As a young kid, Roy learned how to work hard from his mom- a single mother raising 3 kids and looking after her own mother. Roy absolutely loved sports. Playing sports, watching sports, the whole deal. Roy played baseball, basketball and soccer growing up, both for school/park league, and AAU. He stood out from other kids his age because of his skill and hand eye coordination- most likely a product of the endless hours practicing on his own at the park he grew up across the street from. Roy noticed early on that there was a big discrepancy between the level of competition and the exposure to opportunities between the ball he played in the inner cities and his experience with traveling teams. He also found that kids on his traveling teams seemed to have a lot more wealth, resources, and privellege.

Roy attended Minneapolis South High school, where he played soccer, baseball and basketball. Roy made the varsity baseball team his freshman year, and quickly realized that if he wanted to be succesful at that level, it wasn’t enough to be skilled anymore, he had to get bigger, stronger and faster.