It’s an AAU basketball game. Thirteen seconds left, down by two. The ball is brought up the court with Woo playing decoy while his teammate, Melvin, prepares to take the shot to send it to overtime or win the game.

 
Melvin calls for a double screen at the top of the key, goes past the screen and realizes that he can’t get an open shot. He finds Woo past the three-point line and decides to pass it. Woo, with no other choice, shoots the ball and hopes for the best. The shot is directly on target, too much so in fact, and it hits the front rim. It then bounces, hits the back rim and bounces around until it miraculously goes in, giving Woo’s team the win.

 
It is another fairly typical moment for a young man for whom basketball has played a huge role. It is also a good analogy for Woo’s life, this buzzer beater shot bouncing back and forth, back and forth between the good and the bad.

 
Donnell Shaw, known by most people as Woo, is in his sophomore year, a relative newcomer to men’s basketball at JSC. As a student, he is known to be humble and easy to talk to. As a basketball player, he is known for coming off the bench to help his team during important parts in a game, a role he seems to enjoy.

 
“I’m very comfortable of coming off the bench. For me, it’s not about who starts, but who can contribute the most,” he said.

 
Woo recalls that before he could talk, his father played a song with the lyrics “woo hah, woo hah.” “My father played it so much that my first word was woo,” he said, adding that he sang the song so much that his nickname became Woo.

 
His grandmother, who took to calling him “Woo Woo,” has been a major influence on his life. “[She told me] I would play college ball, told me I was gonna be a leader, told me I wasn’t gonna be a follower,” he said, adding that those words have kept him motivated throughout his life.

 
As he grew up, he would play pickup, attend school and play AAU basketball in Washington D.C, where he is from. Amateur Athletic Union basketball is very competitive travel basketball, which attracts many college coaches looking for new talent. Woo worked hard when he played basketball, so hard that he eventually landed a scholarship to Division 1 Depaul University, home to former NBA players like Wilson Chandler and Quentin Richardson. “They sent me birthday stuff and said ‘we can’t wait for you to come out here,’” he said.

 
Basketball was going great until he tore his ACL and Depaul withdrew his scholarship, leaving him with an unexpectedly uncertain future. He regained his health and earned a workout with Cecil Community College in Baltimore, hoping to play there for a year and then earn another Division 1 scholarship.

 
Prepared for another opportunity at basketball, he traveled to Baltimore to meet the coach at Cecil, hoping to talk about his role when he joined the basketball team. The coach, knowing that he had torn his ACL, wanted to see him play for at least 30 minutes and told Woo to suit up. Without having the ability to stretch and do warmups, he played for 10 minutes and sprained his ACL, which doomed his chances at Cecil. “Forget basketball, I’m done with it all,” he said, describing his frustration.

 
Not seeing any other way to play basketball at the collegiate level, he then decided to go to the University of District of Columbia to major in business. Finding the classes difficult and unable to adapt, however, he decided to leave UDC after three semesters and worked at Starbucks as a shift supervisor to help support himself and his family until he figured out what he wanted to do with his life.

 
One day, out of the blue, Showtime, his friend from AAU basketball and member of the JSC men’s basketball team, messaged him on Facebook asking him if he would be interested in coming to Johnson to play basketball for the team. Not knowing anything about JSC or Vermont at all, he nevertheless decided to jump on the opportunity to play in January 2016, once he was able to transfer his credits and pay off his student loans.

 
The first practice he went to, players and coaches asked him what they should call him and he responded with Woo. As soon as he said it, team members began to chant “Woo Woo.” Only his grandmother, who had recently died, had referred to him this way, and he believed it was some sort of sign from her. “I almost burst out in tears because my grandmother was the only person on this planet to call me Woo Woo, and I just thought of my grandma,” he said.

 
Today, Woo is contributing to the team and wants to be a Health Sciences major. His main goal is to win the conference championship and be a strong leader to his players and his family. “I’m the oldest, and I’m setting the example for my family. You can do better than being out there on the streets,” Woo said. “You can go out there and live your dream. When I was young, all I can remember is Allen Iverson and John Thompson. Didn’t know Michael Jordan; all I knew was college basketball. I didn’t know NBA, any of that. I started watching college basketball, and it made me think that I wanted to play college ball. NBA is cool, but college basketball is where my heart is. College has always been my goal, and my brothers knew that was my goal, so I’m setting an example for my brothers. I wish I had an older brother so I can see, but I’m the example; I’m leading my younger brothers.”