Michael Hunter '19 Recruiting Profile

When I started basketball in 5th grade, my life was changed completely. This basketball road I have been on is not the glory road or the road from the bottom to the top. No, this journey hasn’t seen daylight yet. In the 5th grade I started basketball simply because my friends wanted me to sign up with them. Basketball was never in my plans. In 6th grade I was recruited to be on one of the best AAU middle school teams in my city. From there the expectations for me were very high, but to a little eleven year old boy who started basketball a year before that never asked for expectations, I just wanted to ball for myself only. Since I was a tall kid everyone automatically assumed I was exceptional at basketball. Word got around town that this kid given the name “Big Mike” was playing for this team, and like that, my name was in the talk of the basketball political hell that would bring non-stop obstacles year after year.

Jumping ahead to my 8th grade year I was recruited for another AAU team in my city, known to produce college athletes. Not knowing what I was getting into, I was thrown into a team with a coach who could care less about my success in life or the development of my basketball skills. This would be the first time I felt the kind of loneliness in my life that I would let damage my effectiveness on the court, classroom, and relationships. The fact that I was never as good, or as confident, as my peers really weighed heavily on my mental stability, causing me to be insecure of myself and settling for friends who did not care about me or my success at all. Going through this I tried to fill this empty hole with things that brought even more pain such as; accolades from others, girls, and friends. Trying to forget about the loneliness, I felt on a day to day basis,  I drowned myself with these things that society makes us feel that we need to attain success or our own confidence. Being only a junior in highschool I would love to say I have changed and am ready to face the world, but in all honesty, I am more scared than ever. I don’t know where life is headed for me after high school. But what this road has taught me is how to get back up again and again.

Year after year I come back. Although I had plenty of chances to quit, I come back because I need to see the other side to this. What comes after the hard work or the laughter of others or the loneliness? What happens when “it’s all said and done”? I need to come to accept myself for who I am and not for who anyone else is or wants me to be. The person in the mirror needs to be the center of my life not the the people trying to knock him down. The love for this game has grown deeper than just pick ups or 1 on 1’s. This game has become my thorn and my map in this life. So one thing I cannot do is give up when times get tough, but instead keep treading down this road, not to see the end of the road but to enjoy the drive ahead.