Hayden James '21 Recruiting Profile

UPDATE:  After spending one year as a point guard at Roanoke College I have entered the transfer portal with 3 years of eligibility remaining. Please call or text 571-477-0777 if you’d like to reach out about opportunities, thank you! 

Hayden 

As a military dependent, I have been fortunate enough to live in many wonderful places.  In fact, we have moved six times in my life, most recently to the Washington, D.C. area.  Moving so often, my parents felt that it was very important to get me involved in church and sports with the main goals of strengthening my relationship with God and developing strong leadership. The first place I ever played team basketball combined both church and basketball, at our local Upward program.  My parents and I still clearly remember and laugh about that day.  I played the entire game like my life depended on it. It was like someone had turned on a switch inside of me and I knew basketball was going to be a central part of my life moving forward.  

Being homeschooled early on in my life, I learned many great lessons, especially with time management and the ability to self-learn and manage my daily activities.  But where we lived at the time, I could not be part of a school basketball team as homeschoolers were not allowed to participate.  So we looked elsewhere and found an "all-star" team and I became immediately hooked into the competitiveness of the game.  Eventually, we moved again and I have been in private Christian school ever since, learning to balance high-level academics, numerous music and fine-art activities and competition (many at the national level), and school and AAU basketball.  I have learned that I can handle the highly competitive nature of basketball (and all that comes with it, school, workouts, practice, travel, camp showcase/elite events) and still excel academically, which is evident over the past few years.  I understand that academics are a very crucial part of being a student-athlete, and maintaining high grades is an important requirement for me.  

I think what I have learned most about myself in this sport is that I am a true student of the game and can easily see myself continuing past my playing career and becoming a coach.  I feel like even now, my coachability comes through on the court thru a very active leadership style of play along with discipline, energy, talent, and intensity that I bring to both my school and AAU teams.  Basketball is extremely important to me, and I am ready to take that next step and do whatever is required of me to become a college basketball student-athlete. Thank you for your interest in me.

Hayden James