At the beginning of the summer before he entered ninth grade, Ryder Frost made a decision that changed his future. A sports-obsessed child growing up in Beverly, Mass., Frost had played everything, from baseball to flag football. But now, he wanted to focus on just one.
He chose basketball.
Ryder’s father, Brady, said that his son had mentioned doing this before. But this time, he was more serious than ever. He wanted to commit solely to basketball, initially, because his older brother Brennan was going to be a senior at Beverly High and he wanted to be good enough to play with him as a freshman. But Ryder – who ultimately went on to star at Phillips Exeter before committing to Notre Dame last year – was also fueled by the desire to never look back on his career with regrets. He wanted to pour everything he had into reaching his potential with basketball.
“I said, I’ll help you every step of the way, but this is up to you,” Brady recalled. “You have to do the work and you have to do the things laid in front of you. It’s totally up to you. If you have a dream, go after it.”
