Thaddeus Powell '20 Recruiting Profile

 My ultimate goal is to become a student athlete and to continue to play basketball in college and possibly professionally one day. Often times people are told to have a back up plan or think of other professions besides sports because it’s hard to become a professional athlete but it of course is never impossible and it doesn’t hurt to have lofty ambitions.  Not only do I believe that can be a catalyst to my future I also find that basketball is spiritually releasing to me. I helps to clear my mind and helps me focus on my goals. Other than paying basketball I also enjoy other hobbies such as: watching TV, playing games, or having fun outside with my friends and most are still centered around the sport. Basketball also gives me something to work hard towards and gives me purpose.  I believe that it will be hard to manage sports and school work in college but I don’t plan on giving basketball up any time soon.

       Even though I have focused on basketball for a great deal of my lfe I do believe that college is meaningful to me because it opens up opportunities not only to be successful, but move towards adulthood. Since I am very passionate in sports, college will allow me to manage time as a student athlete, but also to ignore distractions and put time into things are important to me. Knowingly, school is the most important thing to students, but in my perspective basketball is almost as important because I want to make a career out of being a professional athlete and impact those around me. If you are successful you are more impactful and powerful as an advocate, is the role I want to take on by being a professional athlete in the NBA after playing on the college level. 

       Though my standards and goals are set very high for sports, I do value my academics. I’ve always been told that academics can take you further as an athlete than just being an athlete. Having a backup plan is important also if sports does not work out. I currently attend DEPSA ECE and hold a grade point average of a 3.66 in an efficient charter school.  I’ve had numerous amounts of IB/AP classes throughout my years of high school that have been challegning but has helped prepare me for college and my future.. 

       If I am not able to become a professional athlete, I would love to become a mechanical engineering or another type of engineer. My interests in vehicles and automatives became as a young child and has sparked an interest in the profession. Even if I changed my profession or major in college like the average student, my major going into college is intended to start as engineering. I am good at science, math with numbers, measuring, time durations, and budgeting which is beneficial for a future engineer. I am also very creative which is equally important as math and science because I find that I am different from other people and often think outside the box.  I believe that being creative is just as important as math and science because it’s the force that drives inventors, engineers, technicians, scientists, entrepreneurs into creating new ideas or advancing the technology we already have.