Pauly Paulicap didn’t play basketball prior to junior year at Elmont Memorial High School.

While he possessed the size and athleticism to play the sport, Paulicap instead often found himself in trouble and doing what he referred to as dumb stuff. But after dealing with some personal troubles in life and moving around, the New York teen decided it was time to grow up and take ownership of his behavior.

“It got really real. I needed to do something. I needed some sort of structure to ground me. I didn’t want to be a statistic; I didn’t want to be what everybody expected me to be,” he said.