HighSchoolElite.com's Player Journals- Pruitt 1

Frank's notes:
The Class AA Player Journal writer this season is University of Illinois-bound Shaun Pruitt. A 6’8” power forward, Shaun stars for a talented West Aurora High School team that is on the short list of Class AA state title contenders.

After beginning his high school career at Providence St. Mel in the city, Shaun transferred to West Aurora for his sophomore season. That was the beginning of what has been an injury-riddled prep career. In the second game of his sophomore season, Shaun fractured the fourth metatarsal bone in his right foot and was forced to miss half of the season. In October of his junior season Shaun got bit by the injury bug once again. He incurred a fractured tibia in his right ankle that sidelined him for all but seven games.

Shaun and the Blackhawks are coming off a second-place finish at the Pontiac Holiday Tournament where he averaged 17 points on 60 percent shooting (25-of-42). West Aurora stands at 12-1 and looks to redeem itself after disappointing post seasons the past two years, where they failed to advance to the Class AA Elite Eight either year.

What’s up everybody? I’m Shaun Pruitt from West Aurora. For the next couple of months I will keep readers informed on what’s going on in my life. Things are going pretty good at West Aurora even though we just lost our first game of the season in the Pontiac Holiday Tournament Championship Game to Simeon. We saw dejavu, because we lost to Simeon last year in the championship game. The best players and teams bounce back quickly, and we will. I’m just glad to have played in the tournament. I was hurt this time of year for the last two years and didn’t play sophomore or junior year at Pontiac.

But besides the loss to Simeon things are going well. I'm starting to get adjusted to all the double and triple teams I face each game.

School is pretty fun and there are a lot of good guys on the team to be with. Everybody on the team loves free styling, I think I'm the best, but Justin (Cerasoli) busts the flows before we come out on the floor for games; Justin, Jaeh (Thomas) and I always freestyle to each other. We try to sound like our favorite group the Dips (Diplomats). My favorite rapper right now is between Cam’ron and a new rapper with the Dips named Jr Writer.

West Aurora has been a good transition for me. I started off my high school career at Providence St. Mel with Justin Cerasoli, but transferred to West Aurora sophomore year. I didn’t like the private school thing; there were only 500 students K-12. My dad started a job out in the suburbs going into my sophomore year so we had to move anyway. And my older brother Brandon used to go to Waubonsie Valley so my dad already liked the area. My dad always liked West Aurora and decided the area and school were the best place for me. He originally wanted my brother to go to West (he would’ve been there with the state championship group of 2000). Dameon Mason (now at Marquette) also was transferring to West because his family bought a house in the area and we were pretty close.

The following year the same situation that happened to me, happened to Mike Binns (now at Brewster Academy) and Justin. There was no recruiting at all. All of us are friends and West just has a great situation between community, academics and athletic program. People think that money and all kinds of things were given to us, when actually it was the complete opposite. Going into my junior year Justin came out to shoot around with me and see our summer camp. Then he and Jaeh hung out for the 4th of July. When his dad checked out the area and the school, he liked it too and they decided to move here. West Aurora coach Gordon Kerkman didn’t even say a word to Justin, that’s how it was. Coach Kerkman didn’t want anyone thinking it was recruiting so he stayed out of all of our situations of moving and finding houses, everything. He didn’t even start talking to any of us until we had moved to Aurora and were enrolled in the school. We saw these actions as kind of offensive at first, but then understood why he did what he did. It’s funny how everyone thinks that we were recruited, but none of the coaches talked to us or even knew us.

Its great to have Justin at West with me, and we both just went through the same major college recruiting process. Justin ended up committing to Seton Hall and I am going to Illinois. It’s great to have already signed because there is no stress of where I am going to college and I can just focus on the season. I chose Illinois because I was more comfortable with the situation. I have a lot of support from family, friends and fans in my decision. It’s crazy how many people know me now because I am signed with Illinois. This past weekend Coach Kerkman took us to a restaurant out in the boondocks of Pontiac and everyone knew who I was. I signed autographs for everyone there and took pictures. It was crazy; I didn’t expect these people to know who I was. They recognized my face, they were very friendly, and it’s like that everywhere I go. As far as academics and Illinois, my GPA is solid and I scored a 21 the first time I took my ACT, so I think I am set. I’m not sure if I will take it again. I'm thinking about a major like Finance and maybe Sports Management since U. of I. has such a great business school.

My main goal now is to get back in the weight room. I was working out with a personal trainer three times a week before the season. I went from 215 pounds in the summer to 235 at the start of the season. I really need to continue to work on my legs; they were out of it this weekend at Pontiac. I have had a sore knee, and some leg extensions should help. My upper body has gotten a lot bigger and better though. With all the practices, games and being sore I have missed quite a few lifting sessions. But I want to get some rest before school starts Monday. I didn’t do anything on New Years Eve or New Years Day. I was on the road coming back from Pontiac when the New Year rolled in.

As far as New Years resolutions go, I want to continue to win, stay healthy and work on controlling my anger and temper. Sometimes I get frustrated with being hacked so much by double and triple teams. And a lot of people have been hating on me, and I’m the type that will confront you in a second. But I really need to work on my anger because I have a perfect situation set up in front of me.

But I’ll holla!
S Dot (People call me S Dot like Jay-Z a.k.a. S Dot Carter)