Excelling in Both Fields: Academics and Athletics

I have chosen my friend who is a sophomore her name is Jayden Nunez and she is  a 4.3 GPA overall student , she has collected principals award her sophomore year & honor roll her freshman year . She was also a freshman on varsity selected as MVP , all tourney & first team all league. Jayden demonstrates her leadership within her school by helping with leadership , basketball fundraisers and playing a sport.Independence  has been a huge role for her since she was young. She says “ I think being independent as a person to preserve myself , correct myself & build myself is really helpful & being connected with my people well being independent is they can count on me to put the work in i need to put in on my own time”

   An inspiring moment Jayden says she has experienced is during summer going to college camps to play basketball she says it gave her a quick inspiration on how college ball would feel and talking to college coaches afterwards . Education wise it would push her to keep up with her grades to be eligible to play & also get into a really great college.A huge obstacle Jayden has faced through her journey with basketball is tearing her ACL on September 30, 2023. She had surgery for this injury on December 22, 2023 and being out a whole season made her challenge herself to be a leader outside the court and to watch from a distance. She says her surgery wasn’t easy but it made her push herself to get up everyday and made her stronger.Jaydens greatest inspiration support is from my coaches. They came to visit her during surgery to make sure she was eating and staying healthy , they have always pushed her to be better each and every day. God also plays a big role in her  inspiration because he’s shown her that his strongest soldiers get the toughest battles and he had a plan for her to go a different way and better herself. She hope to inspire others outside of her court abilities to let them know it’s okay if setbacks happen , and it’s okay to feel stuck and to feel like you’re not improving because it gives you more strength to push through that and to show people that you are strong and you are willing to do whatever it takes to be a better version of yourself . “It’s sometimes challenging to balance self care and academics because there’s a lot happening at once. but i usually get all my class work finished in class and workout then go to practice right after school then come home workout and after that i shower and relax and ice”.

   A specific adversity she had to come over is tearing her acl . She said “It’s easy to tear your acl as an athlete but it’s harder when you have to come to terms that it happened. it took a while to me to get out of denial because i didn’t want to face the fact i tore my acl till surgery but it helped me become stronger and look forward to what else is coming to me” Her advice for anyone who might feel the same way or going through the same way is make sure your taking care of yourself and pushing yourself and never letting people doubt you especially yourself. To always look forward and don’t stay stuck being in denial but as long as you pray and put in the work everything will be okay.