Life After The Final Buzzer

Life as an Athlete

Life as an athlete is a chaotic rollercoaster of emotions. One day you’re at the top of Mount Rushmore, then the next you’re kissing the game goodbye. That’s where the “afterlife” for an athlete is created. Many of these athletes struggle with identity issues, most don’t know anything about life outside of the game. See, as an athlete, you are conditioned to see everything as a competition, you strategize about everything in life as you would in a scouting report per se. While yes, life is similar, with managing life, finances, and family matters, some “athletes” find it hard to let that competitive nature go.

My career began on the hardwood in the fall of 2003 for the mighty mites organization out of Inwood, Wv. I ended up playing 16 years of basketball, and achieving a goal of mine to play division 2 college basketball at Salem University for 3 years, before transferring to Penn State Mont Alto to finish off my senior year of eligibility. Fast forward to March 4th, 2019, my career had officially wrapped up with a loss in the USCAA National Tournament. At 21 years old, I was going through an identity crises.

That’s where my athletic “death” occurred. I remember distinctly sitting with my parents on the car ride back from the tournament, and they asked me a relatively simple question. “Well, what’s next?” My response? “All I know is basketball and sports , I have no clue.”

What corresponded in the following years was a railroad of emotions. I ran into legal problems, I engaged in illicit activities, I was lost and had no direction.

Sure, I was a decently intelligent kid. I maintained a 3.6 GPA throughout college and high school, picking up information with ease and acing exams with precision, but the real world doesn’t work like that. The real world does not care if you pass all your tests, or that you played college basketball and received a degree. In September of 2019 I got a dream gig, and I thought my dreams and aspirations of becoming a “made man” were coming true. I thought I was living the dream, making 75 K a year, single, with barely any bills. This life was great, until March of 2020, when Covid-19 shocked the world. I lost my job with Enjoy, right at the start of the pandemic. Luckily for myself, I was still living at my parents home, and was still holding out on their cell phone bill, so my total bills were relatively low. Even though I was still “secure”, I was right back at square one.

I kept letting nostalgia and regret from the past impact my ability to find my true calling. This is about a year after my athletic “death” and I still just couldn’t fill the void of the game I once loved so much that I started to resent all things about the game in general.

From 2020-2023 I stayed away from most games, not allowing to get myself wrapped up in the sport that I had grown a disdain for, all the while creating a pretty solid resume in becoming a Q/A manager for the TSP Retirement Board, account manager, professional barber, and a free lance investor, but still, I had a void. I was depressed and anxious on a future, with no clear vision on what I wanted to do with my life.

Fast forward to June of 2023, I received a call from a couple of my Musselman Alumni, asking if I wanted to play with the team in hopes of competing for a championship. The spark was back almost immediately after those conversations. We began to play pickup for both a month before the “Alumni Tournament” we were participating in. No one gave the mighty Musselman Applemen a chance, but nonetheless, we still came out victorious as tournament champions! That feeling; no matter if it was truly just a “meaningless” tournament, was what made me fall back in love with the game again. It brought me back full circle to why I loved the game so much.

But, now it’s back to the real world. I was beginning my journey now on another career path, being a barber. I was working at Good Looks Barbershop in January of 2023, when i get a call from my former teammate, who was on that alumni team that won the “HomeTeamSports TV Alumni Tournament”

He asked me if I was interested in joining HomeTeamSports TV for a live broadcast of the Musselman-Washington Varsity basketball game. I immediately said yes, and started practicing my lines in the mirror like I was going to be the next Dick Vitale or Gus Johnson! Jawaan Holmes, President and founder of HTS TV reached out to me and told me I would be working with the studios best in JD Fritts, and man he wasn’t kidding! When I first got to the school, I was anxious and terrified of what to expect being behind the microphone of a high school basketball game. I have to say, the nerves of this moment had me more rattled than any press I’ve ever seen!

JD welcomed me with open arms. He showed me the ropes, and he went over his process for pregame/postgame and closing. At times where my inexperience would show, JD would be there ready to help me learn, and truly allowed that game to be a tremendous experience for myself.

What I figured to be a one time invite, ended up turning into a 2-3 time a week gig as a color commentator for the rest of the 23-24 hoops season. I loved every minute of the coverage and relationships I was able to build, and it had me craving more! This was the closest to having that competitive fire re lit since I finished playing. I knew this would be a dream!

Football season came around, and as an avid football fan, and I played for over 10 years, I reached out to JD and Jawaan about possibly helping out with the football season as well. They both agreed, and JD and I’s chemistry began to flourish phenomenally. We both received a plethora of compliments from the community, and I knew we had something truly special.

At the conclusion of football season, our lead host JD decided he wanted to take a few months sabbatical, which really concerned me because he was the only real partner I had. Jawaan and I spoke on the impact, and offered me the lead play by play role for the 2024-25 hoops season. Extremely nervous and not sure if I was able to make a leap of faith like that, I trusted my gut. I accepted and was the lead Play by Play Commentator for the whole season.

What transpired following was both amazing and humbling to say the least. Our HTS tv team did 24 basketball games this year, we set records in multiple games, including our broadcast of the Handley Vs Spring Mills Boys Basketball game. This game combined for over thirty-two thousand viewers, with over six thousand watching live! Coming from my first game where we had less than two thousand viewers, to just a little over a year later to 1,600 x the viewership on our broadcast!

This may not be the same competition. My athletic career may be over, and for everyone, the ball stops bouncing one day.

But this opportunity? Being able to be the “voice” of HTS TV is one of the greatest honors I’ve ever been bestowed. This opportunity saved me from being okay with mediocrity, and settling for less. Everyday I wake up now with a new purpose. I wake up motivated and enthusiastic about chasing a dream. I’ve grown up watching SportsCenter, FS1, fox sports, etc. I would say half of my life has been dedicated to the life of sports. When my career ended, I thought that I would be best served by just completely removing myself from the game. All that did was create a hole in my soul. I felt empty, all because I was denying my love for the sports world.

I credit my mother for pushing me to chase my dreams. I remember telling her “mom I’m just not an athlete anymore” in just a playful way. She told me “an athlete will always be an athlete, just because you don’t play anymore doesn’t mean you still don’t pick up the ball and play?” And that quote has stuck with me. One day, everybody, regardless of sport, will have to hang them up. We all have to say goodbye to that version of ourselves. Those who truly love the game? Can’t ever just kiss it goodbye. Some coach, some spectate, and some just love to watch the game. That's why all great coaches are just that because they can’t play anymore. If we all could play forever, we would! But the old tale says, at some point, all great things must come to an end.

I can’t play the game anymore, but I still am around the game everyday that I love in a different way. I will now transition into writing articles, all the while still commentating, barbering, and making a life for my wife and daughter. I have no idea what my future holds.

Whether that’s cutting hair and calling games for HTS TV, or somehow ending up on the desk of SportsCenter, I will always be the kid, who was always outside shooting hoops on Warrior Court, rain, sleet, snow, it didn’t matter! I didn’t just like the game, I’m in love with it! I can’t wait to see the way the rest of this journey unfolds!