Who reps dope across the spectrum? Ribet Academy High’s 5-11 guard Yurizel Funes is that sweet shooting kid that will meet any challenge. 100.
Example? She had the guts to move to LA as a 14 year old from El Salvador to engage the opportunity of living her dream, even if to do so it meant leaving her beloved country and everything she had known.
This kid is like fam to E-Woods because I have relatives living in El Salvador.
When I met Y-Funes as a soph last year I told her I needed to start jokingly calling her “shorty.” I told her I might have to slip her some HGH to help her grow like Lionel Messi did after taking it.
Your humble writer E-Woods is straight up 6 feet 5 inches tall so I told Yuri that she’s the reverse of that height number, being only a lil bit taller than 5 feet 6 inches tall. “You want to borrow a few inches?” I chided her.
I told Yuri I grew like 6 inches from 5-6 to 6-foot in my 5th to 6th grade summer. Yuri def got last laugh. Dude, she grew from 5-6 to 5-11 in this past year. Crazy, right?
Because Yuri is so sweet, so social, dresses fly, is full to the brim with swag you might assume she’s just a dumb jock? Wrong. Girl has a straight up 4.4 GPA along with tight SAT scores as she wants to be a marketing or accounting major in college.
She’s hearing from Ivy League hoop programs, especially Cornell as of late.
Well, you might say, sorry Yuri, my lane is being a techie. I have that over you, right? Nope again, she has it like that too because this girl “nerds out” in that area too.
Hah, Yuri is grindin’ in the science lab and was on the freaking world champion prep team, Team Formula, in robotics construction competition taking down country after country. So she’ll bust you up in the b-ball court, and then bust you up by making a better Robo Cop.
She’s proud of her country and is skilled enough to play for El Salvador’s Junior National Team. Seeing her ball excites me like when I used to watch Salvadoran great soccer player Magico Gonzales. I can offer no higher compliment.
Yuri is like today’s version of a versitle Bo Jackson because, get this, she is also a world class hip hop performer for an elite dance team that travels world wide collecting win after win. What can’t this girl do?
To know her is to love her.
She helped play a good role 2 years ago for her Ribet High team when it was then an impressive top 25 ranked team nationally.
This year? Y-Funes gave her prep high school comp the 30 ball some games, sometimes the 40 ball to average like 18 ppg a game.
How does she play on court E-Woods? Her game is predicated off of slipping through screens, outside shooting, pull up J’s, and a hard driving mentality. She’s improving her PG handle and ever improving as a 5-11 distributor.
Now do you get a sense of the all-around dope person she is? I’ll let her explain her mentality, “Moving to LA was so shocking for me at age 14. Having to get used to the different culture, to master the language and keep my grades really high made me nervous.
“I was sad to not have family here but my school became my new family. My hosts Maria Rojas and Marlene Arteaga, along with so many supportive people along the way, have filled my heart with hope. So the opportunity was worth moving here.
“My dad Alex played basketball at Briar Cliff University in Iowa and just got inducted into their hall of fame so I’m trying to follow in his footsteps to be good at basketball in the US. My mom Yurizel studied medicine and is a doctor in El Salvador.
“Both my parents reminded me to be wise here. They love me enough to realize they want the best for me, that success comes from hard work and sacrifice. So making them proud is all-important to me on this journey. I appreciate all the many people that care for me.”
Really want to know Yuri? Feel her spirit in the Macklemore Wing$ song lyrics, which rep her love of her dream:
“I was trying to fly without leaving the ground, 'cause I wanted to be like Mike, right
Wanted to be him, I wanted to be that guy, I wanted to touch the rim
I wanted to be cool, and I wanted to fit in,
I wanted what he had, America, it begins.”
So it begins, but where will her journey end? Feel more of the Macklemore lyrics:
“I wanna fly
Can you take me far away
Gimmie a star to reach for
Tell me what it takes
And I'll go so high
I'll go so high
My feet won't touch the ground
Stitch my wings
And pull the strings
I bought these dreams
That all fall down.”
#believe in Yuri, believe in dreams
You can tell that anywhere Yuri is she’s the life of the party, whether she’s doing basketball or track and field for Ribet Academy. She’s the first to point to a teammate that gives her an assist in game and she’ll have fun. Lil inside jokes like gently pulling her teammate’s hair to celebrate, it’s all fun being her teammate.
Beyond fun, Yuri is serious in her business of setting up a terrific future in college.
When I think of this quality youngster I think she represents the best of us in a mad, mad, at times bad world where the media too often focuses on the Salvadoran street gangs like the MS 18 street gang founded by Salvadorans living in downtown LA in the early 80’s.
I know legions of Salvadorans and the bigger picture that needs to be told is that 99% of hard working immigrants are law abiding good people. They’re humans like you and I, most just want to embrace the fabric of the American Dream and be embraced back.
I even to this day have so many relatives living in El Salvador.
Before being your humble b-ball writer, E-Woods was a Latin American history major in college from 90-94. In the 1980’s the communist revolution had the US government sending a million dollars a day to prop up a military centered government that used death squads to punish revolutionaries and prevent communism from spreading.
The current government made peace with the revolutionaries and its army isn’t allowed to use heavy weapons to thwart the devastating organized gangs that control so much in the country.
In the capital of San Salvador at least 10 innocent people are killed each day. Kids, elderly, regular Joe’s are shot and chopped up over something as trivial as “Give me your bicycle.” Sadly, life is cheap there.
Me? I’ve had relatives shot to death for nothing other than walking into their apartment complex when gangsters are in a bad mood.
Those gangs employ many tactics: kidnapping, having a wife sign up her husband for life insurance, then killing him for the money, then killing the wife to tie up loose ends. El Salvador was the jewel of Central America in the 1970’s, a vibrant, fun loving people in a country that tourists flocked to like in Costa Rica nowadays.
So when I say that Yuri appreciates the opportunity to be here, that she works fantastically hard, you know what I mean.
Even though there are great difficulties in Yuri’s home country of El Salvador, its incoming president Nayib Bukele has charisma, a plan, and seems to make all those around him feel that things will hopefully improve.
More than a baller, Yurizel Funes is “hope you can believe in.” Get to know her, you sense she’ll be a transformational person that makes a difference. Off the charts with her swag, Yuri uplifts me with her energy like a Barrack Obama type person.
I asked Yuri what she wants people to know about her. She said, “I care for people. This world is our chance to better others’ lives. That me helping others as we grow, I’m repaying the kindness of others.”
Maybe Yuri will grow up to be a well off benefactor and support youngsters as does El Salvador’s Fesabal president Yamil Bukele, brother of the country’s incoming president, or a generous patron of kids’ sports like ProBasket president Juan Pablo Samour.
Those are dope guys, real ones that make sports possible for deserving kids.
Yuri needs to be known not just as an exciting player to watch, but that special person if you’re lucky to get to know. She will stay in your heart forever. 100.
So check out her competitive AAU Under Armour sponsored team, West Coast Elite, the 17 and under division.
Who is Yurizel Funes? She’s a game changer, in more ways than one!