The #1 ranked sophomore basketball player in the nation, Jeremy Tyler, and Moo Moo Evans.

What happens when you have the #1 ranked sophomore basketball player in the nation attending your high school? Not only do companies like Nike, Adidas, and Reebok start paying attention but celebrities also start taking notice. Most recently, #7 of the Harlem Globetrotters, Moo Moo Evans, paid a visit to the San Diego High School Boys’ Varsity Basketball Team. The purpose of the visit was to discuss and educate the team about life and how to make choices that will affect their lives for the best.

As Moo Moo Evans spoke to the team, he inspired them to become strong leaders. He shared helpful advice on how their decisions will impact situations they come across in their daily lives. He spoke about leadership because as leaders in their school, these basketball players have followers. There are students who look to them for answers and follow the examples they set. Evans stated, “If you do well in life, those around you will be influenced to follow your example.”

Moo Moo Evans discussed being a role model and a leader on and off the court. When you are good at something, people take notice of what you do all the time and it is important to keep that in mind when you think no one else is around. You never know when someone is watching what you do and basing their own actions on how you handle things. He stated that at this point in time for our basketball players, other students are paying attention to how these athletes act as students in the classroom. Moo Moo Evans stressed the importance of being a quality student athlete: stay in school, maintain grades well above average, and be a role model to the students surrounding them in each class.

Basketball is a game of chance and luck. The human body in a single moment can become limited and unable to perform to its fullest degree. The human mind, however, is always mentally fit and is ready to pack in more information. Education has to be important and every professional athlete should have a “Plan B” in the event their athletic career does not work out as planned. With an education, there are always options to fall back on. Moo Moo Evans told the SDHS Boys’ team, “A basketball game only lasts four quarters but an education lasts forever.” Our #1 sophomore, Jeremy Tyler, was inspired and awed by the meeting with Moo Moo Evans. When asked what message really hit home for him, Jeremy summed it up perfectly. “Get an education. Don’t let basketball be your only option.”

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