In a recreation league basketball game somewhere in North Miami, Fla., 18 years ago, a young Adam Constantine formed his first memory of the game he loves.

As a loose ball made its way into the vicinity of the 5-year-old Constantine, he used his instincts to make sure the opponent closest to him couldn't get his hands on the rock.

"He was going to get it," Constantine said. "So I kicked it. Then the coach blew the whistle and said I couldn't do that. So I cried and sat on the bench."

Now more well-versed in the rules of basketball, Constantine is being paid to play the game he started to love back in the early 1990s as one of many former Elon University athletes playing sports professionally.

Finding Elon

Like Constantine, Jimmy Reyes also hails from Miami. With Reyes' family lineage in baseball, it appeared to be a sure thing that the 5-foot-10 left-hander would stay close to home to do his college pitching — both his father and grandfather attended the University of Miami. But after visiting Elon on a recruiting trip, Reyes decided he wouldn't spend his college years in Coral Gables.

"As soon as I came up to Elon, I cancelled the rest of my visits and I said, 'This is where I want to go. There's no question,'" Reyes said.

Steven Kinney went mostly unnoticed out of high school despite playing for a top-ranked regional champion club soccer team in Norcross, Ga. Elon and Wofford College were the only two Division I schools to offer him a scholarship. But a connection to Elon brought Kinney to the Phoenix and head coach Darren Powell.

"My club coach knew Darren well, so he hooked me up with him," Kinney said. "He said he knew his stuff and he sure did."

Cory Harrilchak's Elon journey was anything but linear. Rather than attending a Division I baseball program straight out of high school, the undersized outfielder instead went to two-year Surry Community College in Dobson so he could bulk up and get playing time he wouldn't see elsewhere.

After spending two years at Surry, Harrilchak committed to Elon and immediately noticed differences in both his coaches and his surroundings.

"The coaching staff at Elon really helped me get a lot better a lot quicker," Harrilchak said. "They worked with me a whole lot more. They had bigger facilities to help me improve my game in areas that needed to be improved."

Going pro and dealing with agents

Constantine's college career came to an end after Elon lost to Western Carolina March 6 , 2010, in the Southern Conference Tournament. Days after a disappointing conclusion to a record-breaking career in which he set the Elon mark for field-goal percentage at 60 percent, Constantine found happiness with agent Jamie Knox.

Knox assured the 6-foot-9 big man he would find him a deal with a professional team. Sure enough, he got Constantine his first professional contract with Rilski Sport Samokov in Bulgaria. The two remain business partners to this day.

The same can't be said about Harrilchak. After his college playing days were over, Harrilchak, whose .464 career on- base percentage is second best in school history, signed with agent Brian McCafferty after the 2009 Major League Baseball draft. McCafferty was there when the Atlanta Braves made the 5-foot- 10 outfielder their 14th round pick. But in June 2010, the prospect decided agent Damon Lapa was a better fit for him and switched agencies.

"It was an interesting experience parting ways with (McCafferty) because I had to fire him," Harrilchak said. "I'd never fired anybody in my life."

Kinney remembers exactly where he was on Jan. 14, 2010. The Elon defender celebrated in his apartment with family and friends as Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire made Kinney the 45th pick of the 2010 MLS draft.

"We watched the draft on a live feed," Kinney said. "When my name came up, it was one of the best days of my life."

After completing his junior season, Reyes knew he'd have a decision to make. Realizing he would be drafted early, he had to pick between returning to school and finishing his degree or pursuing his dream and going ahead with his professional career. When decision time came, the Texas Rangers chose Reyes in he seventh round of the 2010 MLB draft and the southpaw decided to forgo his senior season and become a professional.

"(Elon head coach Mike Kennedy) knew my best opportunity for playing was going to be to move on now," Reyes said. "The money available after your senior year is not as much. He kind of knew that it'd be better for me. I really appreciated that."

Reyes continues to take classes in the fall semester and Winter Term in pursuit of a degree in exercise science.

Ups and downs of the professional life

Most minor league baseball players aren't able to have the lavish lifestyles the superstars in the majors enjoy. Harrilchak knows this all too well. Coming out of college as a senior, he didn't have as much leverage as a junior or a high schooler would because teams knew he had to sign if they picked him — in the process driving down his signing bonus. Sure enough, immediately after being placed on the rookie-league Danville Braves, he realized the difficulties associated with the minor league lifestyle.

"It's extremely hard," Harrilchak said. "I've been living with a host family just because the minor league salary doesn't allow you to have money for rent. ... You're not making enough money for how much you're spending and just trying to live. It's the motivation to get higher up and get to the big leagues."

Harrilchak spent the 2011 season with Double-A Mississippi. While there, he saw somebody's dreams come true right before his eyes. He was in the room when Antoan Richardson — like Harrilchak a speedy outfielder — got promoted to Atlanta as a September call-up.

"It was very surreal," Harrilchak said. "Every player has thought about getting that phone call. I would be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it. I would like to make it a reality."

After struggling at the beginning of the season, Harrilchak hit .330 in August and September for Mississippi. He hopes to break spring training with Triple-A Gwinnett next season and has set September as his target date for making the major league roster.

Kinney has the distinction of being the first player in Elon history to play in the MLS. Not only that, Kinney was so good for the Phoenix that he started everycontest in his college career except for one. Unfortunately, the one match he missed was his last one, when a severely sprained ankle kept him out of the 2009 Southern Conference Tournament championship.

"That was heartbreaking," Kinney said.

Kinney played in 13 games for the Fire in 2010, starting the final 10 contests. But the injury bug bit him again as a torn Achilles tendon followed by a sports hernia kept Kinney out of action for the entire year in 2011. He's still recovering from the hernia and hopes to get on the field sometime in 2012.

Reyes has had to make some adjustments in minor league baseball. After starting for the Phoenix for most of his three years with the program, Reyes has made 51 professional appearances, every one of them out of the bullpen.

But this tidbit of information doesn't seem to faze him.

"I just want to pitch," Reyes said. "You can start me, relieve me. It doesn't matter. As long as I'm getting my opportunities, I'm fine."

Reyes ended the 2011 season with Class-A Myrtle Beach and would like to break camp in 2012 with Double-A Frisco. Regardless of where he starts next season, Reyes knows his goal is not yet complete.

"You have to keep pushing yourself and keep moving forward," Reyes said."Until you get to the major leagues and become a staple there, you're not done."

It's safe to say Constantine has been through the ringer. He says his career thus far has been "adventurous." That may be putting things lightly. Despite playing professional basketball for less than two years, Constantine has already been on five pro teams in five different countries. Bulgaria wasn't the experience Constantine imagined it could be — the forward was cut during the preseason. Even worse, he left the country with a leg injury he got from rigorous training mandatory to the team. Part of that strenuous activity included running up a mountain, an exercise unlike anything Constantine had experienced before.

"Maybe if I was going into the military, but not basketball," Constantine said.

After playing a season in Sweden, Constantine went to Turkey where things turned south again.

"Long story short, there was a money problem and they could no longer keep my contract, so we decided it was time to part ways," he said.

Constantine moved on to Cyprus, where he played just three games before his team failed to uphold his contract again. The separation allowed him to move on to Germany, where Constantine signed on as an injury replacement. He has since earned a starting job for Phoenix Hagen, a team in Beko Basketball Bundesliga, Germany's top professional basketball league.

Constantine doesn't know how long he'll play, but he wants everyone to know the 5-year-old kid who chased loose balls with reckless abandon still exists inside of him.

"The day that I play without emotion, that'll be the day I retire," Constantine said. "That's just how I play"