HOW TO BECOME A COLLEGE PROSPECT!!!!

Every kid who is involved in sports has dreams of playing professionally...  There's nothing wrong with that!  We teach our kids to dream big...  Reach for the stars, and if you fail, you'll land on the moon....  that's great, but we also need to teach them about what it takes to get to that final goal.....

Growing up in Queens, NY wasn't an easy thing to do as a kid...  There were so many distractions as it is in most neighborhoods....  When I began playing basketball at the age of 12, going on 13, 98% of the other kids were much better than I was... 

My favorite players at the time were Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar and they scored by using the "Sky Hook"...  so here I was, a 12 year old kid, doing sky hooks every time I shot the ball...  Everyone used to laugh at me but I didn't care, I was just doing what I knew...

Once some of the older guys in the neighborhood saw how interested I was in the game, they began to let me play with them...  That's when the teaching of the game came in....  They showed me at a young age how to do more by dribbling less, how to set screens and roll to the basket....   Also how to come off of screens and be a threat as a shooter.....

Seems like things that kids should just know how to do but the bottom line is, they don't....

I may not have gone to the biggest Division 1 school but I'd love to share some of the things that helped to give me the opportunity to get there...

#1)  I always had GREAT CHARACTER - It didn't matter if I was with my mom or not, I always carried myself in a respectful manner....  I always looked a person in the eyes, thank them for a good deed and tried to give back to the younger kids....  I used to take my allowance and help pay for the younger kids in the neighborhood to play in a league so it could keep them off the streets...

#2)  I kept my grades up between 83% - 95% all throughout my school years -  By time I was a junior, I had already gotten the SAT score I needed to qualify for a College Scholarship while others struggled to qualify...  My senior year, out of the 18 Division 1 prospects from the NYC Public School league, only two of us (Myself and Duane Woodward(Boston College) ) went directly to a Division 1 school...  We were two of the top players but not the top two players...  Our grades allowed us to have the opportunity...


#3) Work hard, even when no one else is around - When I got serious about playing ball, I would wake up at 6am and take a 2 mile jog around my neighborhood.  Then I would go into the park and do calisthenics...  After that, I would get started on ball handling drills, shooting drills, full court one on one moves and free throws...  Finally around 8 am, I would go back home, shower, eat breakfast, then go back to sleep....  Wake up around 10:30am, and get my day started....  Sometime around noon, I would then play ball with my friends for at least 5 hours before we called it quits...  This is what we did all summer...   Kids like to say they are working hard, but if they really are, people will notice it...   It will show in their performance on the court....   I can't count how many kids I knew who were THE BEST PLAYERS in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades...  They never worked on their skills or body so they never got any better....  By time they were in HS, some didn't even make the team....

#4) Get out of your BACKYARD - There's more to life than your neighborhood...  My friends and I would travel all around Queens, go to Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan and even play ball in NJ...  AAU Basketball was huge in NY way back in the 90's so we went to Cali, TX, Florida and saw what other kids who were tops in their State looked like...  Camps like 5 Star Basketball camp, ABCD, Eastern Invitational were big and only the best players were there...   It's important to get to these events and compete on higher levels so you can see what areas you need to improve on....


#5)  Play against older guys in your area -  When you play up, you learn how to play at a faster speed...  It's ok to struggle, it will only get you better...  When Lamar Odom was 9 years old, we had him play up on our 13 under team....  We showed him how to handle the basketball and learn to be a guard...  He struggled in the beginning, after a while, he got adjusted and fit in well....  I think it really helped his development as a player...  We also did it for my other cousin Darryl "Showtime" Hill ....  He went on to be NYC Public School player of the year as a senior and played 4 years at St. Johns where he was a 1000 point scorer by the beginning of his junior year... 


#6)  Start preparing for your SAT once you hit HS - The SAT is a test that make or break lots of athletes...  The more prepared you are for it, the better...  There are classes offered in almost every school district that can prepare a kid for the test...  The earlier a kid can qualify by the NCAA Clearinghouse the better...  It will turn the kid into a "recruitable" kid...  People tend to blame coaches for these athletes not going to school...  There's not much a coach can do if the kid and their parents aren't preparing themselves academically.....   YOU ARE THE CEO OF YOUR OWN BUSINESS!!!!   YOU ARE THE BUSINESS!!!  IT'S YOUR JOB TO MARKET YOURSELVES AND BE THE BEST PRODUCT YOU CAN BE! 

There's always other factors such as BE COACHABLE, DO WELL IN HS and a few others but if a kid can focus on the first 6, everything else will fall in line....

Feel free to share your thoughts.....

Coach Little

Manu Miranda from Spain and Coach Little