Staying Back a Year in Middle School for My Athletic Career

Staying Back a Year in Middle School for My Athletic Career

In eighth grade, things started to shift.  In order to have a better chance of continuing my basketball career, I couldn’t keep going to Edgewood.  Rick Barrett told my parents that if I had any shot of playing in college, I’d have to attend a bigger, more competitive school.  The team at Edgewood was decent but college coaches never attended.   

On my travel team at the time, I wasn’t even that good of a player.  I did well at Edgewood but once it came to higher competition, I couldn’t hang.  I rarely scored and was slow compared to everybody else. Going to tournaments and seeing the level of competition, I knew something had to be done. 

A loophole in the system that many athletes take advantage of is staying back in their grade for a year.  My grades were great, but if I wanted a chance of playing in college, an extra year of development would be crucial.  I was young for my grade anyway, so we decided to change schools so I could repeat the eighth grade.

This was Staying Back a Year in Middle School for My Athletic Career.
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