On the
Court.

I've long viewed basketball as a microcosm of life. As a point guard, the job was never just to score. It was to read the floor before anyone else did, to study film and plays, to remember where the play was needing to go while in the middle of executing it, and ultimately to make everyone around me better without losing my own effectiveness.

In hindsight, I've carried that into every room I've walked into since. When things get hard, when a plan falls apart, when I have to do the work without an audience, I reach for what the game already taught me. Thus far, it hasn't let me down.

At the end of high school, I was faced with a choice between an academic scholarship and playing field hockey or basketball at the juco, D3, or D2 level. I took the academic scholarship yet in my heart, I always knew the game wasn't done with me. This decision set off a domino effect of years of transfers, a walk-on attempt, and a quiet persistence towards a dream because of the love of the game.

Everything the game had already put into me, I carried through that period. The discipline, the willingness to do unglamorous work, the ability to keep going when nothing external is confirming that you should.

In 2023, a walk-on tryout I had been working toward fell through at the last minute. My grades slipped. I faced academic suspension. Nonetheless, looking back, I still don't regret the pursuit, the 5am workouts, the working multiple jobs to sustain the dream, none of it. The journey and the process despite not attaining the outcome has had an indescribable impact on the person I am today.

The walk-on mindset I carry everywhere is simple: nothing is given. You earn your spot or you don't have one. You go for it or you live with regret. You can't control outcomes but you can control what you can control: the work, the preparation, and showing up no matter what positives or negatives you face; and let the rest take care of itself.

When playing wasn't an option, I found a way to stay close to the game. Three years as a volunteer manager for the University of Houston Women's Basketball program. Not for the resume line. For the love of it.

I was a member of the team behind the team. Practice player when needed, executing on demand, learning what it actually takes to run a program at this level. The culture, the preparation, the standard, the grind that happens long before anyone shows up to watch.

What those three years gave me was a clear picture of where I want to be and a realistic understanding of what it takes to get there. I saw firsthand how much the people in the building shape what happens on the floor. I want to be one of those people.

A torn ACL in 10th grade put me on the sideline. I ended up standing at the edge of the court calling out reads and rotations, and eventually started coaching kindergarteners the game of basketball. It was my way of staying connected to something I loved when I couldn't make a direct impact on the floor.

My philosophy has always started with the person before the player. What happens off the floor shapes what happens on it. I want to be the kind of coach who is still answering calls years after the final season ends because that's what was done for me and I know what it meant.