High School Look Back: Pedro Bradshaw (Russellville)

Although his high school career has come to an end, Russellville High School’s Pedro Bradshaw can reminisce on an exceptional run throughout his four years of prep basketball. As many players do, they are thrown with many ups and downs, but, like Bradshaw, they battle through those times and find ways to be successful. Bradshaw not only grew as a player, but he also grew as a person, which is the best part. "My high school career was a rollercoaster ride, as most are," Bradshaw said. "Plenty of wins and losses and ups and downs. But overall, I enjoyed it thoroughly. My teammates really made things amazing for me. We all had been playing together since 4th grade so each of the seniors all had grown together and have really come a long way just from the learning aspect as a whole." Bradshaw, who will go down as not only one of the top players in Russellville history but in the entire 4th Region, averaged 22.5 points and 13.3 rebounds per game in 2016-17. As he was putting up big numbers, he and his fellow Panthers went 22-12 overall and made it all the way to the 4th Region Tournament championship game, where they fell to Bowling Green. "Our team made history this year, Bradshaw stated. "We got to our first Class A State Final Four, another 20-plus win season and also got to the 4th Region championship game for the first time since 2001. As for myself, I became only the second 1,000 career rebounder in our school's history, beat my coach's record for most rebounds all-time and became the school's all-time leading scorer. "I finished the season averaging 22.1 points and 13.1 rebounds (per game) and led the state in rebounding all season. So this season was extremely successful all-around to say the least." Following graduation, the athlete will continue to play the game he loves at Belmont, a top Division I team in the Ohio Valley Conference. But, before he moves on to college, Bradshaw has a message for the athletes still playing at the prep level:

"My message would be to enjoy every single second of it, always play hard and realize how blessed you are to be playing the game you love," the player added.