Snow stacked along the sidewalks.
Four-degree air.
The kind of cold that settles into a city and stays there.

In this special bonus episode, Sky travels to Syracuse, New York to sit down with two of the top high school basketball players in the state — Eli Prince of Westhill and Jahzar Greene of Bishop Ludden-Grimes.

Same city. Same winter. Different rhythms.

Eli moves with steadiness — shaped by structure, patience, and a long view of the game.
Jahzar plays with urgency — forged through setbacks, ownership, and work.

Through two individual conversations — no coaches, no panels — this episode explores how environment shapes athletes differently, how honesty reveals depth, and how two players can share a map without sharing the same road.

Winter doesn’t form everyone the same way.

What does it look like to love the game without hesitation?

In this episode, Sky sits down with Kaylor Buse of West Linn High School — a player whose joy is as undeniable as her talent.
From the playground to packed gyms, her game carries something deeper than skill.

Along the way, Coach Brooke Cates and legendary Oregon coach Eric Viuhkola weigh in on what makes her rare — and what it takes to protect joy in an environment that often asks athletes to shrink.

This isn’t just a conversation about basketball.

It’s about playing — and living — in the full measure.

Sky Stickney returns to Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon — a place defined by continuity, expectation, and people who never leave.

Lucas LaBounty is the returning Midwestern League Player of the Year, but this episode isn’t about accolades. It’s about what it means to grow up inside a program where the standard is already set, where work is assumed, and where responsibility gets passed down long before it’s spoken out loud.

Through conversations with Lucas and the coaches who shaped him, this episode explores how habits become culture, how loyalty is learned, and how players eventually realize they’re not just part of a program — they’re caretakers of it.

Host Sky Stickney travels to Canby, Oregon to sit down with reigning Northwest Oregon Conference Co-Player of the Year, senior Jaxon Lawson.

What begins as a straightforward interview inside Canby High School quickly becomes something more. In the quiet moments, a pattern starts to emerge — a calm confidence, an observant way of moving through pressure, and a competitive edge that doesn’t announce itself.

Through conversation and observation, Sky explores where that soft-spoken confidence comes from, and how the quiet edge shows up in performance, preparation, and presence. Once you learn to recognize it, you’ll start hearing it everywhere.