What’s up Basketball Spotlight World?
Welcome to Journal Entry #3 for Ben Roy.
Monday: Waking up Monday morning wasn’t bad at all. Since I didn’t play the weekend before, I had all the energy in the world when I rolled out of bed. I went to school that morning knowing the week was going to be laid back since we had PARCC testing this week. After school, I decided to go up to the park and get some shots up, and luckily for me, there was pretty good pickup games going on. I got loose and the guys asked me to hop in, so I ended up playing pickup for a couple hours. It was good to play against older and stronger guys and I could really try some new moves and finishes which was nice too.
Tuesday: I was not too excited to start testing on Tuesday. I woke up and took a nice, long shower and went upstairs and had a big breakfast. I went to school and had PARCC testing for about two hours. It was a very long two hours, but I got through it. After school I came home and relaxed for a little while. After that, I went and worked out with the NJ Shoreshots 16U team. It’s always good working out with them because all the players are bigger and stronger, which should help me on the high school level next year.
Wednesday: I woke up super tired on Wednesday morning, but after I took a long hot shower, I felt better. I went to school that morning prepared because I had testing the day before, and the rest of the week testing was easy. After school, I came home got a quick bite to eat, and then I headed up to I’m Possible Headquarters to get some work in. I made a bet with my Dad that I could get a clean dunk down by August 1st. So a couple times a week, I have been working out with Bryce Stanhope at I’m Possible. Bryce has me going through a series of exercises to increase my vertical and explosiveness. I worked out for close to two hours.
Thursday: Thursday morning I woke up and I was extremely sore from the night before. Since I had Team Rio practice later that night, after school I just relaxed and ate an early dinner. At practice, we got a ton of shots up, ran through our sets and just got mentally prepared for our Team Rio Tournament we had coming up this weekend. Everyone shot the ball well and we all felt ready to compete this weekend.
Friday: Friday I woke up ready to go. I went to school and the day went pretty smoothly. It was a light day of school work. After school I decided to take the day off and do nothing besides rest and get mentally prepared for the weekend. The day went slow because I didn’t do anything after school. But, I had to get to bed early because not only was I playing this weekend, I also had to work both days scoring games. This is Team Rio’s big fundraising event for the year and everyone had to pitch in.
Saturday: I woke up pretty early Saturday morning to go work at Hoop Group. I had to go score 4 games starting at 8:45am. I worked until about 1pm. Both my games were later that night, and they were at Sportika in Manalapan. We were playing in the 15U National division. We won our first game by 20 points. Our second game was a hard fought 2 point win over Jersey Force Fagan. I was happy we got that W because we lost by 4 to them two weeks ago. After my games, my teammate Jayden Pierre and I stayed after to score another game, and then I headed home to get some sleep.
Sunday: I had to wake up early again Sunday morning to go work the 8:45 game at Sportika. After scoring the game, I went out into the lobby of the complex to stretch since I was still having some issues with my lower back. It was time for our game, and in order to move on, we needed to win. Unfortunately, none of us came out with the energy needed, and I take the blame for that. I should’ve been more of a leader and set the tone. But since we didn’t come out like we normally do, we got behind and ended up losing by 8 to a good NJ Panthers team. There was a three way tie in our pool and we did not advance due to point differential. We finished 2-1 on the weekend. Although I was mad about the loss and unhappy with my individual play, it was still Mother’s Day. I wasn’t going to have a bad attitude because that would be unfair to my Mom. Later that night we celebrated and went out to dinner as a family.
