Find What Fuels You

The game of basketball can be played in many different ways and for many different reasons. When you step on the floor, race, religion, personal problems; they all go to the way side, and that is probably my favorite part about playing. Although, the game means much more to me personally. The one thing the game always does though, is give an escape. Just for a while, all of my problems wash away and the only thing invading my senses is the wax on the floor and the bounce of the ball coming back into my hand. It makes me feel in control of my life for once.

My name is Haley Troup, and I first picked up a basketball when I was five years old. The reason I did, is because my mother tried to enroll me to gymnastics; which lasted all of one session. Yet, when my father tossed me a ball, I somehow knew it was my destiny. Yes, I went through all of the church league seasons and also was an above average soccer player. My family was very supportive in my decision of which I wanted to pursue a scholarship in, although we all knew what was in my heart from the beginning.

I am from Gadsden, Alabama; a small town in the north east part of the state. It is a place where everyone knows everything about everybody. Not much of a traveling destination, Gadsden is one of the poorest cities in Alabama. Known for boring Saturday nights at the bowling alley or long weeks of school, the only thing that runs deep in the veins of this city is sports. Which was a good thing for me. My father was a coach; and he was one of the best in the state at his job. Growing up in the south side of the limits at Emma Sansom High School, I was constantly drug from football practice to basketball games and everything in between. My dad, Kevin, was hired as defensive coordinator for the varsity football team and head coach of the varsity basketball team. He took the basketball team to twenty win seasons every year and constant chances to win the regional championship and make it to the final four; although he never got that far. So much success for such a young man earned him coach of the year for the entire state, he was sitting exactly where he was supposed to be. With me right in his back pocket. I was in the middle of every huddle and every player knew the seat next to the head coach was reserved for me, and me only. Our family was sitting on the throne of the town, until it all went to the dust. During my fourth grade year, I was playing on a 12 and under city league team, and starting. My father was the coach and our team was undefeated. The state tournament was coming up, and we got the news. Emma Sansom was being consolidated with two other high schools in the city. Gadsden High and Litchfield High were Sansom’s greatest rivals, yet they would all be in one major school together; Gadsden City High School. My world changed forever, but know looking back on it, I wouldn’t change anything that happened.

After Emma Sansom closed down, my dad took the head boys job at Southside High School; about twenty minutes from Gadsden. I guess Southside is where a lot of things changed for me, and I was okay with it. I was transferred to Southside elementary for my fifth grade year. Meeting all new friends was hard, because I had to leave my best friend since kindergarten, Brooke, back at Mitchell Elementary. Yet, what I realized is, people like new things; and I was shinny object thrown for the taking. I was a foreigner, and everyone wanted to get to know me. Fifth grade was emotional for me; for I had to give up soccer. It is also when I fell in love with the game of basketball, it is when I found a passion I had never experienced before.

City league came and went that year, my team was runner up in the state and I met some great friends, but they were all one year older than me. Which meant the next year, in sixth grade, I didn’t have anyone to be on the team with. So, me and Brooke played on an all-boys city league team, and are the only girls in the city to ever do so to this day. It was eye opening, because I started and was the best player on the team. I could do this.

My real story starts in seventh grade. The girls coach at Southside is Kim Nails, and she decided that I needed to be pulled up onto Junior Varsity my seventh grade year instead of playing middle school. Needless to say, I was scared to death, but excited too. I had faith in the skills, and I knew I was better than most of the girls out there, but would they accept me? I had my chance to prove myself at T & F camp that summer, and prove myself I did. The summer before my seventh grade year at camp, I was the one on one champion, beating a division one player in the finals; I also won hot shot and my 4 on 4 team won the championship. I proved something at that camp. I proved to my teammates, coaches, and to myself that I could play varsity basketball. So, that was my new goal.

There is no other feeling like basketball season. When the air is crisp, the busses are cold, new jogging suits and shoes, and the famous smell of popcorn make its way through the gym; you know it is game time. The anxiety while putting on your own personal jersey is something I had the first time and I will have the last time I put on that jersey, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Sure, I hadn’t been pulled up to varsity, but I was going to play the best I could anyway. I don’t recall my stats on my first school ball game I ever played, I just remember the events that took place in the weeks after it.

It was the end of November, and Southside was playing ole county foe Glencoe on Friday night. On Tuesday, the varsity held a scrimmage and the junior varsity was at the other gym practicing. I got a ride to the gym where the varsity was playing, because my dad was there. Yet, the only thing I remember walking into that large and loud gym, is the girl that was laying on the training table crying. They weren’t tears of pain, but tears of regret. The regret of not being on the floor with her teammates and best friends for the rest of the season or ever again because a muscle in her knee tore in half. It is one of the worst things to witness, those type of tears and I pray to God I never have to experience such. The next day I was approached by the coaches and asked to move up onto varsity permanently, and fill her spot. I should have been ecstatic, bounding for joy; I had reached my goal! Although the nagging voice in the back of my head couldn’t help but ask, “Do you really want it this way?”.

So, I made up my mind. I was going to play, for her. For my team, my coaches, myself, and the people who said I couldn’t do it. I was going to play for the people who doubted coach Nails decision and my ability.

And I did.

I don’t think I have ever been so nervous in my life, and I was not a nervous person by any means. This was Glencoe, Southside never beat Glencoe on their home floor. Ever. Until that Friday night.

Obviously, I did not start that night, but they gave me a chance. With a few minutes left in the first quarter of a back and fourth game, they sent a seventh grader to the table. I checked in, touched the ball, i felt it. The same feeling when my dad threw me a ball when I was five, the same feeling when I played with the boys league, the same feeling of how I was created to play this game. After I was subbed in, I never came back out. I scored sixteen points off the bench, and was 8–8 from the free throw line in the last two minutes of the game. I won the game, I sealed it so they couldn’t come back.

I don’t know if I ever thanked coach Nails for giving me a chance that night, but I need to. Because I took it, and never looked back once. It was the first taste of something I never knew I needed. Power, and the feeling of proving someone wrong.

I never came off the bench in a high school basketball game ever again.

Perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned from the game of basketball, is work ethic. I witnessed it from all of the great players growing up and from my dad. I watched college basketball games religiously, and realized that I could do that. This game has taken me all over the country through AAU basketball, and has introduced me to amazing people and cities.

I owe it all to the people who have supported me through the breakdowns because of pressure, and the days where I didn’t shoot worth a shit. I owe it to the people who spent hours and hours in the gym the same night fixing my shot over and over again. The nights me and my dad would go to the gym at midnight and get back home at three in the morning. Those are the times and people I will never forget and never be able to thank enough.

I also want to thank the people who kept me burning to be better. The people who lit a seventh grader’s fire that has yet to burn out. I want to give credit to every person who has ever doubted me. You doubted my ability to play varsity as a seventh grader, and I ended that year as co-mvp of the county and all area. When I transferred to Gadsden City High School my ninth grade year, you doubted my ability to play the best competition in the state. Since then, I have made All-Area every year, reached 1,000 points my sophomore year, and now hold the all -time scoring record as a junior with over 1800 points, while making all-state. You doubted my ability to play at a Division one, power five conference; I now have multiple offers from those schools. Including Texas, Auburn, Vanderbilt, and more; not mentioning the mid-major programs.

My point in all of this is, I have been doubted since day one; that is my secret to success. It is the only thing on my mind when I am working out, exhausting my body. It is the reason I put up more shots than anyone else in this county and possibly the state. When I step on the floor every night, my sole purpose it to prove everyone who said I couldn’t do it, wrong. It is personal to me, and that is what has made me great. I wear the number thirteen for the same reason. I want to make an unlucky number lucky, and I drive to do that. The chip I carry on my shoulder has taken me to my potential and beyond. As long as there are people who doubt my abilities, I will always be there to show them they are wrong.

Throughout this process I have found myself, and I have surrounded my life with people who care about me. My family and friends who will not lie to me when I am wrong, but will not hesitate to praise me when I am right. I discovered the things I believe in and morals I keep with me every day.

I hope to be an example for girls and boys who know my story, or who just come watch me play. I want to show every one of you that nothing is impossible, and that you can do whatever you set your mind to. With the right work ethic and the right people by your side, nothing can stop you from reaching your goals.

It took me a while to realize this, and it was almost too late. So, do it now. Even if it it not basketball, or sports in general; find your passion and be the best at it.

The best advice I can give anyone is; you are born with you and you are going to die with you, so love yourself.

Choose to focus on the ones who say you can’t, instead of the ones who say you can.

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