Video by Ruben R. Ramirez, edited by Sarah Duenas/El Paso Times
He was but a boy, really.
Tirus Smith, now a 6-foot-9, 230-pound young man, shot some baskets in the Foster-Stevens Center Tuesday, eager and excited to begin his college basketball career at UTEP.
He smiled at the recollection. He was just getting ready to move into the ninth grade ... barely a teenager.
"That's when everything changed and that was when I stopped playing football and that was when I felt basketball was for me," Smith said, still sporting that smile.