "Till I Collapse" by Eminem.

5. Having excessively baggy warmup uniforms that looked like a toddler wearing their parent's clothes.

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Partly for comfort, but mostly because baggy clothing were just a thing a lot of people did in the mid-2000s.

6. Trying Air Alert to up your hops.

Air Alert

If you played basketball or volleyball, you undoubtedly wanted to increase your vertical leaping abilities, and this little program was a commonly used option in the 2000s.

7. Guzzling down Gatorade Rain.

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It was the popular drink amongst athletes during the 2000s.

8. The unmistakable scent of Axe Body Spray and sweat everywhere.

Axe

In locker rooms. In gym bags. On buses.

9. When the short-lived NBA leggings-era ‘caused everyone to rock a pair under their shorts.

Chris Graythen / Getty Images

If you blinked, you missed it, but there was a trend in the NBA that saw many of the top players wearing full-length spandex. They were banned fairly quickly, but for a short time, high school players were wearing them as well.

10. Having that ONE teammate who had a tattoo — and was also forced to cover it up during games.

John Sommers Ii / Reuters

Ink on a high schooler was rarer back then, so it wasn't uncommon for the few kids who had tattoos to be forced to cover up.

11. Watching movies like Coach Carter and Double Teamed! if you played basketball.

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Over and over again...

12. Or Remember The Titans and Friday Night Lights if you played football.

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Both entertaining, both motivational.

13. Practicing moves you saw on And 1 Mixtapes.

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Streetball was such a phenomenon that people were mastering tricks that weren’t even legal in organized basketball.

14. Constantly being motivated by the endless supply of epic Nike commercials.

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Like this one, which made hoopers want the white and gold warm up suits.

15. Taking grainy, blurry pictures in your uniform with your garbage phone camera.

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At the time they were just fine, but now we realize that phones from that era had like 1/2 a megapixel cameras and took blurry, indistinguishable photos. Still, it didn't stop you from snapping shots on the bus, or after practices, and games with your teammates.

16. Seeing so many Nike Shox and signature basketball shoes.

Converse/ Reebok/ Nike/ DaDa/ Adidas/ Jordan

The Shox were introduced in 2000 and grew over the years, while basketball had Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade, Tracy McGrady, and a number of other superstars selling so many of their signature shoes. Don’t forget the innovative Dada Supreme Spinners, which had a spinning rim on the side that drew so much attention to the wearer.

17. Missing popular shows that aired in the afternoon because you were at practice.

Str New / Reuters

No TRL (Total Request Live) or 106 & Park for you.

18. Having to DVR the shows you were too big of a fan of to miss.

MTV

TiVo boxes were an increasingly popular technology in the 2000s, so those who had to practice or sleep and wound up missing shows were fortunate to have a way to record them. While music video countdown shows were miss-able, some stuff wasn’t. MTV alone had Made, True Life, Real World, Pimp My Ride, and an endless stream of reality garbage that you needed to watch and discuss regularly. Whatever your show was, DVR had your back when your schedule was chaotic.

19. And lastly, when the long season finally ended, you got to and chill with friends, playing, of course, sports video games.

Maybe you'd even create yourself and play as the video game version of you.