Biever selected for international tourney

Jacob Biever never thought basketball would lead to a future. The Yuma High senior just kept improving himself out of love for the game.

Now that work ethic is about to pay off.

Biever has an offer to take his game at the next level from a four-year private college out of state, and in the meantime, the 6-foot guard has been selected to play in the prestigious USA Junior Nationals International Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio from July 21 to 27.

Biever impressed with his play at the USA Junior Nationals all-state high school basketball competition in Las Vegas was one of 30 players chosen from a pool of about 100 to compete at the big basketball showcase in Ohio. At the international sports festival he will see competition from the majority of states and Canada.

"I think it would really just be a fun experience. There's not many times you get things in mail for you to play at that high level," Biever said. "I've always been working so hard to get up there with everyone else to play at that level, so it never really donned on me that I could actually hang. And now I'm competing, so it's fun."

The USA Junior Nationals event would provide Biever instruction from college coaches, networking opportunities with college scouts in attendance and play against top-level competition.

But in order to make the trip, he will need a little financial assistance. After paying the event's fees, he said he still needs about $3,000 for transportation, lodging and other fees in order to participate. Registration is due by June 15.

Biever was a first-team All Gila Valley Region selection his senior season, was the Criminals' second-leading scorer at 10 a game and won the region's 3-point shootout.

Since he finished his last year of high school ball, he has been working to improve his defense and speed, while trying to get his jump shot to be almost "auotomatic" in order to prepare for the next level.

"Nobody ever wants to go out to the track and do sprints for a couple hours," Biever said. "It's tasking, but because of being in Yuma, all the naysayers are like, 'well there's really no point in doing that because you might not make it anyway.' It just makes me want to improve so I can prove them wrong."

Biever said he is open to donations or sponsorships from local businesses or help in organizing any type of fundraising activities.

If you want to help, Biever can be contacted at 446-8317 or biever3@aol.com.

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Derrik Miller can be reached at
dmiller@yumasun.com or 782-6520.