It wasn’t the year Jarrel Joye was planning on.

The former LaSalle Academy star enrolled in Central Carolina Sports Academy, a prep school in Greensboro, N.C, with the hope of expanding his game and improving his academics. Joye, however, was unable to finish what he started. The school closed its doors because of financial issues in January, 10 games into the basketball season, according to Joye. It left him without a school and an immediate direction in life.

“It was tough because I didn’t have nothing to do after that,” the athletic 6-foot-2 guard said. “My only thing was to go home and work on my game.”

Joye immersed himself in basketball. He said he got into the gym everyday and took 300 shots a trip. He knew to expand his game he had to work on his jumper, point guard skills and being more aggressive. Joye joined as many leagues as he could, even during the summer, where he is playing in EBC Rucker and Dyckman’s high school divisions. After his EBC playoff game was rained Monday night, Joye talked about playing nearly three games a day on a regular basis during the week after having organized basketball taken away from him.

“I want to get the feeling back of playing,” Joye said. “I want to get comfortable getting back into the groove. … It was tiring, but I love the game so much that I have no problem going to every game.”

The Harlem native is trying to put his short time at Central Carolina Sports Academy behind him. He said he rarely tells be people he was there, usually just mentioning LaSalle and that he will being heading to Polk State College, a JUCO in Orlando, this fall. Joye is LaSalle’s all-team leading scorer with 1,331 points. He will go down in history as one of the best Cardinal players ever along with Ron Artest, God Shammgod and Lenny Cooke.

But when asked about his time there, Joye doesn’t look backward, but at what’s yet to be accomplished. He talked about earning a Division I scholarship as the ultimate end to his basketball journey, the thing that would make everything he has faced all worth it. Polk had interest in him in high school, but felt he wasn’t ready and needed to get his grades in order. He leaves for Orlando on Saturday and already knows what his first priority is if he is going to reach his athletic goals.

“I’m very excited,” Joye said. “I’m ready to work hard and do what I got to do to pass my classes. I’m getting a tutor as soon as I get there.”