Description of the video:
My name is Lucas Huffman. I'm from Indianapolis. I go to Indiana University East and I'm a biochemistry major.
Being the first one to go to college in my family was a goal and basketball really helped me get there. I played probably 12 years before coming to college. I started pretty young. I actually started playing on a little plastic goal. My dad would pick me up you know and play basketball. I stuck with it and ended up loving the game and it got me here.
When I'm out there on the court, I'm relaxed, I focus in on the game. I don't really focus on the crowd. Junior year, tenth game in, playing the number three team in the nation... ...and I did a move I've done probably a thousand times before that and my left knee just didn't move with me and I tore my ACL and had to sit out for about six months. That was my first real injury in sports and that was a huge eye-opener for me, and I think the team. I just wanted to do anything I could to get back out there and they pushed me to do better in my rehab. Coach kept pushing me, family kept pushing me, and I just wanted to get back out there to help everybody, not just myself.
Something that's really cool about this program and what this basketball program has to offer is the family aspect of it. It's, you play four years here, but you also have a lifelong family and lifelong friends and it's really fun to be a part of. Balancing school and basketball hasn't been easy. It's been something that's been a challenge from the time I walked on to campus to the time I'm gonna leave campus. But it's definitely something I haven't done on my own. The professors, the coaches, the faculty have definitely been there to help. And I think that those are some lessons I've learned that I can take on with me for the rest of my life.
Hopefully, my next step academically would be med school. That's always been a dream of mine and I feel like IU East here has helped me get to that point. So, I've applied to a couple of schools and med school is definitely the end goal, and I'm gonna do anything I can to get there. Medicine is something I was introduced to at a young age. By the age of 15, I had lost quite a few family members, so I was motivated to do something to help another 15-year-old from experiencing what I went through. The power of medicine and the power that a physician, the power of closure that medicine can provide to a community, a family, individuals, is something that I really fell in love with, I'd say.
I'll remember my time at IU forever. IU has done tremendous things to prepare me for my future, not only academically, but as a man. The small campus has really allowed me to get close to my professors, my coaches, and it's really a family here. And hopefully I'll always be able to be a part of this university and continue the tradition.
