Story

"When you look ahead and you're not sure which way to turn, look back." - Dan Benac

My dreams of playing college basketball died with a disappointing senior season and a single phone call. I sat out most of my junior year with a back injury and finished my senior high school season as a starter who played onenquarter and sat three. Despite the frustrations, I did play well enough at one preseason tournament that year to get recruited by a few small Texas schools. None of those appealed to me so I recruited myself to Wheaton college. Wheaton is a small Christian college in Illinois with a division III basketball team and a great academic reputation. The coached seemed to be interested so my dad and I scheduled a trip to visit that November. Four months later, Wheaton's assistant coach called to tell me they decied to sign a player out of California at my position and their roster was full. I was devastated and felt completely unwanted. The conversation ended quickly after that and the tears started coming. Wheaton was my last chance at playing college basketball and that door had just been slammed shut.

A few days passed and I began to realize that life could still go on outside of sports and championship dreams. I visited my cousin at Texas A&M that spring and decided to start my college education there. I felt good about just being a student and looked forward to all the perks that a big school had to offer.

School went well that fall. I started in the college of engineering and needed the time freed up from sprots to work on my grades. I continued to play though. There were many days spent at the rec center and many nights on the intrmaural fields. I continued to lift weights and stay in shape. I felt good about my college decision and about my career as a competitive athelte being over. At least at first.

Around the time that fall midterms rolled around something inside me began to feel unsettled. I felt drawn to sports again more than I ever had in my life. I began to study players, watch coaches, and critique teams. I could no longer just sit and watch a sporting event for the enjoyment of it.

It didn't really matter what sport I was watching, I was drawn to all sprots. I missed competing and being part of a team. I vividly remember standing in the atrium of the rec center watching a swim meet for an hour wondering if I could make the A&M swim team. I even starting throwing the football with my roommates outside the dorms in preparation for walking onto the football team at quarterback. I had a pretty good arm but this was a stretch considering that I didn't even play football in high school. It really didn't matter what I played. Something inside my heart was telling me that I wasn't done with sports and I began to dream again.

That Christmas was the first time that I thought seriously about trying to play basketball again. I think I had felt so sure that that chapter in my life was compelete that I didn't think about it as a possibility. It wasn't until talking with my Dad over the holidays that I realized it might be time for me to start playing basketball again "God is always preparing you" he told me. "Sometimes when you're not sure which direction to head in the future you should look back at where you came from."

I knew I needed to give sports one last try - there was no denying that. But what did that look like? As I thought about my dad's words and all my experiences growing up, I realized that baksetball was the only sport that made sense. I didn't have the experience to play college football nor the desire to train as a swimmer. If I had been prepared for anything it was to play college baksetball. On top of all that, A&M had hired a new baksetball coach for my freshman year by the name of Billy Gillespie and he had three walk-ons on the the team.

There was a slim chance of anythign happening but I decided to listen to my heart and dedicated the spring of my freshman year to training to for the walk-on baksetball tryouts the following fall.