About Me
Hi, my name is Rilewa and this is my crazy attempt at bringing my biggest passions into one place with the hopes that I can create a community that I can share those passions with and learn from! I love watching, playing, coaching, and analysing sports and it feels so natural to me that I feel selfish keeping those insights and ideas to myself! I also love writing – I did write about 60 essays over the course of my Undergrad and Masters Philosophy degrees after all so that is a given really. And what is the best way to bring a love for sports and writing together? Writing about sports! And that is what this website will predominantly be for; I may delve a little into some philosophy or popular culture (so look out for that) but ultimately I want this to be a place where sports fans can get their sports fix from an authentic and passionate source!
My Story
It’s difficult to know what to do with yourself when you are interested in so much and have had experience in so many different areas but this is proof that there is something that makes sense for everybody. I have gone from thinking I’d be a professional in some sport to thinking university and a regular 9-5 was going to be my life, to regaining a belief in myself and the skills I have to start publishing videos and articles. But there is no easy path that is truly worth taking and this experience is evidence of that. I have been told not to spend time on these projects, to not worry about making it in sports, to not go to university, to start applying to desk jobs while I was still in school, and all of that advice has led me here. You have to be somewhat crazy to carry yourself thinking that you can just make something of yourself but I have never really been normal! And for anyone else holding back in anyway, you might as well gives yourself the chance to be who you know you can be before giving in to what you think you’re ‘supposed to do’.
And it just makes sense that I would write and talk about sports. There has to be some outlet for the 5 different ideas I have when I watch a pick and roll, or the 10 thoughts that fire through my head when I watch a right-back decide not to take the overlap and stick with the ball carrier. Surely there is somewhere I can put these ideas right? It just makes sense.
My experiences in sport
When I was 8 I started playing tennis and I was actually pretty good. I used to watch tennis with my parents a lot and Roger Federer was my favourite player so I asked to sign up immediately. And I think I was pretty decent to begin because I learn a lot from watching other people play so I just tried everything Roger did (like slicing everything, playing drop-shots, inside-out forehands, and only ever learning the one-hand backhand) and eventually I became pretty good. I wasn’t wining county and borough tournaments like some people, but I was definitely on track to become something of a tennis player. But when I was 12, I dropped tennis for a multitude of reasons. I couldn’t get to my club sessions after school anymore and I wanted to play sports with all of my closest friends instead of the kids at tennis that I didn’t even know. That’s where football took over. I joined one of my best friend’s teams (playing a year up) and was completely overwhelmed. I was playing with kids a year or two older than me and I had only ever played football on the school playground – this was somehow deeper than the deep end. But over time, I actually started to play well and became a big contributor to the team. I was somehow going into games as a 13 year old thinking that those 14 and 15 year olds couldn’t hang with me. But while football was becoming my safe space, I started getting into basketball (NBA 2K15 convinced me really). I didn’t play much, but when I wasn’t playing football or video games, I was playing basketball – which will be very important when I get to my latter years.
Anyway, at 14 I eventually made the switch to the football team that I had wanted to join since before my tennis days and it was (at the time) the greatest sporting experience I’d had. Tough preseason training, personalised training gear, uniform arrivals to games, the whole nine yards. Every game had the same set of parents and fans cheering us on and we were a really good team. In this team I learned A LOT about football and the way it works. I had previously been a midfielder (in a midfield 3) but my new manager had me playing as a centreback in a back 3. At first, I didn’t understand why he thought I couldn’t play in midfield but after a few games it started to make sense to me. It wasn’t primarily that I couldn’t play there, but being at the back meant I could use my physicality and defensive instincts to help the team more, but also being in a back 3 meant that I could step into midfield and use my long passing and line-breaking from a deeper position with more time to make decisions. With each game resulting in great performances, I learned so much about the game and that quick learning has been a staple in my sporting career ever since. I have a weird ability to pick things up really quickly when I see them happen and having so many good performances in a row meant that a new position and a new understanding of the game became natural to me in an abnormally short amount of time. So, to my old coach, Mark, I cannot thank you enough!
But just as quickly as I joined the team, I moved from London to Norwich. I left it all behind. My friends, family, teams, school, and even my happiness. It was the most difficult time of my life for sure, I just didn’t know who I was or what to do. So, sports became even more important to me; it was my escape from my wider problems. In Norwich, basketball is not a big deal, so football was my only real outlet and I poured everything into that. I took what I had learned in London and returned to midfield but with a better understanding of how the game works and what I could do to help myself succeed. And in the grand scheme of things, moving to Norwich was probably the best thing for my development. The standard wasn’t as high, but I was able to reinvent myself in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible in London. I was able to play the way I wanted and improve in the ways I wanted to. I was eventually able to represent Norfolk county as a 15 year old and although I didn’t play much, I again learned a lot from the players who did. That experience helped me transition into a COVID-shortened U18 season in which I scored 7 goals in 8 games and was the joint top scorer when the season was voided.
But U18 was where my competitive football career ended. I went to the University of Nottingham and fell out of love with the game mainly due to off-field issues. Even making the team as one of the 16/600 trialists was confirmation that I had come a long way from the lanky 14 year-old begging to play in midfield and for me, knowing I had progressed so much was enough for my to switch lanes.
When I said earlier that my love for basketball would be important later, here is why. Although I played for the football team, I did trial for the basketball team and was given a place on the 3rd team. So, when I left the football team, I was lucky enough to still have that spot and jumped right in. Basketball, to this day, is not natural for me but at 18 I really had no idea what I was doing. I couldn’t dribble, shoot, make good decisions, anything to be honest. But that is what I love about life, and sports in particular, being bad at something and becoming good. It was just like tennis, football, cricket, or athletics for me; I wasn’t good but knew I could be eventually. Fast forward 4 years and I had two degrees, had captained my teams fore three years straight, was Vice President of the club for a year and President for two more. We had taken the club out of a £15,000 hole and for my efforts on the court I had won club MVP in my 3rd and 4th years. Sport is representative of life in a way; you may have no idea what the hell is going on at first, but you can eventually become good enough at something that you are the one setting the agenda!
So, that takes me to today. I have experienced a lot in sport and a lot of sports! Learning the things I have about the way sports work underneath the surface and how interesting those things are, has led me here. Wanting to talk about sports for a living. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you don’t need to be talented to do well, I would be ignorant to say that I don’t have a great athletic gifts, but it isn’t those gifts that have allowed me to do well. It is the studying of strategy, defenses, plays, and all the intricacies that did the heavy lifting. And now I want to share those insights with you guys!
Why create a website?
In 2024, I started my YouTube channel, Reasoning with Rao. In 2025, I started my podcast, The Reasons Podcast, as well as a Substack page. All of these outlets where places that I could express my creative nature, the things I learned in school, or the sporting opinions that I have. Ultimately, having so many streams of content is great, but having my own website to post to was the kind of thing I dreamed of when I first began creating content. Even designing this werbiste brought me so much joy and I’m sure that will only grow as I create posts and grow the site. I know there will be things I do poorly, ort even wrong, but that’s the fun of it. Just like I said with sport, you can only get good after once being bad.
Essentially, this acts as a central hub for all the things that I want to do creatively. Some may only read the articles and see it as a blog, some may engage with the videos and see it as a sports analysis page, some may engage with everything because they value my insight and this see it as a personal brand. But whoever you are, I hope this website has value for you and with the variety of content I will bring here, it should be able to.
I hope you enjoy reading, listening, and engaging with everything I post here and I am excited to share the millions of ideas floating around in my head with you all!
