During the recent season of March Madness of college basketball, courts get filled with exciting plays, heartbreaks, and moments of confusion centered around handshakes.
This year FAMU (Florida A&M University) completed their season as the number two seed within the SWAC Tournament. During a momentum filled season, Bessemer native Jordan Chatman helped the male Rattlers team face competitive rivals under new coach, Charlie Ward. With impressive statistics like 7.2 points per game, 1.6 rebounds and 0.8 assists Jordan is determined to become better on and off the court.
He told us, “Some of the best experiences I have had on the court is really when you have a team where everyone is brought in to fulfill the same goal and work together to accomplish it. Like in high school going back to back in Final Four competitions. Being an athlete and a student, you face many challenges with time management and limited social life interaction. You have to understand that you are in college to play basketball and sacrifice other things for the sake of it, but the end result is always worth it since social life is only temporary. But, as I said earlier, time management is always a challenge because of how you have to balance school, practice, and extra workout time within the same time striving to get good grades and finishing your school work.”
With a balanced mindset and sights set on a lucrative future in sports, Chatman found inspiration to attend an HBCU such as FAMU by way of its initial standing rank as number one within public HBCU listings and as an outstanding basketball program with an exceptional SWAC Conference relevancy. With basketball idols such as Michael Jordan, Kawhi Leonard and Miles “Deuce” McBride, Jordan stated, “My plans are to either go overseas and play professionally or to continue my Master ’s and become a graduate assistant on a college staff. I would tell others to always ‘bet on yourself’ and believe in yourself because self belief is always going to be your fall back when you are feeling down and out. Always work hard no matter how you feel or what day it is because there is always someone else that is willing to go the distance when you aren’t, and that is who you are competing with in the long run. Always stay coachable and a student of the game!”
We applaud this year’s basketball tournament winners worldwide and also our native son, Mr. Jordan Chatman, for setting a great example for others on and off the courts.