Dariah Duncan '12 Recruiting Profile

    Basketball is not just a game for me. When I was about 6 or 7 years old, I would sit in front of the TV watching the NBA and WNBA games. I loved the intensity each player had; they all wanted to win. What caught my attention the most was when a player would hit a winning shot. I would always imagine myself in their shoes. On my free time in the house, I would put a hoop up on my front door and dribble throughout the kitchen. I was probably no taller than 4 feet at this time. I would put on my Vince Carter jersey and some basketball shorts that were usually too big for me. I would dribble my mini basketball and countdown from 10. I tried to do fancy moves, like putting the ball through my legs or behind my back to make it look like a professional player. It would usually bounce off the refrigerator, since my skills were not the best. When I hit "1", I would shoot and hope it went in; sometimes I would make it, sometimes I missed. From that point on, I knew wanted to make that happen in reality. I was soon on a mission to make that happen in my high school career.

     My first year of high school, I was unable to play because of my grades. It hurt me for a while because I never imagined not playing basketball because of academic reasons. I would not give up there; I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

     Sophomore year, I kept my grades up and made the team. It was close to playoff time and every game counted. The game was very exciting. Each quarter the score was tied. It came down to the 4th quarter, with the score tied and 10 seconds left. It was my team’s ball, and we all wanted to win. As the ball was inbounded, my teammate let the time run down to 3 seconds and she passed it to me. I shot the ball hoping it would go in. Everyone stared nervously at the ball rotating in the air, and watched it go in. It was the best feeling ever; my mission was complete. I felt like I went from zero to hero because my shot helped my team win. We were all happy after the game and talked about it for awhile after that day.

     Junior year, I performed even better academically and became captain of my team. I led them to many wins with my leadership skills. As a senior now, I am continuing to perform well on and off the court.  Me not being able to play freshman year, motivated me to do better. So for me, basketball isn’t just a game, it’s a motivation.