OXFORD, Miss. — During this COVID 19 pandemic, there’s those who make excuses and those who get to work, like 15-year-old Oxford High hooper Addison Howell.
“I need to pick my legs up, my feet, move them,” Howell said. “I’m trying to run better.”
With high aspirations for basketball, Howell has turned this negative time into a positive.
She’s teaming up with Anthony Johnson, the owner of One Body, to do some intense training sessions.
“We were trying to train before this, but this just gave us an extra push to keep going, and there was more time for me to do it,” Howell said.
“Out of all this time we have been out of school, or all this time we have been at home having all this free time, your coach is going to expect for you to have done something, where they don’t have to come and get you in shape because now it’s about teaching scheme,” Anthony Johnson said.
The little gauntlet of fun is designed to increase jumping ability, quickness and agility, and it will make Howell a better basketball player.
“It hurts everywhere,” Howell said. “We have to jump over stuff. It just keeps on going, yeah, it keeps on going, and it’s not okay.”
“Yes, I’m going to have you not liking what we are doing, but you are going to love the benefits when we get on the court,” Johnson said.
He wants to give Howell the physical and mental strength to attack the court when basketball returns.
“It was difficult at first, but then I understood I just need to keep going, and it’s only going to make me better,” Howell said. “That’s the same thing I have to say to myself. Just keep going, just one more.”
She’s working on that dog mindset one rep at a time.
