By Mallory Mattingly
Klark James never thought he would play college basketball, but a letter from the University of Alabama at the end of his senior year in high school changed his life.
“I’m not going to Alabama to be a regular student,” James said on the Access the Walk Podcast. “I get the letter, and I open it up, and I’m like, you know, it’s gonna be like, come visit, come tour, regular student. I open it up, and it’s a scholarship, and I’m like, not going to Alabama. So I crumple it up, throw it in the trash.”
Thankfully, James’ father is big on checking the mail in its entirety.
“My dad comes in and he’s like, ‘What’d you throw away?’ I was like, ‘It was just come visit,'” James recalled. “So of course, he’s nosy. He gonna open it up. So he takes it to my counselor in the morning. I get a call in the middle of math class.”
He went to his counselor who told him he got a scholarship to Alabama that would cover his tuition and room and board.
“She’s like, ‘So which dorm would you like to live in?’ And I’m like, ‘Huh?’ And we literally signed up for classes that day, and it was just like, why am I signing up for classes? Like, I don’t want to go to Alabama,” he said.
James ended up going to Alabama as a normal student. He had been working out every day, but during the summer leading into his first semester, he didn’t work out once.
“Then I was so upset, kind of depressed and just anxiety took control,” James recalled.
But one day, he saw a flyer on his way to class about open tryouts for the basketball team.
“I saw a flyer about walk-on tryouts for the team, my trainer always told me he was like, you could always walk on. And I was like, I’m not good enough, like, prior to the tryout,” James explained.
Luckily, leading into that moment, James was “the most into the Word that I’ve ever been in my life.”
Related: 4 March Madness Stars Who Put Faith First
“I was kind of scared after the tryout that I wasn’t gonna make it and just living with doubt, but then I’m just gonna give it to God. And that was the hardest thing to do. It’s just like when you have something in your life like that just giving it to God,” James described.
A few days after the tryout, he and seven other guys were added to a group chat.
The message read: “Hey, you guys are invited back to official practice.”
James was in “awe” of where God had brought him and the plan He had for his life.
“I under prayed, God over delivered,” Klark James said, describing his journey in a post on Instagram.
Alabama made it to the Elite Eight this NCAA March Madness Tournament. Unfortunately, their tournament run was cut short in a 65-85 loss to Duke.
Before their game against Duke, the Crimson Tide scored 113 points and made 25 three-pointers, according to ESPN.
Alabama’s tournament run may have been cut short, but James is grateful to God for the opportunity to play the game he loves.
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