Nov. 13, 2008
Hey, everyone – my name is Alade Aminu, aka Young Prince. (My great grandfather was a King in Nigeria). As a part of getting the public tuned in to the season, I’ve been asked to do a web blog. So I’ll take you through who I am and what’s going on with me. I’m currently the starting power forward for Georgia Tech and I wear number 44. Our first game is coming up Friday, and the fellas and I are ready for the season to get underway.
Sometimes people don’t see the hard work that goes into what we do and get a misconception of us athletes. They usually just see the highlights on TV and the signing of autographs. A normal day for me starts off by getting up at 6 a.m., heading to the gym and going over plays. After an hour of different plays and game schemes, I have mandatory breakfast, then class at 8. After an hour and a half of straight lecturing at 8 in the morning in a tough accounting class, I head to weights for an hour. By this time it’s 11 o’clock, and I have a quick minute to decide to nap, get treatment, or eat. So I do all three!
Now noon has arrived, and I have class for another hour and a half. This class has a lot of interaction between the teacher and the students. After a 30-minute break, I attend my last class of the day at 2 for an hour. From class I’m heading straight to practice, with all kinds of statistics problems still stuck in my head. So now I’m at my favorite part of the day, two and a half hours of practice, filled with drills, running plays, scrimmaging, coach screaming in your ear and the sweet melody of “Get on the line!” Another day of getting better in the gym and almost passing out is done. Now after showering and icing up, it’s about 6:30 and we have two hours of study hall. Once study hall is completed I finally get to see my bed about 9 at night. That’s if we don’t have a film session at 10. A lot of hard work goes into being a student-athlete at Georgia Tech. However, the hard work does pay off.
I also want to mention I have my own non-profit organization called Brotherhood of the World, Inc. It’s a foundation that helps inner-city kids through interaction with athletes and caring individuals. We have done many projects with the youth in Atlanta, and a few of the pictures are posted on the site – brotherhoodoftheworld.org. We are currently working on collecting can foods for families in need for Thanksgiving. I plan to have a few barrels outside of our games. So if you would like to know more about helping with that or participating you can visit the site and email me. I also have t-shirts that are out, that me and a lot of students and student-athletes wear. The shirts are $10, and they support the foundation and help put on a summer basketball camp.
Lastly, I want to mention, I hope everything turns out well for my teammates Lewis and D’Andre. Those are the guys I came in with in 2005 and started this journey with. So I hope that they get better and that things turn out positive for them. Well, our season starts tomorrow and I’m excited, Let’s Go Jackets!
— The Prince 44 —
