For 800 straight days, I trained with one goal in mind: earn a walk-on opportunity with my school’s Division I men’s basketball team.

Before college, I was a recruited athlete with multiple Division III offers. I chose my university for academics instead, committing on a full academic scholarship after graduating with a 4.3 GPA. But once I made that decision, I knew I wasn’t done with basketball.

Because I couldn’t transfer or decommit, walking on was the only path forward.

For over two years, I worked as a team manager while training every day, before and after practice — competing against Division I players, learning in the same environment, and holding myself to a higher standard. I didn’t miss a single day of training. I had to level up from being a Division III-level player to being good enough to survive in a Division I gym.

In the end, I wasn’t given the opportunity to walk on.

But those 800+ days gave me something more valuable: a firsthand understanding of what it actually takes to reach elite levels of basketball — physically, mentally, and technically.

That perspective is what I bring to my training today. Most players never get to see what high-level development really looks like on a daily basis. I did, and now I help players close that gap.