BEIJING - I joined Prep2Prep near the end of the freshman year. My high school varsity soccer coach, Dan Minutillo, used the site to check our standings after every game. Prep2Prep was updated before any other site, even though they had half the resources.
As the soccer season ended, my parents encouraged me to see if there were any opportunities for an aspiring journalist. It was the beginning of a three-year relationship that has offered me more than I could have ever dreamed of.
Prep2Prep was founded in the fall of 2011, and I joined in the spring of 2012. That made me, a freshman, the youngest member of an ever growing staff. After joining the team, I was thrown right into the mix—and I loved it. I made plenty of mistakes, and learned a key lesson from each of them. I was given plenty of feedback on my work, much of which still holds true to any article I write today. It was an incredible time.
Prep2Prep allowed me to find myself in a way high school did not. I didn’t have to find a certain group to hang out with, try to act differently than who I was, or compromise my morals. I was able to be exactly who I wanted to be: a journalist. There was no filter on my being. As time progressed, I was given more and more larger profile assignments. From interviewing five-star college football commits, to covering CCS playoff football games, I was gaining more experience and creating a network that would last.
I can still remember my first championship. It was at night, a basketball matchup inside Leavey Center at Santa Clara University. I arrived, was given my press pass, and sat courtside while an intense game unfolded. I remember looking around and seeing other major networks by my side—something that would become all too familiar throughout the years—and just wondering how I got there.
That single game turned into multiple games at San Jose Municipal Stadium, which turned into one of my favorite assignments of all time: covering football at Levi’s Stadium. I was in the belly of the beast, doing press conferences with coaches beneath the stadium, in the pit, alongside the photographers and reporters, and on the field itself. I still have my press pass from that day hanging on my wall.
Prep2Prep has always been good to me. When I decided I wanted to switch from reporting to photography, they gladly switched me around. When I asked to take breaks during soccer season, they didn’t hassle me at all. They helped me fall even more in love with my passion.
As senior year came around, despite my inability to keep up as college applications piled up, they still sent me to CSN Bay Area to talk with Brodie Brazil, on air, about what I did and my experiences with PrepNation. As the most senior member of a team that covers the majority of California, Arizona, Texas, and Illinois, I knew that I had to give back. Then China came into the equation.
I got the call around the beginning of May. In fact, it was probably around my three-year anniversary with the company. They asked me if I was interested in going to China to make a documentary. I was completely shocked and taken aback. I had never made a documentary before, barely ever traveled alone, and had no idea what could happen over there—so I said yes.
Those weeks I spent in China expanded my mind more than anywhere I’ve been before. Besides meeting so many new people and interacting with a culture not all like my own, I saw some top players, quality coaches, and stunning baseball.
My trip was not just about recording everything I saw and heard for the future. It was for me to understand myself. I came back having seen the opposite end of the world, and I wanted to see more. China is not just the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, or the Forbidden City. It is its families, walking together down crowded, bustling, smoggy side alleys, the street side vendors, selling everything and anything to tourists passing through, and the strangers, practicing tai-chi every morning, or those who merely wanted to take a picture with us.
As I continue my exploration of the world and who I am, I hope life doesn’t pass me by. Because, as I go a hundred miles an hour, the globe goes a hundred times faster. I want to accomplish so much, and Prep2Prep has enabled me to do that. This documentary is more than a record of a trip—it is a summation of the last three years, a journey of a lifetime, and a toast to the times ahead. So to my friends and family at Prep2Prep and to everyone I was honored to shake hands with along the way, thank you.
