Amongst the rolling hills and green pines of Bethesda, MD sits quietly a prep school, the oldest of its kind. For one weekend, the college-like campus, complete with white columned colonials and a fairway or two, served as host to the ESPN RISE high school basketball invitational and the hype that surrounded it.

Twelve of the nation’s top prep school programs survived press conferences, sleepless nights and, of course, top notch competition for their chance to take home a national title. In the end, Seton Keough, prevailed as champions of the girls tournament.

With an event of this caliber come endless variables. First, there is pressure. Pressure to not only perform well, in order to advance to the next round, but to do so on a national stage.

There are distractions. They come in the form of ESPN2 cameras, weaving in and out of warm up, or questions from journalists in the post-game press conferences. And then, there are the fans. Their cheers echoed from the rafters and engulfed the gym.

My behind the scenes looks at one of the most highly competitive, high school tournaments in the country left me exhausted and I didn’t shoot one lay up.

Outside the lines that govern the court, the roar of the crowd was deafening, the flash of the bulb, blinding and the pressure, insurmountable. But once the whistle blew and the threshold was crossed it was back to basics, because at the heart of it all was basketball.

-Meghan Brennan