Brandon Teela’s Experience with Basketball and College Recruitment

By: Isabella Valero

Brandon Teela, ‘21 is a senior at Redwood High School and is playing as a point guard on the Redwood Varsity Basketball Team. He has been playing basketball for seven years and although injured last year, this year will be his first year as a starting player for the Rangers. Teela is currently in the recruitment process for college and has big plans for his future.

A Deep Passion and Motivation

Even though Teela’s love for the sport continues to grow more and more, he didn’t always want to continue playing outside of high school.

His anticipation for playing in college, “was more during my sophomore year when I had coaches that said I could make it somewhere.” 

 Basketball to him is an outlet for life, which gives him the desire to continue playing in college. 

He said, “like a lot of high school athletes, it’s somewhere I can go and forget about life and do something I love.”

“Whatever problems I have going on in my outside life, I can escape from those things and with that, I love hard work, I love getting better and I love learning. I think basketball teaches me to better in all areas of my life, so I want to prolong that as long as I can.” 

Brandon Teela, ’21

Teela has learned through years of practice and dedication about the importance of mental toughness and hard work, on and off the court from his previous coaches.

He states how basketball has taught him to view life from a different perspective and, “think of things bigger than they are outside of myself.”

Through his experience playing on the team, Teela states that, “playing on the team we learn more about how we live outside the court than we do on it.” 

His coaches continue to, “emphasize taking care of our families, being responsible, and giving back to the community” states Teela.

With the experience of playing on two travel teams and playing for Redwood, he is able to remain self-motivated and continue to push himself as an athlete.

Teela states, “it’s not hard for me to be motivated, to hit 2-3 workouts, I want to be the best I can.”

He also explains how time management is a very important thing that many athletes such as himself have to struggle with sometimes. Although in his case, he describes how time management is something that doesn’t affect him as often and he makes sure to get his routine in before and after school. 

Since he has afternoon classes, he usually does weights before class, shoots around after school, then does homework. A pretty simple, everyday routine.

Plans for the Future:

Teela states that he has been in contact with coaches but explains that due to this difficult time with COVID-19, it makes it “almost impossible for coaches to come watch us play, due to travel bans.”

Although it has been difficult to come in contact with coaches face to face, Teela does have a plan for his future. He plans to take the Junior college, JUCO, route. He explains that COS and Porterville colleges are his biggest opportunities at the moment. 

“They are local and I’ve spoken to the coaches a few times and COS is one of the best JUCO basketball programs in the country so they could really push me to get to the next level,” Teela states.

After his JUCO route, Teela is interested in Utah Valley University and BYU because of their sports marketing and journalism programs, in which he is interested in majoring in.

“I love sports so I’d want to go somewhere giving me the best chance to participate in that industry.”

A History of Injuries

Teela suffered from three completely torn ligaments, and underwent a ligament reconstruction with stints surgery last year.

His injury may have kept him from playing on the court but Teela was determined to make up for the time that he had missed.  

“I wasn’t able to play and that killed me for a long time. Mentally it was really hard to want to keep pushing but I just hope I can get another chance this year and put everything on the line for my coaches and teammates” states Teela. 

Teela was also worried about not having my film for college recruits by being injured his whole junior season.

It held him back competitively from basketball for almost 4 months, which can really tamper with the recruiting process and scouting. 

Teela continues to remain positive amongst the state of the pandemic and his recovery process.

He states, “a lot of travel teams were formed when I got healthy so it’s been hard finding teams to play for. The chances of getting picked up by a college because of that injury have gone down significantly but I’m still hopeful.”

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Coach Black’s thoughts on Teela

Last season was Coach Black’s first year as the Boys Varsity Basketball head coach after previously being the Girls coach.

His 2019-2020 team had been very successful last year, with a 18-11 overall record and were named WYL Champions.

The team fought every game through the post season and made it to the Central Section Valley Championship where the team fell to Independence.

Black explains that his way to approach what, him and his team, want to accomplish is to help their mentality as a player. 

He explains that every senior leaves a mark on the program and a player such as Brandon Teela, “with good footwork and handles will be missed.”

He strongly believes that “Teela is a good athlete who has contributed to building his strength to perform well this year. Brandon is a solid piece to what we do.”

Coach Black has high expectations for Teela and wishes the best by telling him to “continue to build as a young man. Our program gets you ready for the challenge of college hoops.”