Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Diary Of A Baller: Terrence "Total Package" Clarke (Boston, MA) Entry #7

Terrence Clarke At Fab Frosh Camp

What’s going on Basketball World?

Welcome to another week of my Bballspotlight Diary Entry. This week was very bad preparation for the Fab Frosh Camp, but I still managed to get the job done. 

Monday, I woke up drained from the weekend. But I still managed to keep myself going for the big weekend. After school, I figured I didn’t have sports practice, so I had lots of time in the gym. I got up about 500 shots from each side using the trash can as a defender. This made me use my handle and quickness, but I felt a slight pain in my knees. I fought through it and still worked as hard as I could. Next, I headed to my dorm to take a shower, go to dinner and study hall for the night. But I had to prepare for testing for the next three days!

Tuesday was a terrible day for me. I woke up, and my first class wasn’t even a class. I had to test for days ahead sadly. First day composed of Reading and Vocabulary. I tried to breeze through the work even though I needed to do well. I was very fatigued off of no breaks and every week I was playing basketball. This just added to the pain. After, we had to head straight to class. I took this into consideration and thought about High School. I know that the schedule I will be having is going to be tough so I used this as preparation for next year. After school, I went to track practice, but it was a light day since we had a meet the next day. After, I went to my dorm to lay down and chill on my PS4. After dinner and study hall, my coach allowed me to get to the gym to get some work in. I worked on all in-game moves from coming off screens, one on one moves and transition pull ups. This would get me ready for the weekend.

The most boring of them all, Wednesday was a slow day. I had to test again with even more. Mathematics and more Writing. After testing, I had one class and went to first lunch since I was departing school for my track meet. Our track meet was two hours away, so I got to lay on the bus and listen to music to keep me fueled for the meet. Once we got to the track, we got warmed up and stretched to run. The event included two high schools and two boarding schools, so we weren’t supposed to do as great. I started off with the long jump. Since it was my first time, I got up to 15 feet after getting only 10 feet in my first tries. After my second set, I had to run off to get ready for the relay of 100 meters. I started first in the pack. We began to run, and I got up to my partner fast enough. Even though we ran hard, we finished last in the pack. Then I came back to long jump and sadly faulted. After I had 100 and 200 meters left but, I was pretty tired and was getting tight. In the 100 meters, I did pretty bad, but I didn’t complain. I decided not to do the 200 meters due to my knees, but we weren’t as frustrated with timings. As much of a competitor I am, I wasn’t to upset. We came back to school just in time to get back to the dorm and relax.

Thursday was an easy day and our last day of testing. This was much of a rest day and a relaxing day. I finished the Math part of my testing and got my classes over. I didn’t have much to do for the day. I didn’t practice on track for the day and rested. I went back to the dorm to pack and relax for the weekend.

Friday started with classes. I sadly got a detention for not practicing, but I needed the day off. After, I got picked up from school and headed home for practice. Even though the camp started Friday, we needed to practice for EYBL the next week. So I had left at 2 o’clock in the morning for the 8-9 hour drive to DC!

Saturday was a tiring day. I got to the camp at about 8 to 8:30 in the morning. I checked in, got my uniform and jumped in with the campers. As we got into the drills, I started to get active and have some fun with people I knew from the camp. Before we left, we had a mini dunk contest. I seen everyone dunking and jumped in and had a little competition with Drissa and the campers. My first dunk was a basic windmill, and everyone thought I had the bounce. Next, I threw the ball off the wall into a windmill, and everyone went crazy. I thought that I was going to miss, but luckily I made it. But some of the kids were coming with windmill dunks when they are only 5’11! So I thought the dunk contest would be delightful. After, we went to get some food at Fab Frosh sponsored airport. After, we went back to listen to speakers and get to the games. My first game wasn’t my best, but I did very well. I Had about 20 points with a couple of rebounds. We lost our first game by about 10, but we only had four players, so we had to pick up kids. After, the next game we lost but I finished with 24 points, six rebounds and four assists. I wasn’t playing to my best ability, and I knew it wasn’t looking so good. Once I got back to the hotel, I relaxed in the pool, had some dominos and got lots of rest to put on a show for the next day. 

Sunday was my best day in the camp. We started with a mini draft combine workout. I found out I’m 6’6 with an eighty wingspan. I could run down the court in 3.6 seconds, I can do defensive slides, sprints, and back peddling around with paint in under 11 seconds, and my vertical is a 31! This was surprising because I thought I wasn’t going to do as good as I did. I was tired, and my knees weren’t up to par, but I still managed to work it out. After, we went through some post drills then got back into the games. My first game was the biggest game of the weekend. Jai Smith vs. Terrence Clarke. I think I got the edge, but Jai didn’t play as much. But I was defended by a kid from FL, and we were going at it. I scored four straight times and started flexing because I was getting buckets. I settled down after dunking the ball and landing awkward on my left knee and tried to get my teammates into the game. We ended the game and lost by 21, but I had 27 points with four assists. I got some ice after the game to try and fix it up before the dunk contest, but that didn’t workout. I left to go and eat then came back to watch. After the contest, I knew I would have won the whole thing. The awards came next after. I lead the camp in scoring, got the top prospect award, and got nominated for the top 20 game. This was a great feeling, but I knew it was off of hard work. I couldn’t play in the top 20 game since I needed to get to school, so I left and got back to school in about 2 AM. As the new week begins, I’ll be preparing for the next EYBL session this weekend in Atlanta. Tune in next week as I update you all on the week.

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