Josca Schabacker '21 Recruiting Profile

My interest in basketball began when I was a young child maybe six or seven years old, when I met my aunt’s boyfriend, Christian Benzon. Christian is the one who introduced me to basketball, and got me hooked on it, ever since then I have been in love with the game. Currently he is playing professional basketball in Denmark, when Christian was 16 years old he came to the US to play at The Rock School in Florida along with Joel Embiid. A couple years later his brother, Frederik followed suit and joined him. After a successful high school career Christian went on to play at the University of Evansville. Once I found out he was bound for division one, it motivated me to work on becoming a better basketball player. I have enjoyed going to Christians games and meeting his teammates, and following them throughout Christians 4 years in college. Just like Christian I am a combo guard, I am comfortable taking the ball up the court as well as being ready to shoot, drive and pass, on the defensive end I am ready at any moment to sacrifice my body for a charge, or give help to my teammates. When the bigs are working hard fighting for the rebound I am ready to swoop in and grab the ball ready to push it up the court. Playing soccer in the Midwest Regional League (MRL), as a goalkeeper, has helped me with my footwork and strengthening of my hands.  I am always ready for the next move. Being a goalkeeper requires me to be a loud person as I am the backbone of the defense. Just like in basketball I act not only as a leader and captain of our team but act as a teammate by communicating with everyone on the court or the field, which I have learned is the key to a successful team.

Other sports that I have done in the past is taekwondo. I did this for eight years in that time I was able to learn two different styles the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) and World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). I am a one dan in both styles, and I am second dan in WTF. While doing ITF I was the All Star in my club, by scoring the most points in tournaments.

I guess Christian is the one my parents have to blame for all the long hours in sweaty, noisy gyms almost every week, not to mention all the traveling costs which I am truly thankful for. My parents are big role models for me. They are both successful professionals who care deeply for their professions and their believes. My dad is a physician who also has a PhD and after completing his training he went to Africa on a humanitarian aid program. He then joined industry and recently moved to a non for profit organization who focuses on patient safety and quality of health care. My Mom studied business and languages at Copenhagen Business School and Copenhagen University. After college she became successful in first the medical industry and later also in the film industry, but she decided to stay home and raise my brother and me. She has been on several non for profit boards, runs her own company, and founded a NGO focusing on sustainability in our community.

While I haven’t decided what I want to study in college I am interested in psychology, business or law.

Outside of school and sports I have a unique talent, I am bilingual in Danish and English, trilingual if I was to include French that I take at school but I am nowhere close to being fluent yet. Since 1st grade I have spent 3-4 hours per week following the Danish school curriculum in online classes and summer school, and in the Summer of 2018 I passed the Danish language exams together with all Danish 9th graders in Denmark. Once a week I coach a basketball team in the intramural basketball league at my highschool. This fall I also helped coach soccer for disabled children through our local rec center. In some of my free time I do our neighbors lawns as a summer job. I am active in a local environmental group where I help with making things like brochures, their website and social media accounts, as I am strong with technology. In September 2018 I started a service project together with a friend, where we collect and sew old t-shirts into reusable produce bags (http://www.green-minds.org/tshirt-to-bags.html). Every Thanksgiving my family and I go to a local church where we serve meals to the homeless, and families in need. Another activity important to me, is that my family and I for the past 3 years have been volunteering at Pine Ridge Reservation, a Native American Reservation, where we do service work like building bunk beds, outhouses, porches, ramps and skirting of homes. I feel this work is important because I am not only giving back to the residents of the poorest counties in US, but I am also able to help resolve an open wound of the past history between the people of the US and Native Americans by building relationships. A huge interest of mine is travel. As both of my parents immigrated to the US from Europe 16 years ago it is so fascinating to be able to explore different parts of the world, the languages, architecture and food which I crave. My dream for my future is that if I continue to work hard in school and on the court, that maybe one day I will be lucky enough to be able to play in college. It is important for me to be able to combine academics with physical challenges as I have noticed I am a better student when I have a sports outlet.