Hey GBOA fans, this is Ronnie Mack. I play for the Birmingham Storm out of Alabama. This is my first blog for GBOA, so I’ll just tell you a little about me and my team. I just started playing for the Storm this season.

I played before with another team for three years and this year my dad and I were playing in an open gym when my Coach’s son saw me play. He told his dad about me and I got an invite to try out for the Storm. When I found out I made the team I was excited because I knew the Storm has always been a really good team. I didn’t know anyone on the team at first but since then I’ve gotten to know everyone and I really like this team.

On the court we’ve had some success. We just won a tournament in Jackson, Mississippi. We’ve played well in some other tournaments we just haven’t made it to the championship. We’re all hoping to play well this weekend at the GBOA South tournament. Our goal is to get in the top four so we can get a chance to go to Chicago for the Challenge of Champions. Most of our tournaments have been close to home, so Chicago would be a perfect place to go...maybe we’ll run into Kanye West! We do a lot of traveling for tournaments sometimes its every weekend and other times we go somewhere every other weekend.

Other than my summer team, I have been working out and training a lot at school. I go to Oak Mountain in Birmingham. We lift and shoot around pretty much every day, early in the morning. It was hard to get up so early in the beginning but I’ve gotten used to it and now I can do it every day. I think a lot of people would be surprised to know how much time basketball takes up. This summer is basically filled with basketball so it doesn’t leave time for much else.

Even though it takes up a lot of time, it’s still something I have fun with. I just got back from the Alabama Elite Basketball Camp. The Alabama men’s team invited the top 50 players in Alabama to play and it gave me a good chance to showcase my talent for the coaching staff. I think it went pretty well; I talked to a few coaches and some of them have been in contact with my high school coach. I’d really like to play for Alabama so hopefully an offer comes out of this. I’m going to use the rest of my summer to work on getting better and hopefully get some more attention from other colleges. Right now Belmont, Colorado State, Lehigh and Jacksonville have been in contact with me so I’m really hoping to add a few more to the list after this summer.

Well I think that’s all for now but I’ll check back in with you guys after the GBOA South and let you know how things went. If you’re in the area come check us out!

-Ronnie