Turning sports dreams into TV reality
He's always played, but HPU's Avery Semidey is turning sports into a career
Photo: Avery Semidey
Semidey's love of sports was only enhanced by being a two-sport athlete at St. Vincent Pallotti in Upper Marlboro, Md.
By Kyle Rosenberger
Campus Chronicle
It is an exciting time for men’s basketball at High Point University, and Avery Semidey has a front row seat.
Semidey is in his first year as a team manager at HPU. It is also the first year that Hall of Fame coach Orlando “Tubby” Smith is with the program as well.
“I love working with [the team],” Semidey said in a recent interview.
As a team manager Semidey is involved with the team in many ways. He is at all of the practices, gets to interact with all of the players, and have one-on-one conversations with Tubby Smith who, he says, is a “great guy”. Basketball has been a large part of Semidey’s life and he is taking the right steps towards a future career.
“Having Tubby as a connection is a great thing to have if I want to have a career in the sports world. All of the guys are really cool. I enjoy getting to travel with them and just hanging out. After I realized I would not be able to play basketball in college, I knew I wanted to be involved with the team in some way,” Semidey said.
Along with basketball, he played plenty of other sports when he was younger. He stayed active throughout the year even though he knew his passion was in basketball.
Photo: Avery Semidey
"No matter what, I always wanted to be involved with basketball"
“I never really liked playing baseball as much as basketball and football because it was too slow,” Semidey said, “I liked the quick pace of basketball much better.”
Growing up with a single mom, Avery faced obvious challenges growing up. Even though she did not know much about sports, Semidey credits his mother as his number one supporter.
“My mom always made it seemed like I never really needed a dad but there were obviously those moments where I wanted someone to play catch with someone or take me to the batting cages and I did not have anyone to do that.”
Even from a young age, Adrienne Semidey knew her son had a future doing something with sports. There were all the right signs pointing that way.
“ At about nine years old, Avery started doing voice over work for children’s web based cartoons about drug prevention. He would have to go in the booth with his headphones on and read his scripts. During breaks, he would pretend he was a sports commentator and give reports on basketball or football games in his head. Although he has numerous academic strengths, I always knew he would have to do something sports related,” she said.
Avery Semidey
Hometown: Upper Marlboro, Md.
Major: Sports Communication
Fraternity: Kappa Alpha Psi
Favorite Movie Genre: Rom-Com
Favorite Athlete: Steph Curry
As Semidey got older, his dreams of playing collegiate basketball grew as well. He recalled being named MVP of the Gary Williams University of Maryland basketball camp at 15 years old.
“Great experience. Great players at the camp. I got a chance to meet and connect with a lot of D1 players and coaches which will hopefully help me gain the right connections as I look to build a future in collegiate basketball coach and sports reporting,” he said.
Aside from wanting to talk about sports for a living, Semidey also sees himself shaping young athletes as a coach. He remembers that there always seemed to have a coach that would not be a good coach and he wants to be the opposite of that.
“There were always some coaches would pull a player out if they make a mistake and punish them for trying to make a play and I just want to teach players that it is ok to fail. You’re always going to fail. That is the only way you can get better.”
Failure is what Semidey is driven by. He understands the necessity of it and he knows that the only way to grow is my failing and learning from your mistakes.
Semidey has taken a lot of the right steps toward following his passion. He looks forward to the rest of the basketball season and what he can learn from the coaching staff.
For more information on Semidey and to see some of his sports blogs, visit asemidey0.wixsite.com/mysite.