By his own admittance, David Brock knew his basketball playing days were likely over once he graduated high school.

However, it didn’t mean the 2009 LaFayette High graduate was prepared to give up the sport he loved for good.

Today, the 21-year-old University of Alabama senior juggles his days and nights between working toward his secondary education degree and serving on the staff of the Crimson Tide’s men’s basketball team, with hopes of becoming a graduate assistant next season.

“I knew high school ball would kind of be the end of the road for me,” Brock said while at home over the Christmas break. “I had been interested in working with the (Alabama) team since I graduated at LaFayette, but they had just hired a new head coach and they didn’t have any openings at the time, so I put it on the back burner for a while.”

But Brock didn’t give up on his dream, and in the summer after his junior year, he contacted the team’s graduate assistants and was invited to work a couple of basketball camps at the school.

Shortly thereafter, while at a wedding in Missouri, Brock got a call from an Alabama assistant coach, asking if he was still interested in joining the staff.

“Definitely,” Brock replied.

He said his welcome-to-the-team moment happened soon after joining the staff.

“I walked into the basketball office to see (head) Coach (Anthony) Grant, told the receptionist who I was and sat down in the lobby to wait,” he recalled. “She told me I didn’t have to wait and to go on in because I was part of the family now.

“You watch these guys play for years, then all of a sudden you’re talking to them and part of the team. It’s really a great experience.”

That’s not to say it’s all fun and games, though. Brock said the job can be “nerve-wracking” at times.

“If you’ve never been around Coach Grant, he can be a little intimidating sometimes,” he said with a chuckle. “Early on, I didn’t understand the flow of practice and I didn’t know some of the drills. The coaches went ballistic until they learned I was the new guy. Still, I made it a point to learn everything pretty fast.”

Brock says he has the hang of things now, however, and from breaking down film to video coordinating to recruiting, he says his main job is to do anything that makes the job a little easier for more veteran members of the coaching staff.

On game days in Tuscaloosa, Brock says he’s there some four to five hours early to open the gym for the Tide’s opponents, show them around the facilities, and make them feel comfortable.

Then after the games, it’s usually another couple of hours breaking down charts for the team’s post players, logging data into the computer and printing out information for the coaches.

“Coach Grant is big on stats,” he explained. “Even during practice, I’m keeping stats on a lot of things. I never realized how much work goes into it all. There’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes to make it all move like a well-oiled machine.

“I still would like to be a teacher one day, but this is the direction I want to go now that I have my foot in the door. I love it. I want to keep moving up the ladder, and I’d love to be the man running the show one day. I just have to keep jumping through hoops and working hard.”

Brock adds that he has advice for those who are interested in working with a college team after high school.

“The main thing is just to contact someone in the program, show your face around, and let them know you are interested,” he said. “Volunteer to work over the summer and things like that. It may be a little intimidating at first, especially if you don’t know anyone at the school, but the worse they can do is say no. Just hang around long enough and you never know where it may lead you.”