As you get better at your craft and gain popularity for your abilities, this is the REAL question. Who can you trust?

In athletics, everyone… and I mean EVERYONE has an agenda. I see it all the time with high school athletes. Student athletes(or as I like to call them, Athletic Students) get pulled in so many directions by so many people who don’t really have their best interests in mind. It’s more like “I’ll look out for you, as long as I’m benefiting.” Gone are the days of adults helping kids because they just want to see them succeed. I know a young female athlete who is highly ranked in her sport. Top 100. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard how terrible she is, and that she’ll never “make it”… It’s amazing. In the area that she’s from 90% of the people think like this. But I know why this happens. It’s because that 90% are upset that they are not in the 10% that is benefitting from her abilities. If you placed this young lady at ANY school in SWFL, the entire school would immediately think she’s the greatest player the school has ever seen. Pitiful.

SO, as a young athlete, how do you know who to trust? The simple answer is you don’t. And it’s only going to get crazier now that all limitations are off in regards to making money and profiting from your talents. We’re about to see THE craziest athletic year ever!

I’ll tell you who you can trust though. Trust the LORD! Trust yourself! AND… Trust your WORK. Those three things will never let you down. In reverse order:

Trust your work, because it only knows what you give to it. You work on your shot more, it will go in for you more. You work on your speed, you will get faster. You work on your routes, you will get open more.

Trust yourself! This kind of goes with trusting your work. Once you’ve done that, you can rely on yourself to pull from that work and give you an advantage over everyone around you. And when you trust yourself, you don’t have to worry about the coach that says you’re not good enough to make it to a certain level. You don’t have to worry if your trainer is just telling you what you want to hear so they can keep getting your money. You don’t have to worry at all. Because you have put in the work.

Finally, but most importantly, TRUST GOD! Without him none of this is even possible. We worry so much about “making it”(whatever that means). One day you get older and you realize that only a fraction of a percent of amateur athletes ever get to play professionally. And in the end none of that is even going to matter. Your relationship with God will always matter for eternity, and what you do on the court or the field should only be for His glory anyway. And I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but ANYBODY not on this short list I just gave you, has the potential(and will) to let you down BIG TIME!! This includes family, friends, coaches, teammates… even the guy writing this. But God will always be with you.

So in conclusion, let me reiterate… this school year will be NUTS! We’re still dealing with covid, seniors are getting an extra year in school, and the money will be flowing!

Focus.

Stay true to who you are.

And again… if they aren’t on this short list of GOD, Yourself, and your work…

DON’T TRUST THEM.

-Rok