Sports and Kyle Ramsay were not a good mix when he was a young boy.

Ramsay, in fact, hated sports. Hated competition. Hated sweating.

But his friend, Jake Mendes, kept hounding him about sports. He would throw a basketball to Ramsay every day during lunch, urging him to take a shot.

Every time Ramsay visited Mendes’ home, he’d find himself outside with his buddy shooting hoops.

By the time Ramsay entered ninth grade at Carlsbad’s Pacific Ridge High, sports was no longer just a bad subject to him.

“I saw it as a good outlet to blow off steam, to forget what happened that day,” Ramsay said. “Eventually, it became a passion to me.”

Now a senior for the Firebirds, who are off to a 3-5 start, Ramsay, a point guard, leads the team in scoring with a 12.8 average. He’s also pulling down 5.1 rebounds a game (second on the team), is averaging 2.3 steals (also second on the team) and is tied for the team lead in assists with 41.

All this coming after a junior season marred by ankle and shin injuries that cost him 10 games as the team went 17-11.

Ramsay averaged 8.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals and had just 19 assists in 18 games.

“Because of injuries to teammates this year, he’s had to shoulder more of the load,” Pacific Ridge coach Chris Burman said. “Every season on varsity, his game has improved from the year before.”

In the 2014-15 season, Ramsay averaged 3.3 points in a limited role.

Despite all the work, physical growth (he’s now 5-feet-11) and improvement, basketball is not his No. 1 priority.

It never will be.

Music is the center of Ramsay’s life, now and in the future.

Ramsay, who has played piano since age 5, writes and produces his own electronic dance music.

He recently signed a deal with Spinnin’ Records, based in Hilversum, Netherlands.

According to the website youredm.com, “Wait For You,” his latest hit, “packs an assortment of themes well beyond the young producer’s years.”

“Fortunately, I got a lot of traction when I first started doing this,” Ramsay said. “It’s a difficult balance mixing basketball and music like this.

“Music has been my number one passion for a long time now. It gives my life purpose.

“The first time people hear I’m so into music, they tease my parents that I’ll be living in their basement until I’m 50 and they’ll be supporting me for the rest of their lives.”

Ramsay, who learned Spanish during school trips to Tijuana to run basketball camps, is at a loss to explain his musical background.

He said no one in his family is very musical other than just listening on the car radio or at home on the stereo.

“This was a challenge like being a short, skinny half-Asian kid who figured out a way to play basketball,” Ramsay said. “I see music the same way. Music is as competitive as basketball is.

“Music requires much more creativity. When I was playing basketball in middle school, the announcer always called me ‘5-foot-nothing Kyle Ramsay.’”

The word nothing should never be used to describe Kyle Ramsay.

Monahan is a freelance writer.