Robin Smedley '21 Recruiting Profile

The youngest of three girls, I started playing the sports that my sisters played.  This is where my competitive nature started.  Softball, basketball and soccer were the sports I tried in elementary.  I did well in all of them but going into my seventh grade year, I was asked to pick one sport due to scheduling issues.   Basketball was the sport I chose because I enjoy the fast pace, the strategy of the game, the personal challenges, and more importantly the team aspect.  I hit a road block midway through the seventh grade when I was told by my school coach that I had no talent.  I remember the heart break, I was doing my best and it wasn't enough.  The year before, I won awards at our banquet and now I had no talent.  My parents taught me that having a good work ethic is far better than talent.  My parents found a gym that offered private basketball skill lessons but it was an hour away.  We agreed that I would take 10 lessons and then decide.  I struggled with the skills at first but by the tenth lesson I had progressed.  I was getting more playing time in school ball and tried out for an AAU team.  I held down a chair that first AAU season getting to play a few minutes here and there.  Practicing with a team that was more advanced, I was able to test my skills and discover my weaknesses.  This AAU team played more advanced competition than I had ever experienced in our little surrounding counties.  Juggling school, my school ball team, AAU schedule, lessons, and individual practice time taught my time management.

Then we moved.  Academically, it was a good move and offered more opportunities to prepare me for college but I was nervous about a new team that had already been with a coach for 2 years and I am coming in the last year of middle school.  I was starting all over again.  I had to adapt to different ways of playing, a different coach, his way of coaching and new teammates.  Then the worst of all, I felt like I had quit growing vertically, a challenge I could do nothing about.  But could I?

Luckily, the gym where I took lessons offered classes on mental toughness and leadership.  I began studying the game and watching players like me - Steve Nash and John Stockton.  I didn't have to be tall, I had to be smart.  Because of pushing myself to develop my skills, playing at a higher level, learning how to watch the game and be a team player even when I am sitting on the bench,  I found my strengths and how to apply them to help my team win.  My strengths are court vision, understanding the strategies of the game, my defense,  mental and physical toughness, knowing the strengths of my teammates and how to utilize them, knowing that an assist is just as good as a basket if another player has a better shot, being a good teammate on and off the court.  I have worked hard to develop my passing game, ball handling skills, and finishing moves that allow me to work around the confidence of taller players. I have learned to use the opponent's stereotyping me to my advantage.  Not all tall people play basketball and not all short people are jockeys.  

Academically, I am on track. I completed honor classes my freshman year and currently enrolled in AP history my sophomore year.  I am scheduled to take the ACT in June 2019 and have taken an ACT prep class.  I plan to attend college and major in athletic training and physical therapy.  I would like to play for a college that will look beyond my height and see my contribution to the team with my work ethic, grit, defense, team first attitude and drive to constantly better my skills.  I want to continue after college in a profession using my love for basketball to work with teams in injury prevention and rehab.   My dream job is to be a physical therapist/trainer for the Philadelphia 76ers.  I feel that I have talent, work ethic, and the love of the game that will be a perfect fit for the right college.