When I came back my sophomore year, I had probably worked harder than any other summer. I think that was because I never had time to hone my skills, I had never had time to concentrate on one sport.
I come from a family of athletes so It was just natural growing up. Plus I come from a big family so there was always someone to play with.
I had it in me the whole time. But you just didn't see that side of me until then.
I loved it. I was very happy to be selected Freshman of the Year. Then you get hungry and you want to get all the awards like player of the week and all that. That got my mouth watering.
Judy Miller was a senior my freshman year and she was our leading scorer. She told me that I was next. Are you going to believe that when you're a freshman? I don't know.
You have people to share it with. I'm just a team type of person. It's nice to have individual medals but having something that you can share with someone else who has worked as hard as you have, is something special.
That surprised a lot of people, that I chose basketball because I was technically more successful at track. Basketball was just something I felt I could improve on.
That was because it was the last event of the day and it was an entire lap around the track. Your not jogging that lap either. I could never rest. I was never finished until the bus was warming up.
Track is a sport where your body will get a little worn. But I played sports all year round and we had good coaches and training.
Even now I don't like to work out by myself. It's just about the relationships you build with people.
Rudy and I would play one-on-one and he would just pick me apart. He would tell me what moves he was going to make and he would still score on me. No one had really pushed me like that before.
I just started to get more competitive juices in that sport. Running is running, that's just it. If you don't love running, then it's not for you.
In order to be number one, you have to train like you're number two. I guess I've always had that mentality without knowing it.
After my freshman year when I got the gold in the 200 I was really excited. The 100 was a little too short for me.
They had already had their indoor season and been practicing. So I was less prepared. I can't drop out of a conference tournament. Plus, in order to be a successful student, you just don't have time for everything.
I attempted to do everything successfully. It was taxing, but I didn't think about it at the time.
The love of sports is in our genes, it runs in the family. I never grew up wanting to do one particular thing.