This story appears in SLAM 248. Get your copy here.
It’s loopy to assume there was nearly a second when five-star recruit Aaliyah Chavez didn’t play basketball. Rising up in Texas, Chavez admits that when she was youthful, she’d largely sit at dwelling and watch tv on the sofa, or she would see different children taking part in basketball within the park. That’s when she bought an thought. “I used to be like, Oh, that appears enjoyable to play.”
The best way her dad and coach, Sonny, remembers it, the Monterey Excessive College star wasn’t precisely the athletic sort when she was little. “She couldn’t trip a motorbike, couldn’t trip a skateboard, you recognize, all of the issues that I grew up [doing] as a child,” he says over the telephone. Regardless of initially telling her no, younger Aaliyah didn’t surrender. “She simply was fairly adamant about taking part in,” he provides.
Sonny, who performed soccer, determined he’d see simply how badly Aaliyah, who was in third grade on the time, actually needed it. So, he began placing her by way of exercises that had nothing to do with basketball however examined her psychological toughness. They’d work on plyometrics with bins he had constructed. He’d have her leap and attempt to contact the door body or work on ballhandling within the driveway with tennis balls. “[I was] simply making an attempt to push her to stop and to comprehend that sports activities was not for her. [But] she did every little thing I requested, so I ended up signing her up.”
A number of days earlier than tryouts, Sonny taught her methods to block a shot, however that was actually the extent of her basketball coaching earlier than she performed her first recreation. Again then, Aaliyah couldn’t rating a layup, however her grit was on full show. She’d go on the market and snatch the ball from the opposite little ladies, and block pictures, too, identical to her dad had taught her. In fourth grade, she tried out for a neighborhood AAU squad with older gamers however was informed throughout follow that she wasn’t ok. That was a defining second for her. “I believe that was actually [when I was] like, Oh, I’m gonna show you mistaken.”
That’s not the one hate Aaliyah has needed to take care of all through her journey. From doubters to jealous mother and father complaining about her minutes to folks telling her father that “she’s not gonna
be that good as a result of she’s Hispanic,” and that he was pushing her too arduous. It’s protected to say that Chavez has proved everybody mistaken. Right now, she’s the No. 1 recruit within the Class of 2025 and has narrowed down her school checklist to 10 prime Division I applications: Texas Tech, Arizona, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, South Carolina, USC, Tennessee, Texas and UCLA.
And each she and her household have carried out all of it on their very own phrases: slightly than go to an elite prep faculty midway throughout the nation, she’s chosen to remain at dwelling and play for Monterey.
After we caught up with Chavez for her SLAM HS Basketball Diary (read here), she had simply scored her 3,000th level and claimed she would’ve dropped 50 had her coach not sat her out.
That’s the kind of confidence Chavez carries herself with each time she steps on the ground: “I’d describe my recreation as an all-around participant,” she tells us. “I can shoot, I can get to the bucket, I can defend, I’m a playmaker on the similar time. When you’re open, I’m gonna discover you, and among the passes I’ve been making are loopy. I believe I simply make loopy passes as a result of I’m not afraid to strive them.”
Portraits by Zach Tijerina.
