The High Road to Adulthood

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Recommended: effects of athletics on academics

The life of Russell Thomas allows for almost none of the errors that a normal teenager can make, forcing him to develop great dedication and sacrifice many of his preferred activities to greaten his chances of receiving an athletic scholarship. Throughout “The Last Shot” by Darcy Frey, Russell matures from a jittery, inattentive urban adolescent into a mature young man with a realistic plan to pass his combined required SAT score of 700 while still advancing his athletic performance on the basketball court. He gains awareness and confidence by realizing that his previous refusal to participate in summer basketball tournaments had hindered his public exposure to coaches on the college level, and joining two prestigious tournaments where he showcases his great talents over the next summer. Russell shows dedication and maturity when he begins to carry around vocabulary cards so that he can study for his SATs as often as he needs to. Russell also shows responsibility and self-control by resisting the urge to become a product of his environment, selling narcotics for cash or protecting those who do, as many of his former friends have resorted to. Russell Thomas’ coming of age in “The Last Shot” is the chief factor for his academic and athletic advancements toward a four-year bachelor of athletics scholarship.
In the world of college recruiting, a player’s reputation among college coaches can never be advanced without the chance to display their talents and potential in front of them. Russell is one of New York’s most promising prospects, and has had this chance numerous times in the past, but passed up on tournaments in favor of his solitary workouts at the Garden’s basketball courts in Coney Island. Russell begins to show his awarene...

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... along with exposure among college coaches, through his new experience with summer basketball tournaments. He gains dedication and maturity and makes the decisions both to devote as much time as possibly to studying for school and the SATs, and to follow a rigorous workout and drill plan to improve his level of play in basketball. Russell also develops the responsibility and willpower neccessary to avoid involving himself in hinderances to his promising future like thuggery, drug dealership, or premature fatherhood, in the tough environment of Coney Island. The values and characteristics that Russell Thomas achieves as he comes of age are the reason why, while he couldn't take the road directly to college athletics, he took the high road to adulthood.

Works Cited

Frey, Darcy. The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Print.

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