High school basketball is not only a mental sport, but also a communication game. You must be able to communicate very well to play in Morgantown, West Virginia, especially at University High School. To make the team, you must be basketball proficient, talented, physically fit, and outspoken. After four years of playing college basketball, the vocal part of the sport has helped me in the long run. There are five positions in basketball: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center, but the most important position is the point guard. The point guard is the quarterback or general of the team. You have to be very explicit to manage the team and make decisions. If you're not vocal, you'll be sitting on the bench or, worse, in the stands. The shooting guard is the second most important player on the hardwood floor. He is the running back or sergeant of the basketball team. It's also important for the shooting guard to be vocal as well. Without the point guard or shooting guard, you can't run the plays or even have a chance to win the big game. The small forward, the power forward and the center are, equally, the third import. Without these “big men,” you can't get tough picks or cuts out the back door for a jaw-dropping dunk. These two little things are an important part of a winning team. You have to be able to pick out a defender to pass a teammate and you have to make cuts from the back door to get wide open layups. Former teammates, 2000 to 2004 forward, Dom Claudio and former 2004 to 2007 center, Grant Meadows, did those two crucial things and ultimately paid one off. One who earned an athletic scholarship to West Virginia Wesleying as a redshirt freshman for the 2007-08 season. As a former point guard and shooting guard for the University High Hawks, I also had the opportunity to play in Division I, Michigan for the Wolverines and Spartans and West Virginia for the Mountaineers and Division II, West Virginia for the Fairmont State Falcons. With all this excitement, I was told that my talent stood out but that I was the best vocal player these four schools had ever seen, but my dream of playing college basketball ended when I received a brutal knee injury in he start of my senior year of high school.