Stay Clutch by Noah Hutchins
12/8/2020 2:20:00 PM | Blog, Tomorrow's Leaders
What motivates us to do what we do.
What motivates us to do what we do? Is it a person? Is it something you have seen or experienced that may have caught your attention to desire to make a change? All of these questions come into effect when relating to my dream. My main motivation for doing what I do is because of my family. Without them, none of this would be possible. Because of the amount of time they spent on me to help me pursue my dreams, I feel as if it is only right that I make the most of every opportunity that is provided in front of me.
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, I graduated in 2019 from The Park School of Buffalo. Besides receiving my diploma with a 3.8 GPA, I participated in many different after school activities. Although I played baseball, golf, and soccer throughout high school, I have been most recognized for my skills on the basketball court. Throughout my high school career, I successfully achieved starting at point guard for all four years. I scored over 1,000 points throughout my career. I was a two-time Monsignor Martin league champion, a two-time New York State champion, and a one-time Federation champion. I also won the Monsignor Martin player of the year award, was a McDonald's All-American nominee, 1st team All State, and the Western New York Player of the Year.
Something that changed my mindset and led me to achieving all these accomplishments was back in 2017 when my house burned down on Thanksgiving Day. Fortunately, no one was home, but we still almost lost everything. This incident happened by something as small as a computer charger overheating and catching on fire upstairs in my room. From this experience, I learned that nothing is guaranteed. You never know when your last breath will be. I used this negative experience and made it positive by allowing it to motivate me in basketball. Realizing the game that I love could be taken away from me at any time opened my eyes to realize that there is absolutely no time to waste. My drive became so great that I even began to change my morning routine. I started waking up every morning before school at 4:30 AM, walk from the hotel to the school (3.2 miles) at 5 AM, get to the school by 6 AM, workout in the gym from 6:15-7:30 AM, shower in the school locker room, and then walk to my first class at 8:15 AM. In order to be different, you have to do something different. My goal that year was to make history by winning the state championship, which is exactly what we accomplished. Although playing professional basketball is my dream goal, eventually there will be a time for me to hang up my jersey. Besides basketball, I have dreams of working in the business industry; where helping others get access to their dreams is the main priority.
When pursuing your dream, I've learned that planning out your steps is very important. Being as blessed as I have been, I have spoken with many different successful people about my ideas, with each of them asking me the same question. "What is your one, five, and ten year plan?" After hearing this from multiple people, I understood that not everything I wanted was going to come all at once; it is a process.
The Unit Promise is a youth development program in the greater Western New York area that over the past 10 years has helped thousands of young men and women gain transferable social skills that have helped guide them to become the next generation of leaders through the game of basketball. There is no greater sight than seeing the expression on a young man or woman's face when they realize the importance of giving back, even if it is 2,500 miles away from home. By seeing other people struggle and knowing how fortunate I am to do what I do, I believe it's only right to give back to people who need a helping hand in the moment. When it's all said and done, I want to be able to add onto the Unit Promise and expand its chances of opportunities in not only just basketball, but in different sports and other talents as well. My dad is the person I look up to the most. He is the main person who motivates me to want to pursue my goals. By him starting the Unit Promise, it did not just give other kids opportunities, but it gave me opportunities as well. By seeing him start this program by himself, with hardly any resources, I believe that it is only right that I use my platform to be able to help other people that deserve an opportunity as well.
An industry that I always compare my ideas and goals to is IMG Academy. This academy is the largest sports academy in the country. Because of how well known they are for their sport programs, it has allowed for their success in recruiting the most talented kids for each sport all over the country. Because of my past success with basketball, I was fortunate enough to be able to receive a scholarship to attend this school last year.
My goal is to one day start my own academy. Going off of what my father has already started, I plan to one day take over his program and turn it into something greater. When it comes to helping others, my father and I have a very similar mindset. After attending IMG, I was opened to a whole new side of life. When I understood more about how the business industry at IMG worked, I right away was motivated to create something similar to this school, but with a couple of changes.
Another person I truly admire that has inspired me to begin my journey is LeBron James. Besides playing in the NBA, James stands out to me because of how he uses his platform outside of basketball. He has done this by building a school for children back in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Naming it The I Promise School, his goal has been to give the less fortunate kids of Akron an opportunity to be able to attend a school without dealing with the struggles of paying tuition. Seeing LeBron use his platform off the court, gives me more confidence to continue what I've started. Being the boss is not what is important to me, but because of the platform I have created and the amount of opportunities I have been given, I feel as if it is my duty to take advantage of what I am capable of doing.
For the last couple of years I've hosted different events dealing with kids from my hometown. The events consisted of basketball games, talent shows, and training sessions as well. Because of how high our crime rate had been at one point I even hosted dance events on the weekends. I called the dance events U.N.E.V., which stood for Understanding Nobody Enjoys Violence. The goal of doing this was to gather a bunch of kids to have a good time staying safe, rather than giving them nothing to do; allowing them to go out in the streets and risk themselves getting into serious trouble. Besides running these main events, I've hosted tournaments as well. I have done a 2-on-2 basketball tournament, a kickball tournament, a dodgeball tournament, and even an NBA 2K basketball tournament for video gamers. My goal with hosting these tournaments was to allow for our community to come together and have a good time without dealing with any problems.
For my most recent event, things were a little different. I called it, "Operation Bless Your Food". After feeding the homeless in Las Vegas for the past couple of years with The Unit organization, I wanted to branch out and try to do something similar. With Houston being such a large city, I knew that there would be a lot of opportunity to go out and feed the homeless. We gathered a group of student-athletes from Rice to help make bags of food and with their help, we were able to make this operation a success. My goal was to feed at least one hundred homeless people, and that was accomplished. By creating a video of this experience, I was able to share my idea with other people living in the Rice community, which has allowed me the opportunity of networking with new people. I look forward to the next opportunity.
Growing up I was given the nickname "Clutch." In the beginning I thought that "Clutch" was too basic of a nickname, so my friends and I thought of something more creative and came up with "Clutchins" (a combination of the words "Clutch" and "Hutchins"). I wanted the word "Clutch" to mean something more than just what the common definition was. I wanted "Clutch" to represent what I was about. For this reason, I decided to make each letter represent something that has to do with the way I live. The C stands for Courageous, the L stands for Loving, the U stands for Unashamed, the T stands for True, the C stands for Committed, and the H stands for Humble. Ever since creating this, I even started a slogan…. "Stay CLUTCH."
Since committing to Rice in March, I always get asked the question, "Why did you choose Rice out of all the schools you could have picked from?" My answer to this question always starts with, "It's bigger than just about basketball." With the university having so many resources around the area as well as it being in such a big city as Houston, I knew the opportunity of me being able to network with different people would be great. Also by me playing on the men's basketball team, it gives me even more opportunities to branch out and meet new people. The relationships I had built with the coaches before committing to the school is another reason why I chose Rice. Coach (Vince) Alexander was the main coach to recruit me to come to the school, and I cannot thank him and Coach (Scott) Pera enough for giving me this opportunity.
From my perspective, it's bigger than me. If I didn't have the people that I have in my life, I wouldn't be where I am now. And for me to be able to do what I love and have a chance to help others as well, why should I not take advantage of the opportunity that's been given to me?