The Golden Years...

Throughout elementary and middle school I still remained the star in my parents eyes. They took me away from my first friends I made in elementary school and sent me to another school district just for basketball. I knew it would only be a matter on time before I slowly became more distant from my friends and be forced to interact with people who I don't even know and have no desire to get to know. Avery, my best friend at the time, could not imagine being away from me. She was like my sister and I did not want to have to get a new best friend. They can be hard to find...

I was mad for some time but knew basketball was the most important thing to me. I played with friends from my AAU team so that made it that much easier for us all. I remember the most exciting thing to me was the warms-up before a middle school basketball game. Everyone would yell and scream when we would come on the court, which got us even more pumped up. Fans would be decked out in "buffalo green", with green and white pom-poms and face paint.


When I was half way through my eight grade year I was asked to join the high school varsity basketball team. This was a huge opportunity for someone in the eight grade, i knew sophomore in high school who didn't even play varsity! This not only made me better at basketball because the competition was increased, but also because it made the transition from middle school to high school that much easier. Atleast I thought so...

The Person I Use To Be...

He was my best friend, the person I loved more then anything in this world. I felt as though he understood a side of me that most people ignored. To me he was not just a dad, he was my backbone. Ever since I was little I can remember him walking through the door from a long day of work on the farm. Instead on running to my mom, his own wife, he would run to me with arms wide open. He always told me that my smile made him forget about all his troubles throughout the day.

I started playing basketball in the second grade and felt so out of place. I was the only girl on a team full of boys. I always hated boys when it came to basketball because they would never pass me the ball and everyone thought they were better then me. As the years went on I continued playing basketball and continued to get better and better. I started to realize i was not just good, I was better then all the boys! Everyone else around me started noticing this too, especially my dad. Every basketball team I played on he was the assistant coach so that made me get pushed that much harder all time. He wanted to me be the best so he hired personal basketball coaches and sent me to as many basketball camps as he could find in central Kentucky. By this point in my life i literally breathed, ate and slept around basketball, it was my life. I began playing AAU (Amateur Athletic Association)basketball around the age of 9 and was unstoppable after that. My team went to nationals 4 times and although we did not place at nationals i was ranked in the top 25 in the country! I could not believe it, all my hard work payed off. My dad could not have asked for a more perfect daughter...