Filip Pujaz '21 Recruiting Profile

I am 17 years old senior. Basketball and academics have been two factors of my life that have been the most important ever since I was a young child. Coming over from Serbia at the age of 6 and not knowing a single word of English, my parents' main goal is to surround me with great opportunities for an education and a successful life in the United States. It was going to be challenging since I would have to learn a completely new language and get accustomed to the new life in America. Along the way, I picked up a sport that would change my life forever. The game of basketball was something that I got into when I was about 10 years old and ever since then I have loved the game. Basketball not only was my passion in life, but it also brought me so many fond memories and made it way easier for me to make friends in a foreign land. Ever since then, I have wanted to perfect myself in this sport spending countless hours in the gym either repeating the same shooting mechanic, or doing speed and agility training hoping to improve my explosiveness. The same persistence would be put into my academics as well. Ever since elementary school I have prioritized the mindset of making sure that academics are not less important than sport. This has been very beneficial to me, as this mindset is what allowed me to have a 4.5 Weighted GPA all across high school, and be the 40th in one of the top magnet schools in the state of Nevada. The goal of excellence in both academics and athletics after moving to a completely different country is what I hope universities can take out of this, and that this goal is still being worked on to this day to ensure that I can be the best possible version of myself at one of your schools.