Hamilton native Dana Raysor plays for high school basketball power St. Patrick’s. (Photo by John Leaver.)

Hamilton resident Dana Raysor has given up a lot to play basketball for one of the most prestigious high school teams in the country. But the passion Raysor has for basketball made the choice to travel almost 50 miles every day to St. Patrick’s High School in Elizabeth all the easier.

For three years, he would wake up at 5 a.m., take the train to school, do his school work, have practice and return by 10 p.m. to go to bed before doing it all again.

Now, the 6-foot-3 senior guard stays with his head coach during the week. This makes the task of being a student and a player for St. Patrick’s more manageable. He returns to Hamilton on Saturdays.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

“St. Pat’s will push you … you can’t go by watching the game, you got to be in the practice and see the way they push you, every coach pushes you,” Raysor said. “I don’t think schools in Hamilton did that; they probably would let me do whatever I want as long as we get the win, and that’s not what I want. St. Pat’s is not about that. They want to make you into the best player you could be, make sure you get your scholarship and make sure you’re happy.”

St. Patrick’s won the state Tournament of Champions in 2006, 2007 and 2009, and has been regularly ranked among the Top 25 high school programs in the country by media outlets, such as ESPN and USA Today. The school—and Raysor—was recently featured in the HBO documentary “Prayer for a Perfect Season.”

On pace to graduate this spring, Raysor hopes to continue his playing in college and then professionally, either in the NBA or overseas. As if to prove his point about St. Patrick’s, Raysor has received interest from coaches at Division I college programs at Quinnipiac, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Wichita State and the University of San Francisco, among others. He wants to earn a degree in communications in college.

Raysor played football before settling into basketball once he realized it could change his life by allowing him to go to school for free, travel the world and experience new things.

“I really made the decision to take off in basketball my 8th grade year because I stopped playing football my 7th grade year, and I realized I can take this far in basketball and I can really do something with this ball, this ball can change my life,” he said. “So that right there was the point where I said I’ll take this seriously and put my heart into it.”

Some tried to influence Raysor to attend one of the Hamilton high schools but an opportunity to go to St. Patrick’s led him to make a sacrifice many teenagers wouldn’t.

“I came to the decision my 8th grade year to expand my game so schools started to look at me. They wanted me to go to Steinert but I know they couldn’t reach my full potential and push me to the level St. Patrick could push me,” Raysor said. “I thought about that, lots of times me and mother would always say, why didn’t you go to Hamilton, or Steinert, and I was like … I could of but everything would have been easy, I wouldn’t have to work for anything. Waking up at 5 o’ clock … that makes you work so once I get older and when I’m done with basketball I could push myself to do other things. If I went to Steinert, I’d be lazy probably. The school is right there.”

Practice in addition to school work takes a heavy toll on his social life, but he said going to St. Patrick’s is teaching him great discipline that won’t only make him a better player on the court, but a better person as well.

“It takes a big toll on my social life because I have friends out here and I can’t really hang with them, chill with them, and I have friends in North Jersey that I can’t hang with because basketball takes up everything,” Raysor said. “It’s a sacrifice you got to take with it. It comes with the territory.

“I think it was the best move for me personally, I think it’s turned me into a better person, I’m on time with things, I know how to schedule stuff, I know how to make my own, plan my own decisions. I know at the end of the day it’s going to pay off.”