Diego Pons, NCSA Student Athlete:
July 31st, 2008 - by-by Diego Pons 2009 Basketball Grad
The first camp my team went to was the West Virginia University Team Camp on June 
27 -29. This is the second time I attended this camp, but I was very excited because, at last, I was going to meet a college coach! I had sent an email telling him I was going to attend the camp and he agreed to meet with me. I was also excited because I knew we would have great competition; the good Triple A teams from my county were there, and the other teams I didn’t recognize were looking good and athletic.
We played games from Saturday through Sunday. I started the later games sore from playing aggressive and getting over screens while taking knees to the quad in the many previous games. However, I wasn’t the only one feeling sore. I also remember seeing other teams exhausted – well – I thought so because I was outrunning them and out hustling them on defense. We ended up winning all our games except two games, both again Morgantown.
soccer coach and I had been bumping heads for about two weeks. This left me a spot on the bench for our District Championship game against our main rival. When I was sure that I wouldn’t be entering the game in the first half, my coach calls me over and tells me to go in at left mid. Determined to make a difference with the 10 minutes left until half, I went in at 110%.
coach, Glen Miles. He contacted me about a week before the tournament and asked me if I wanted to be part of a team for a tournament held at San Diego State University that was sponsored by Great Western Lacrosse and was a memorial tournament for Norman Webb. He is honored and credited with starting lacrosse programs in southern California. I thought that it would be great to have the chance to play for my Adidas coach a week before I would play for him in the Adidas National Lacrosse Classic.
been drained physically and mentally. I started out with a combine in Charleston, West Virginia, next came Miami of Ohio, then to Vanderbilt, and Stanford to wrap it all up. Out of all of these camps/combines I learned a variety of little tips and drills to help not only me but also my teammates. I met a lot of cool guys from all over the country like Andy McCloud, a talented quarterback from Texas. We still keep in touch and talk football every now and then.
letter makes it to my doorstep. During those dry periods, however, I have still had plenty to do. Whether it has been burning multiple game tapes for coaches, or simply completing my correspondence log for NCSA, I have not been wasting time.
writing, and it seemed like a good idea, so bear with me while I try to get my bearings with the whole blogging scene!
11th through the 13th my team played in a tournament called the Great Lakes Shootout at UW Stout. We finished 5th out of 12 teams. My best game was only a pick up game against a team called Sugaa. My team was down by 1 point with only 10 seconds left in the game and they passed it into me for a layup. I didn’t make the layup, but I did get fouled and went to the line to shoot two. But by the time I had shot the lay up, the clock had run down to 0.4 sec. I made the first free throw and tied it up. Then I swished the second free throw putting us ahead by one. The other team threw the ball in but didn’t have enough time to get the shot off so we won 35 to 34. I also had 12 points that game. In the whole tournament I averaged about 10 points per game.