Recollection

My earliest childhood memories were the comforting tune of Lupang Hinirang sang by my mother and the whistling sounds of trains from a distance. She confirms singing our national anthem to lure me to sleep. I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA. Two years later, my family moved to a small nearby city called Carbondale.

When I was between the ages of 7 to 10, I always looked forward to spending our summers at Lake Kennedy in Pennsylvania. I was always a very active kid who enjoyed being outdoors. It was like having a giant playground at our disposal. We had one rule in the house: if you stayed in, you had to do house chores. So my siblings and I were outside most of the time, even during winter.

I started playing organized sports at the tender age of 10, joining little league baseball in the summer. My first team was called the Cardinals. Growing up, baseball became my favorite sport; basketball became a close second. It was at this time when I got my first taste of success playing team sports: winning our area's first city county championship and playing in front of a big crowd. During the 'ber months, I joined the youth basketball league at our local YMCA. The "Y" would eventually become, my friends and my second home. Spending hours together everyday then, people teasingly called us…the "Y rats".

At age 12, my friends and I started to excel in basketball, playing in an East Coast 12 and Under tournament. We advanced through three States: Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York. It was the first time I really traveled outside my State. In the tournament finals, we lost by a large margin to a talented New York squad that featured future NBA star Stephon Maubury. It was a humbling experience, we were exposed to a superior style of basketball and it really raised the bar for us individually and as a team. We all understood that we needed to devote a lot of time to this sport if we wanted to compete at a high level. The experience fueled the development of a rabid work ethic at an early age and would later reflect in our accomplishments.

I spent my teenage years hanging out with my friends, hardly being at home during the course of the day. It manifested into a special bond and friendship that has lasted up to this very day. It was because of this camaraderie that encouraged us all to even shave our heads. That helped us eventually achieve what no other basketball team at Carbondale Area High School has ever accomplished. Being the tallest player in my high school team, I played the Center position, playing mostly with my back to the basket and not taking a single 3-point shot. Later in college, I had to make a difficult transition from the Center position to the two-guard and eventually leading my college team in 3-point shots.

During my sophomore year, our team won the Lackawanna League title. We lost only two games and advanced to the PIAA State basketball playoffs in class AA. Making the State playoffs was an achievement in itself, but our early exit in the tournament in our eyes was a huge disappointment and a complete failure. We committed ourselves to being the best and this setback only fueled our desire to become better. We devoted our whole summer vacation to the gym, playing in every summer tournament and pickup games available to us. We cut out all other sports we normally engage in and zoned in on basketball, shifting all our focus and efforts to this game. It is at this time of my life when I started noticing the benefits of making basketball my only sport. Earning a college degree was my ultimate goal then. And to be able to achieve this, I had to compete with millions of high school players to earn a basketball scholarship that was only available to a few thousand student athletes. To put it in perspective, to date, my older brother Andy and I were the only basketball players in our school's entire history to receive a Division 1 full scholarship.

At 16 years old, my junior class started the school year with high expectations. Nothing mattered most to us then than winning our school's very first State championship. I never imagined that we would win it in such dramatic fashion though. We obtained our school's first basketball State championship in the year 1993. Leading up to the final game of the season in Hershey Park Arena (where the great Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one game), we didn't lose a single game. Despite an unblemished record of 29 straight games, we were picked by Associated Press to lose by 15 points. The other team, George Junior Republic, was also undefeated and labeled the best team in the State regardless of class. It was really a David vs. Goliath matchup. Twelve seconds were left on the clock and the game was tied at 65 apiece. In the closing seconds, we won on a buzzer shot to clinch our first State championship title! Completing a historical perfect 30-0 season...I scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in that title game.

My senior year was just as exciting as we were defending State champions and still steamrolling through all the competition. Winning our first ten games, we were leaving our mark on history extending our streak to 40 straight games dated back to last season. The number amazingly grew more and more and along with it, another undefeated season leading up to my final high school game. The number ended at 59 straight games and a PIAA state record for Most Consecutive wins. I left my high school career with a record of 82 wins with only 3 losses, a state championship, a runner's up State championship, a two-time first team All-State member, a McDonald's all-American nominee, and above all, my goal of attaining a full Division 1 scholarship to Wagner College.