{"id":57395,"date":"2017-04-27T09:42:34","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T14:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=57395"},"modified":"2017-04-27T09:42:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T14:42:34","slug":"basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball brings opportunity to West Side high schooler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Lauren Baker and Peter Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Basketball is everything for\u00a0Michael Flenory. The West Side native started playing in the sixth grade. Since then, the sport has given him structure, introduced him to new people and allowed him to travel across\u00a0the country.<\/p>\n<p>Now 16, Michael plays for Uplift Community High School and the Chicago Raptors, an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team. Like many young Chicago basketball players, Michael has big dreams for the future. His goal is to attend the University of Iowa on a basketball scholarship. Michael&#8217;s mom Cassandra Bernard hopes he can even make it to the NBA.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Basketball Brings Opportunity to West Side High Schooler\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/214782794?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Michael Flenory dribbles the ball at his AAU team practice. (Lauren Baker\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lauren Baker and Peter Jones Basketball is everything for\u00a0Michael Flenory. The West Side native started playing in the sixth grade. Since then, the sport has given him structure, introduced him to new people and allowed him to travel across\u00a0the country. Now 16, Michael plays for Uplift Community High School and the Chicago Raptors, an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":357,"featured_media":57396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Basketball brings opportunity to West Side high schooler - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Basketball brings opportunity to West Side high schooler - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lauren Baker and Peter Jones Basketball is everything for\u00a0Michael Flenory. The West Side native started playing in the sixth grade. Since then, the sport has given him structure, introduced him to new people and allowed him to travel across\u00a0the country. Now 16, Michael plays for Uplift Community High School and the Chicago Raptors, an [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-27T14:42:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/04\/Screen-Shot-2017-04-25-at-11.26.08-PM.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2531\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1410\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"peterjones2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"peterjones2017\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"peterjones2017\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6fd906df6084a7b2e242e72974588e59\"},\"headline\":\"Basketball brings opportunity to West Side high schooler\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-27T14:42:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":128,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2017\\\/04\\\/Screen-Shot-2017-04-25-at-11.26.08-PM.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/basketball-brings-opportunity-to-west-side-high-schooler\\\/\",\"name\":\"Basketball brings opportunity to West Side high schooler - 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