Every basketball player is looking for a big break. When Evan Bailey got his, though, it was a little disappointing. A compound fracture in his femur wasn’t exactly the break the seventh grader had been hoping for.

It did, however, lead to a breakthrough: It was during his rehabilitation that he realized what he wanted to do with his life. Shrugging off his childhood dream of being a zookeeper, Bailey decided he wanted to become an orthopedic surgeon.

“My surgeon walked me through every step of the process and really helped my comeback,” recalls Bailey, who recovered from his injury and returned to the basketball court better than ever. “Since then, I wanted to be like him. I want to help kids the same way he helped me.”

Fast forward to the end of his senior year at Jackson High School in Canton, Ohio, and Bailey had set a handful of school records, including the all-time career leader in three-pointers made (166) and three-pointers made in a single game (8). He also had a 4.6 GPA and offers to attend Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Miami of Ohio, Kent State and Toledo. After much thought, however, he chose the Honors College at the College of Charleston.

Now a rising junior majoring in chemistry, Bailey has made a name for himself as a Cougar student-athlete. He is one of the College’s Presidential Scholars and Academic Merit Scholars. And, after receiving a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant earlier this year, he was chosen to conduct research with chemistry professor Brooke Van Horn. In between his research in organic chemistry and classes this summer, Bailey is also volunteering in a medical shadowing program at a local hospital.

And that’s not all: Bailey continues to excel on the basketball court, as well. This past season alone, he registered eight double-figure scoring games and was the Cougars’ fourth-leading scorer, averaging 6.4 points per game. He was also one of five players to play all 31 games during the 2015–16 season. In March, he was named to the 2016 College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-District Men’s Basketball Team, which recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes.

Bailey admits it’s not easy to play sports and maintain a high grade point average. He says you have to find a balance between scholastics and athletics to make sure you get your needed study time.

“You have to schedule your time correctly because there is not a lot of downtime,” he says. “Whenever you have time, you learn not to let it slip away.”

And even though he is only two years into his collegiate career, Bailey’s not letting any time slip away: He’s already looking ahead, researching medical schools in South Carolina and Massachusetts, and hopes to start narrowing down his search soon.

And so, even when he does have a little break, don’t expect any lollygagging from Bailey. He knows from experience that, if you play things right, the best break can lead to a breakthrough.