Committing to Link Year Prep at the beginning of January, senior Markell Hood said he is looking forward to taking a year to mature as a basketball player and young adult. 

“[Going to Link Year Prep will help] me mature as a young man and as a young adult and [help] me just get stronger and better at basketball,” Hood said. “It gives me an extra boost before I head off to college.”

In terms of the benefits of choosing Link Year Prep specifically, Hood said going to Link Year will teach him important skills and habits for his future.

As for how a prep school works, Hood said that athletes travel a lot, take a few classes and play a lot of basketball. 

Despite his excitement to play basketball at the next level, Hood said that as of now his main goal is to finish off the high school basketball season with another state title win. 

“Any high school player’s dream [is] to win state,” Hood said. “But my goal is [that] we are going to win state and [I will] help my team do the best that we can to win state.” 

After his win in the 6A state quarterfinal game against Lawrence Free State, Hood’s senior season came to a close after KSHSAA cancelation of the state tournaments due to COVID-19.

“It feels really bad and disappointing because we deserved it and we worked all year for it, six days a week, we worked all year for it,” Hood said. “We wanted to get the younger guys a ring and finish our senior year a state champion. And now we have to share the title with four other schools, it sucks.”

Hood said if the Huskies would have continued playing in the tournament, they would ended their season as state champions.

“Everyone knows that if we got a chance to play those next to games, we probably would’ve taken it home,” Hood said.