“Courageous” and “outgoing” are two words to describe Josie Cortez. One would not expect a 5’1” spitfire like her to be a five-star basketball player, but she defies all stereotypes and expectations. “You can accomplish anything with a good positive source of inspiration,” she said. “My biggest motivation has to be my baby brother, Jude, because I want to be someone he can look up to and a positive influence on him, he drives me to be the best person I can be because he’s so important to me.”

In her short life, thus far, she has accomplished very much and has excelled in many things like basketball and golf, winning the first ever Chic-fil-ay Cup for achieving the lowest composite score in a regional golf tournament her junior year. She also won MVP and …show more content…
Josie was the epitome of a high school athlete. Her golf coach said, “Josie was a coach’s dream. Always to practice early, never complained, always wanted to do better, and be the best. Not only did she impress on the course, but off the course also with good grades and an exemplary personality.” Josie said, “I’m motivated by pressure, it makes me work well. For example, when playing basketball, I was the go-to girl. My whole team depended on me so I had to perform well, I couldn’t let my coach or the rest of my team down.

Josie is very hard on herself when it comes to excelling in sports, but has always had a positive outlook on life, especially after she experienced a car accident that could have been deadly. “When I was thirteen years old I was in a very serious car accident, we were run off the road and our truck flipped. The vehicle I was in was an inch away from hitting a gas meter. If it would have hit the gas meter we all would have died. This experience taught me to value life and live your days as you wish because life truly is too short to take for granted and to be negative,” she