LAKELAND, Fla. — Don’t let the scale or age of Anyla “A.P.” Parker idiot you.
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“I first began taking part in as quickly as I might stroll,” Parker stated.
At 11-years-old, the fifth-grader is the start line guard for the woman’s varsity basketball group at Excel Christian Academy.
“Typically I’m somewhat nervous taking part in in opposition to them as a result of they’re big, quick and powerful,” Parker instructed ABC Motion Information sports activities anchor Kyle Burger. “However I simply rise above the emotion and that’s what braveness is admittedly.”
She additionally performs in opposition to boys on her AAU group.
“The boys are amazed, ‘I didn’t know she might ball.’”
Parker is fairly clear about what she desires to attain through the years and she or he is taking goal at some large desires.
“The largest dream is to dunk in sixth grade. That’s considered one of them. The largest one is to be within the NBA and WNBA,” she stated. “I really feel like we must be equal in basketball. We must be getting paid the identical quantity, handled the identical means.”
Earlier this season, she set the varsity file by scoring 31 factors in a sport. Her slick on-court dribbling expertise have made her must-see viewing on social media.
“Her crossovers,” teammate Soraya Sobres stated. “When she will get the ball in her arms and crosses anyone over that’s in all probability my ‘wow’ second.”
“I’ve by no means seen a child like her in-person play with the ability stage for her age,” Excel head coach Ty Hodges stated. “She’s somewhat large for her age so bodily she will deal with it. The maturity on the courtroom, how she talks to her teammates, you might see she was particular.”
Parker is the daughter of two basketball gamers, her mother Nadine Serrano can be her assistant coach.
“Ever since she was younger, me and her mother each put a basketball in her arms,” her father Tony Parker stated. “We prepare on a regular basis. It’s pure. That’s what we do.”
“My mother and father purchased me a basketball hoop for my first birthday,” Parker stated. “As quickly as I opened it, I grabbed the ball dunked it.”
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