Gionni Stewart is a junior on the Struthers High School basketball team, as well as the football team. He plays as a small forward and power forward in basketball. He has been playing his whole life, but on a team for the last seven years.
When Stewart and the basketball team win, he gets extremely excited. He chooses to ignore everything that happened during the game itself and focus on the win with his team. Even if multiple mistakes were made, he focuses on the win they received. When the team loses, Stewart can maintain neutrality but can also become very bummed out. He and the team work very hard so losing can be upsetting for the player.
Stewart has motivation to play basketball to honor family members who made him the person he is today.
“My grandpa and uncle used to always play with me outside,” says Stewart.
Stewart’s favorite part of basketball is the pace of the game. He loves how fast the game is played and how quickly he can move. His least favorite part of basketball is some of the rude fans who attend the games. He feels that some people just don’t know how to act, especially in a sports environment.
Stewart’s largest basketball achievement is the amount he scored during an eighth grade game.
“My biggest accomplishment was in middle school 8th grade year; I had over 20 points, and I had two game tying shots in triple overtime,” says Stewart.
During junior year, Stewart was a starter and on varsity. He felt that it was easier to start this year rather than sophomore year because he had done it once already. Stewart plans to ‘ball out’ and lead his team to a conference championship in senior year. He is very excited for this year because he has high hopes that his team can have the best year yet.
Only having a year left feels unusual for the player because time went by very fast for him.
“It feels so strange because it feels like I just started high school yesterday,” says Stewart.
Stewart does not plan on continuing any sports after senior year concludes; he wants to have them remain as a memory of high school. After senior year, Stewart plans to attend barber school and obtain his barber license.
