Dear Hopeful Hoopers,
I am writing you this personal letter in the hopes that you will understand my vision for you and your playing career with Under the Radar Basketball (URB).
Let me start from the beginning. I envisioned this URB back in 2009 at the age of 19. At that time, I was likely not much older than you are now and I was already in my first year at the University of Waterloo (UW) (Ontario, Canada). Coming off of a successful individual high school career in which I nearly led my league in scoring for the last two years I was expecting for many scholarships offers to be heading my way. After all a bunch of other guys in my league were getting them so how couldn’t I?
Well, they never came.
Instead, during my first year of university I was forced to red-shirt on Waterloo’s roster (meaning I would act as a “practice player” and participate in all practices but not in the actual games). Now a coach can designate a player as a red-shirt for many reasons. It could be so a player could heal from an injury and not lose a year of eligibility, or maybe so a player could focus on his/her academic so that their grades will improve and they will then be eligible to play again afterwards. The other reason that a player may be red-shirt is because—simply put—they are not a good enough player yet to warrant playing in actual games.
That last one was me.
During my freshman year, I really began to resent my red-shirting situation with the Waterloo team. I felt as though I had placed myself in a position to fail. That year, the team had 5 senior guards and two highly renowned local recruits. Also consider that the head coach never was a fan of game or believed in me as a player (in fact, it was the assistant coach who had to convince him to take me in the first place) and you can begin to see how this was going to be an uphill battle for playing time.
Ultimately this all was my fault and I understand that now. Had I been proactive, had I taken the initiative, had I helped in the recruiting process of myself, then I could have ended up in an ideal situation. It was simply a matter of taking the time to do the research and understanding what possibilities were out there for me.
But I didn’t do any of these things.
Instead, I ended up quitting the team not long after I had joined it, extremely frustrated, resentful, and bitter with the coaches, the players, the situation, but most of all, with myself. I was done with basketball.
At the time when I quit, I was completely happy with having walked away from the sport. I was convinced that the time and effort invested into the sport no longer matched my passion and love for playing.
Little did I know that something as trivial as my oldest brother asking me to play on his Waterloo intra-mural team would rekindle my love for a sport that I left so painfully just months earlier. After only a few times of having hooped with my big brother’s intramural team, I knew something was up.
I knew I still loved basketball.
I knew I still wanted to play.
I knew I could still play.
It wasn’t something that I was ready to give up on at such a young age.
With these thoughts bouncing around in my mind, I immediately began contacting coaches from coast to coast, asking about the possibility of playing for their teams. Unfortunately, not many programs were willing to give a roster spot up to an undersized and unheralded shooting guard, especially one that had quit on his team weeks into the season (my former coach wouldn’t exactly give me a glowing review if these coaches called him).
But there was one tiny and unheard of university that was willing to give me a chance, Quest University in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. I understood that this was as good as it was going to get for me at this point so I took the offer.
Four years later, and to the surprise of many in my hometown, I have now become one of the program’s more accomplished players and have helped in turning around the basketball program into a respectable one within British Columbia.
It was this success, the success at the college level that served as a reminder to me to rekindle my desire to begin URB. URB is meant to shed light on the unheralded, the underrated players, who may not necessarily come with the most hype—as I didn’t—but can still have an impactful playing career at the next level with preparation, hard work, commitment, and a little help—as I did.
Throughout my playing career I’ve always been overlooked by the next player who was more hyped, more athletic, or more flashy. Yet, as I write this memo it is important for my fellow hoopers to understand that I have outplayed nearly all of my peers who were once recognized as much more talented players. I did this not through athleticism or politics but through a full-fledged commitment to improving my skills every time I stepped on the court.
And this is where the true essence of URB lays. To promote the underdog. The one who has the unwavering and unyielding confidence in themselves to succeed at the next level when others doubt them.
URB is here to help deliver that extra push, that extra exposure that may be needed so that you can transition into the next level of basketball without the same amount of hardships and wasted time as I did. This scouting service is meant to prolong the playing careers of serious basketball players so that they can maximize their passion. It is my hope in creating this business that I will be able to help others in realizing their true potential.
I want to personally thank everyone for their support and consideration in taking the time to check out the website and our services.
In Basketball I write,
Jose Colorado
I am writing you this personal letter in the hopes that you will understand my vision for you and your playing career with Under the Radar Basketball (URB).
Let me start from the beginning. I envisioned this URB back in 2009 at the age of 19. At that time, I was likely not much older than you are now and I was already in my first year at the University of Waterloo (UW) (Ontario, Canada). Coming off of a successful individual high school career in which I nearly led my league in scoring for the last two years I was expecting for many scholarships offers to be heading my way. After all a bunch of other guys in my league were getting them so how couldn’t I?
Well, they never came.
Instead, during my first year of university I was forced to red-shirt on Waterloo’s roster (meaning I would act as a “practice player” and participate in all practices but not in the actual games). Now a coach can designate a player as a red-shirt for many reasons. It could be so a player could heal from an injury and not lose a year of eligibility, or maybe so a player could focus on his/her academic so that their grades will improve and they will then be eligible to play again afterwards. The other reason that a player may be red-shirt is because—simply put—they are not a good enough player yet to warrant playing in actual games.
That last one was me.
During my freshman year, I really began to resent my red-shirting situation with the Waterloo team. I felt as though I had placed myself in a position to fail. That year, the team had 5 senior guards and two highly renowned local recruits. Also consider that the head coach never was a fan of game or believed in me as a player (in fact, it was the assistant coach who had to convince him to take me in the first place) and you can begin to see how this was going to be an uphill battle for playing time.
Ultimately this all was my fault and I understand that now. Had I been proactive, had I taken the initiative, had I helped in the recruiting process of myself, then I could have ended up in an ideal situation. It was simply a matter of taking the time to do the research and understanding what possibilities were out there for me.
But I didn’t do any of these things.
Instead, I ended up quitting the team not long after I had joined it, extremely frustrated, resentful, and bitter with the coaches, the players, the situation, but most of all, with myself. I was done with basketball.
At the time when I quit, I was completely happy with having walked away from the sport. I was convinced that the time and effort invested into the sport no longer matched my passion and love for playing.
Little did I know that something as trivial as my oldest brother asking me to play on his Waterloo intra-mural team would rekindle my love for a sport that I left so painfully just months earlier. After only a few times of having hooped with my big brother’s intramural team, I knew something was up.
I knew I still loved basketball.
I knew I still wanted to play.
I knew I could still play.
It wasn’t something that I was ready to give up on at such a young age.
With these thoughts bouncing around in my mind, I immediately began contacting coaches from coast to coast, asking about the possibility of playing for their teams. Unfortunately, not many programs were willing to give a roster spot up to an undersized and unheralded shooting guard, especially one that had quit on his team weeks into the season (my former coach wouldn’t exactly give me a glowing review if these coaches called him).
But there was one tiny and unheard of university that was willing to give me a chance, Quest University in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. I understood that this was as good as it was going to get for me at this point so I took the offer.
Four years later, and to the surprise of many in my hometown, I have now become one of the program’s more accomplished players and have helped in turning around the basketball program into a respectable one within British Columbia.
It was this success, the success at the college level that served as a reminder to me to rekindle my desire to begin URB. URB is meant to shed light on the unheralded, the underrated players, who may not necessarily come with the most hype—as I didn’t—but can still have an impactful playing career at the next level with preparation, hard work, commitment, and a little help—as I did.
Throughout my playing career I’ve always been overlooked by the next player who was more hyped, more athletic, or more flashy. Yet, as I write this memo it is important for my fellow hoopers to understand that I have outplayed nearly all of my peers who were once recognized as much more talented players. I did this not through athleticism or politics but through a full-fledged commitment to improving my skills every time I stepped on the court.
And this is where the true essence of URB lays. To promote the underdog. The one who has the unwavering and unyielding confidence in themselves to succeed at the next level when others doubt them.
URB is here to help deliver that extra push, that extra exposure that may be needed so that you can transition into the next level of basketball without the same amount of hardships and wasted time as I did. This scouting service is meant to prolong the playing careers of serious basketball players so that they can maximize their passion. It is my hope in creating this business that I will be able to help others in realizing their true potential.
I want to personally thank everyone for their support and consideration in taking the time to check out the website and our services.
In Basketball I write,
Jose Colorado