Athlete Blog: Renaldo Woolridge

My name is Renaldo Woolridge and I just finished my basketball season at the University of Tennessee as a freshman. Coming from my hometown of Los Angeles, California, I had to make a huge life transition moving to Knoxville, Tennessee. The two cities could not be any more different. The main thing that stood out to me was the southern accents. Moving to a small city was different as well, but did not make me feel any less at home. The people here are really kind and supportive of everything that you do. As far as my basketball season, I learned a lot. I feel that the jump from high school to college is major for every freshman. For one, you are no longer the oldest “veteran” and big man on campus. I had to start all over again, as I was the youngest player on the team. One of my teammates, a senior, was actually married. I did feel my youth and inexperience come into play in many aspects of the season. However, the upperclassmen and coaching staff taught and helped me get a feel for what successfully competing at this level was all about.

The most memorable moment of the season was starting at one of my first home games in front of a near 23,000 people. When they announced my name and the whole arena was cheering was one of the highlights of my life up to date. It was an amazing feeling knowing that as a freshman I had what it took to be able to start in games. The workouts and practices were at a whole new level too. We had to do things like pull 200 pound sleds across the football field in tough conditioning and weight training. It was intense and many times I did not want to do it, but I knew that it would benefit me in the long run. The competitiveness was another aspect that I really valued. Everyone pushed each other to our limits in order to bring out the best in us. The ncaa tournament was a great experience because even though we got a early first round exit, I along with me fellow freshman teammates got a taste of what to expect in the years to come. The main thing that got to me was seeing the ncaa blue bubble at half court. At the end of one of our team practices there, we all had to shoot from the half court line with a crowd of fans from all over watching. I was the only one to make it on my first attempt and everyone went wild. It was a great feeling.
I also have another passion besides basketball which is music. I am an aspiring hip-hop artist and go by the rap name as “The Answer aka Swiperboy”. I first started rapping as a kid when I rapped in a commercial for “Skippy Squeeze Stix” peanut butter. I have been involved with music ever since, and just last year received a lot of attention for my teams anthem “Baller Vol” . I have just recently made a new song called “Facebook Swag” which can be found on youtube. I am trying to make it big in both basketball and the hip-hop industry and hopefully be a trend setter for kids who wish to do the same. All my music and music information can be found at http://www.myspace.com/rwtheanswer and http://www.youtube.com/theanswerswiperboy
The Answer aka Swiperboy on MySpace Music – Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
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MySpace Music profile for The Answer aka Swiperboy. Download The Answer aka Swiperboy Rap / Hip Hop / music singles, watch music videos, listen to free streaming mp3s, & read The Answer aka Swiperboy’s blog.
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By: Renaldo Woolridge

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