<![CDATA[Dallas Diesel SPORTS Club

When she received it, Parris Rawls was too overwhelmed with emotion to put the uniform on.
The Shoemaker point guard, who will be a senior this fall, began to realize her opportunity was fast approaching, and she was overcome by its prestige.
Rawls was selected to represent Team USA as a member of the U19 basketball team that will compete in the 2017 United World Games in Germany, Austria and Italy on June 18-28.
For Rawls, donning the Red, White and Blue colors was special.

“I’m excited, but I’m nervous, too,” Rawls said. “At the beginning, when I first got the call, I didn’t believe it. Well, I believed it, but it wasn’t real to me.

“Now that I’m leaving in a few days, it’s becoming real. I want to be the best I can be. It took a while for them to get me to put the uniform on, and I didn’t even look at it while we were taking pictures. “When I went to take it off, I was like, ‘I can’t take it off. I don’t want to take it off.’”

Rawls was selected for more than just her ability on the court. Student-athletes selected to represent their country in the United World Games are picked from a national pool based on athletics, leadership ability and character.

Off the court, Rawls’ resume is prestigious. She was selected for the Military Youth of the Year award at the Bronco Youth Center on Fort Hood, she was selected as the Volunteer Youth of the Year on Fort Hood, she was president of the Keystone Club and selected as the Keystone Club Youth of the Year.

Rawls was also nominated to attend the 2017 National Youth Leadership Forum for national security, diplomacy, intelligence and defense in Washington, D.C. Since August, she has committed over 100 hours of her personal time to community service, as well.

“When I first started with community service, I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Rawls said. “I didn’t feel like our voice matters, but then I didn’t even realize when I started to like it. When I look back on it and see what all I’ve done, I think it’s fun. “It’s fun, at the end of the day, to help somebody. It feels good to know you helped somebody, and they even help me in a way.”

Naturally, anxiety was initially present for Rawls when she was selected for the team. After all, she was about to meet eight other girls she will be teaming up with to represent the country. But social media has helped ease that stress.“Some of the pressure has been taken off of me,” Rawls said. “I haven’t actually met the team, but we’ve talked. We created a group chat, and we’ve seen each other and talked through social media.
“That was a way for us to start getting comfortable with one another before we got there.”

Oddly enough, Rawls wasn’t really into basketball, or athletics as a whole, until her sixth-grade year.
“To be honest, basketball wasn’t even an option,” Rawls said. “It wasn’t even on the radar. Before that, I wasn’t really doing anything.”

Rawls began playing basketball for a church program, and things quickly changed.
“They put me in that program, and we all saw that this was meant for me,” Rawls said. “I just kept going, and in seventh grade I decided, ‘Yeah — this is what I want to do.’ I didn’t know where I wanted to go with it, but I knew it was what I wanted to do. “Ever since then, I’ve just been holding onto it.” Along with competing for the Lady Grey Wolves during the school year, Rawls has been competing in select basketball in Dallas while working with Lonzo Cobaris at the Bronco Youth Center when she is in Killeen.

Rawls’ father, Joe McCray, served 6 1/2 years in the Army. Seeing his daughter earn the opportunity to don the colors and compete in a world competition was special to him.

“Just for her to be able to wear the uniform and to carry the American flag, with me being in the military previously — she’s definitely doing her part,” McCray said. “For her to be able to wear that United States flag on her back, that means a lot to me in itself. Just watching her from the time she started to the where she is now, I’ve seen a change.
“She went from someone who didn’t want to practice and having to make her practice, and now she works hard. She’s got the motivation and she works hard every time she hits the floor. We try to keep her grounded, because she’s good, but there’s always somebody else out there working hard. “There’s nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it.”

As she prepares to head to Europe, Rawls found it hard to find the right words to express how she feels. “I just want to embrace it,” Rawls said. “I can’t put it into one word, because it’s so much. This is the best opportunity, one of the steps I’m taking to get to where I want to be. “I’m just blessed. That’s the word — blessed.”