An athlete is never too young to excel at sports, and 8-year-old Taleyiah Chatman proves it.

A third-grader at Elm Street Elementary, Chatman has stirred a buzz in the basketball community with the skill she displays as point guard on the Coosa Lady Eagles recreation team for both the 7-and 8-year-old team and the 9-and 10-year-old team.

Her talent has produced impressive averages such as a scoring average of 21 points per game so far this year.

Of course, like any athlete, Chatman’s early success is a result of hard work and challenges.

The third-grader’s motto is “Hustle hard, play smart,” which shows just how much she is willing to commit to her sport — even from a young age.

Chatman’s parents taught her the game of basketball early on, including teaching her how to dribble at age 3.

From there her youth basketball career spawned.

When Chatman was 4 she started her first season at the YMCA where she played a year up on the 5-and 6-year-old team, and then moved up to the 7-and 8-year-old team when she was 6.

At 7, the young player continued to play for the 7-and 8-year-old team for both the YMCA and the recreation department, and helped lead the recreational department team to a championship.

The same year Chatman also took on the challenge of playing for the 9-and 10-year-old summer team at the recreation department.

Today, at 8 years old, Chatman continues to play for the 7-and 8-year-old and 9-and 10-year-old teams in the recreation department league.

And even though Chatman is on the first leg of her basketball career, she sees big goals in her future.

This summer she will have her first experience playing AAU basketball, in which she will play on the fifth-grade team.

Chatman knows that “it will be a challenge” but also knows that it will only “make her better.”

From beyond AAU basketball, Chatman has even bigger dreams.

The 8-year-old looks to Candance Parker of the L.A. Sparks as her basketball role model and already plans on playing college and professional basketball.

With these goals, Chatman said she know there’s a long road ahead, but she’s ready to put in the work.