This story seems in SLAM 248. Get your copy right here.
It’s loopy to suppose there was nearly a second when five-star recruit Aaliyah Chavez didn’t play basketball. Rising up in Texas, Chavez admits that when she was youthful, she’d principally sit at house and watch tv on the sofa, or she would see different youngsters enjoying basketball within the park. That’s when she obtained an thought. “I used to be like, Oh, that appears enjoyable to play.”
The best way her dad and coach, Sonny, remembers it, the Monterey Excessive Faculty star wasn’t precisely the athletic kind when she was little. “She couldn’t journey a motorbike, couldn’t journey a skateboard, , all of the issues that I grew up [doing] as a child,” he says over the cellphone. Regardless of initially telling her no, younger Aaliyah didn’t surrender. “She simply was fairly adamant about enjoying,” he provides.
Sonny, who performed soccer, determined he’d see simply how badly Aaliyah, who was in third grade on the time, actually wished it. So, he began placing her by way of exercises that had nothing to do with basketball however examined her psychological toughness. They’d work on plyometrics with containers he had constructed. He’d have her bounce and attempt to contact the door body or work on ballhandling within the driveway with tennis balls. “[I was] simply attempting to push her to give up and to appreciate that sports activities was not for her. [But] she did every thing I requested, so I ended up signing her up.”
A couple of days earlier than tryouts, Sonny taught her how one can block a shot, however that was actually the extent of her basketball coaching earlier than she performed her first sport. Again then, Aaliyah couldn’t rating a layup, however her grit was on full show. She’d go on the market and snatch the ball from the opposite little women, and block photographs, too, identical to her dad had taught her. In fourth grade, she tried out for a neighborhood AAU squad with older gamers however was instructed throughout follow that she wasn’t adequate. That was a defining second for her. “I believe that was actually [when I was] like, Oh, I’m gonna show you fallacious.”
That’s not the one hate Aaliyah has needed to take care of all through her journey. From doubters to jealous mother and father complaining about her minutes to folks telling her father that “she’s not gonnabe that good as a result of she’s Hispanic,” and that he was pushing her too onerous. It’s secure to say that Chavez has proved everybody fallacious. At this time, she’s the No. 1 recruit within the Class of 2025 and has narrowed down her faculty record to 10 high Division I packages: Texas Tech, Arizona, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, South Carolina, USC, Tennessee, Texas and UCLA.
And each she and her household have executed all of it on their very own phrases: quite than go to an elite prep college midway throughout the nation, she’s chosen to remain at house and play for Monterey.
Once we caught up with Chavez for her SLAM HS Basketball Diary (learn right here), she had simply scored her 3,000th level and claimed she would’ve dropped 50 had her coach not sat her out.
That’s the kind of confidence Chavez carries herself with each time she steps on the ground: “I’d describe my sport as an all-around participant,” she tells us. “I can shoot, I can get to the bucket, I can defend, I’m a playmaker on the identical time. In the event you’re open, I’m gonna discover you, and among the passes I’ve been making are loopy. I believe I simply make loopy passes as a result of I’m not afraid to attempt them.”
Portraits by Zach Tijerina.
