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In the Beginning
Where baseball was my sport of 'all work and no play', basketball was my sport of 'all play and no work'. By that, I mean that baseball was the sport that I was naturally good at and excelled. I put all of my effort into going to the next level in baseball. For basketball, I just wanted to have fun and participate. I knew I didn't have the physical attributes (height) or talent to advance past high school basketball. However, I was very good compared to most players and I started my basketball pursuits in middle school.

For baseball, I started playing organized competition at age 8. For basketball, I didn't even try to play organized competition until I was in middle school as a 12-year-old 6th grader. I had played a lot of backyard and recreational basketball. In fact, I spent a lot of time growing up at the gym my dad supervised and played basketball there.

6th Grade
I was very anxious and excited to make the basketball team as a 6th grader at New Providence Middle School. I remember spending a lot of time practicing my lay-ups and free throw shooting. There would be 2 cuts. I happily made it past the 1st cut but for whatever reason I was cut when the team was announced. I was pretty upset, but not too hard on myself because only one 6th grade made the team and he ended up not making it next year.

7th Grade
The next year was different and I made the team as a 7th grader. I didn't get a lot playing time on the varsity, but we did have a JV team that gave me some playing time. The only time I got to play varsity was in the last quarter whenever we were either far ahead or far behind.

8th Grade
My last year of middle school was bittersweet. We had a good team and I emerged early in the year as a starter. Later in the year, though, a player who was ineligible the first semester came back and took my position and I ended up going from starter to never playing by the tournament. Our team won the tournament, but under the circumstances I wasn't as excited as I should have been.

9th Grade
My freshman year was fun. I spent most of the year as a starter and when I wasn't starting, I was at least playing off the bench. We ended up getting eliminated early in the tournament, but it was still a good year. In middle school, I played tentatively and I was scared to shoot the ball, but this year allowed me to come out of my shell and play as I was capable.

10th Grade
During my sophomore year, I started to get very dewy eyed with the prospect of playing varsity basketball. I went to the Northeast versus Clarksville High School basketball game as a freshman and the place was so crowed that they had to stop letting people inside because of fire laws limiting the number of people inside a gymnasium of our size. I went to that game and barely found a place to stand because the entire seating arrangement was standing room only. That type of atmosphere easily motivated me to want to be an active participant at some time in the future.

I made the junior varsity team and 11 spots were permanently filled for the varsity. I didn't have a place on the varsity, but after every JV game, the coach would pick 4 players to dress for varsity based on their JV game performance that day. I ended up dressing for the varsity game 75% of the time and then at the end of the year I was given a full time position on the varsity for the tournament.

If I was able to dress for the varsity, I rarely played. But, it was thrilling to get into games if we had blown the other team out in the 4th quarter or vice versa.

11th Grade
This was another bittersweet year that was very similar to my 8th grade year. I started the season both on the varsity and JV, but my goal was to move to full time varsity. Early on, I was slated to play just as little varsity as I did last year. However, in the first game of the season I scored a career high 27 in the JV game and when I was put into the varsity in the last two minutes of the game because we had basically already won, I quickly scored 5 points.

I fought my way into the starting line-up of the varsity by playing just as I did opening night. I was having the time of my life and playing better than I ever had in my life. I found myself realizing the excitement I had imagined as a Freshman at the Northeast vs. Clarksville High School game. Things went on like that for a while until after Christmas when we rematched Ft.Campbell and I started to allow myself to get caught up in the excitement and pressured myself too much. I was reading my name in the newspaper and just let things get out of perspective and played nervous and performed poorly.

Toward the end of the season I went from starter back to hardly playing at all. I had mixed emotions because I wasn't supposed to ever do what I had done. But, it was very upsetting for me because I had a taste of the glory I had dreamed of getting and it was gone. To this day, the biggest crowds and most exciting games I have ever personally participated in were during high school basketball.

12th Grade
My Senior year was fun. I spent about the same time starting as I did last year, but whenever I wasn't starting, I was playing off the bench. We went undefeated in Districts and I played a very key roll when we were down against Dickson at their gym by 10 at halftime and I erupted for 11 points including three 3 pointers in the 2nd half.

Our post season effort was disappointing as we got upset early in districts and played a tough 1st round game at regionals that ended our season. But, high school basketball is some of the fondest memories of my life. I feel very lucky to have played and enjoyed the success I took part in.