She’s the first one on the basketball court and the last one off.

Delran High School senior Riley Ahrens can do it all.

“I like for basketball you’re always moving, you’re always doing something and it takes a lot of IQ,” said Riley.

Her ability to do it all, doesn’t just mean dribble, score and get stops on defense, its what Riley does off the court that makes her special.

“It all started last year when we had an incident at our school, we lost a classmate and it really just impacted me personally,” she said.

The student who took his own life was a player on the boys basketball team, so Riley got the girls team together to not only honor his memory but also to raise awareness. They made shirts that say… ‘its ok to not be ok’ and had the teams they were playing join in them in wearing purple and teal, the colors of suicide prevention while also raising money for the cause.

“It was just hard to see everyone in the school just sad, and upset and I really just felt like I needed to do something about it because it felt like we couldn’t just sit here and ignore it and forget about it,” said Riley.

“She commands the ball on the floor, but she does so many things off the court that its just, theres not a lot of kids that are that mature,” said her coach, Jon Repece.

Repece says she’s a leader on and off the court.

“She does such a good job of setting the tone for practices for the younger kids in our program and even her classmates—she’s just a phenomenal leader,” he said.

It’s no surprise Riley is up for a big honor. She’s one of 10 finalists for The Jersey Mike’s Naismith High School Basketball Courage Award. Hundreds of players were nominated across the country for this prestigious award that honors the work high school student athletes do off the court. If Riley wins, she gets $2,000 for her school and another $2,000 just for her. 

“I think its really awesome that there rewarding athletes for doing more than just what they do on the court because I know there’s a lot of people out there who do stand up for what they believe in,” said Riley.

Win or lose, Riley has made a big on her school, team and community.

“It’s something that only that some coaches can dream of, and I’m just very happy that for my first year as head coach to have somebody like Ri lead our team and her teammates,” said coach Repece.

The winners for the Jersey Mike’s Naismith High School Basketball Courage Award will be announced tomorrow, Wednesday, March 8th.