Hey Basketball Spotlight Community,
First and foremost, I would like to thank Mike Melton and the Basketball Spotlight family for allowing me to share my journey. I really enjoyed reading Judah Hidalgo’s diary. I respect his game and enjoyed playing with him at the Basketball Spotlight breast cancer awareness game last year.
My name is Jordan Ghee and I’m a 13-year-old 8th grader from Totowa, NJ. I attend St. Benedict’s Prep (SBP) in Newark, NJ where I am an honor roll student (3.93 GPA) and the President of The National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) for the SBP Middle School.
I recently joined the EYBL PSA Cardinals basketball family. My coach is Coach Gustave Koumare (Coach G). I would also like to thank PSA for believing in me and more importantly investing in my journey.
Two weeks ago, I played in my first tournament with PSA. Even though it was our first tournament, we actually played well as team and went 3-1. I was proud of how we played great team basketball. I shot the ball well and played good defense. I was really proud of how my teammates played as well.
A typical week for me is filled with school work, community service activities, time with my family and friends, and of course, plenty of basketball. For example, this past Monday I woke up at 7:00 a.m. to clean my room and start my daily routine of “400’s” (100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, 100 and 100 calf raises). Like many others, I am currently attending school virtually. At St. Benedict’s, we start convocation at 8:00 a.m. and my first class begins at 8:35 a.m. After my classes, which end at 1;00 p.m., I have a weekly meeting with the NJHS from 1:30-2:00 p.m. After the meeting, I do all my homework so I don’t have to worry about it later on in the day. From 4:00-5:30 p.m., I had a strength and conditioning workout with Al Watson. Once I got back home, I studied, played on my new PS5 for an hour, and then chilled out for the rest of the evening.
Tuesday, I had the same routine in the morning and for school, but I did not have an NJHS meeting. I did my homework and studied for a little bit. From 7:00-8:00 p.m., I had a workout for ball handling and footwork and also got up shots with PSA Trainer Cam Hoo and Coach G. It was a great workout and I was able to use what I learned at our next practice.
Wednesday, once school was finished, instead of doing my homework I went to my school for a leadership retreat. We wore masks and sanitized after activities. While at the leadership retreat, we did things that we enjoy like playing basketball, dodgeball, and soccer. At the end of the retreat, we ate pizza. Overall, I had a fun time and would love to do it again. After the retreat, I went to a workout for stretching, weights, and balance again with Al.
Every Thursday after school, I serve as an 8th grader math tutor for NJHS. After tutoring, I did my homework and went to a workout with my shooting coach from 5:30-6:30 p.m. I’ve worked with Kent Culuko (IYB) for that last 4 years. He has helped me develop my shooting skills into one of my biggest strengths. At Thursday’s training session, we worked on having a quicker release and tightening my form. After that, I had a training session from 7:00-8:00 p.m. with Coach G. I worked on my ball handling and ability to shoot off the dribble. I also worked on getting out of my comfort zone, which meant I had to try new and uncomfortable things to improve my overall skill set. Once I got home, I finished my Latin project and studied for my math quiz.
Friday, after school, I went to the track to run with my sister, Taylor Ghee, who runs track for the Ruff Kutz AAU track program. After I was done running on the track, I decided to dribble my basketball around the track a couple of times before we left. Once I got home, I studied for my upcoming mid-terms exams and played video games with a friend.
It was a productive week and required a lot of discipline. Although this week was tough, I was able to balance basketball, academics, and find time for me to relax. Thanks for reading and I’ll be back in touch next week.
