This year, Eckerd College brings a new player to the Sunshine State Conference, a 6-foot-5-inch freshman from Lakeland, Florida, Jerrick Stevenson. After getting many different offers from schools like Gramblin State University, Lynn University and Virginia Military Institute, he chose Eckerd. Jerrick says he chose the Tritons as his new family because he likes both the coaching style that Tom Ryan and Kendrick Wilson provide and the players that are on the team. Stevenson says Eckerd also offered an opportunity for a great education with unique, small class sizes and a great location.
So far, Jerrick’s quite happy with his decision–he’s particularly fond of the yellow bike system. “When I am bored I just like to ride around campus on a yellow bike, I probably look weird to everyone else but I still like to do it.” One thing he can’t wait to take advantage of? The waterfront. “There’s a lot of cool stuff that they offer,” he says.
Though he’s been a longtime athlete, Jerrick says he’s never broken a bone or had any serious injury before, knock on wood (We both knocked on the wooden bench to that statement). His favorite part about basketball is being in a game situation, switching from offense to defense and competing against others at different levels. Jerrick plays the shooting guard position and is also sometimes the handler.
Upon settling into Eckerd, it seems the Florida heat wasn’t much of a surprise to Jerrick, a Florida native. Growing up in Florida Jerrick admits he has never seen snow, but says when he goes to “Canadia, oops I mean Canada, I hope to see some there.”
Jerrick, the middle child of 5, has always had an appetite for learning. “If I want to learn how to do something I just Google it and read articles until I understand how to do something,” he says. He clearly has initiative to take the time to learn things outside of the classroom–a trait you don’t see much these days. Looking to the future, Jerrick says he hopes to be a physical therapist when he “grows up.” Maybe he will Google that sometime in the future? When he’s not busy Googling, Jerrick’s keeping up with his Spanish, communications, sociology and Western Heritage work, but he still finds time to play his favorite Playstation basketball game, 2k13.
Along with loving basketball and video games, his lifetime goal before he dies is to go sky diving, “I love the adrenaline rush on roller coasters,” he says, “I would like to try sky diving sometime.”
Adventurous? Check. Sharp memory? Maybe not so much. “One time I was using my friend’s phone and 10 minutes later I lost it,” he recalls, laughing. “I loose a lot of things actually, we eventually found it though, it was in my pocket.”
We love you anyway, Jerrick!
Look our for Jerrick on the court when the basketball season kicks off at Triton Tip Off on Oct. 20th at 9 p.m.Â