Averaging more than 24 points game, sophomore guard Evin Wimberly, is having another strong season for the Lady Bulldogs.

Sophomore is on top of her game

It is a wonder that Evin Wimberly gets any sleep at all. The sophomore star has led the Lady Bulldogs in nearly every statistical category all season, she has been a varsity cheerleader for the boys basketball team and within a week of the end of the basketball season she will be running track and playing AAU basketball at full tilt.

In addition to all of these activities, Wimberly still finds time to play volleyball and study hard — she maintains a 3.27 grade point average.

Though Wimberly does a lot of things, she does them well.

Last year she was a District 15 basketball all star and was selected as an all-district first teamer. This year she is certainly a strong candidate for the all Metro Buckeye Conference team. In track last spring she won the district long-jump title and last fall was named second-team all-conference in volleyball, which she admits is her least favorite of the three sports.

Even as a sophomore, Wimberly is already receiving interest from many colleges across Ohio. According to Wimberly’s family and coaches, Ohio University, the University of Dayton and Central State University have either expressed interest in Evin or have complimented her on her game.

Yet for all of her individual accomplishments and accolades, Wimberly has difficulty talking about herself. When asked about her impressions of the season, Wimberly stresses team accomplishments and the team’s strengths and weaknesses, without commenting on her own game.

“We had an alright year. Our record should be a lot better than it is, but we rarely put together an entire game,” Wimberly said. “There were quarters when we could have played with anybody, but we just couldn’t put those quarters into the same games when it counted.”

The guard also said that she and her teammates showed great improvement over the course of the year. “As a team, more and more people started taking shots, and more people started stepping it up when we needed them to,” she said.

Wimberly did say that she is starting to see her left hand improve and although she averages over 24 points per game, she still says she is a better passer than a shooter.

Wimberly and her teammates will need to pass and shoot the ball as well as they have all season to progress into the later rounds of the state tournament. If they win their first-round game against Miami Valley on Wednesday, Feb. 12, the Lady Bulldogs will likely meet No. 2 seed Covington in the second round of the Tri-Valley South sectional.

Despite the potential match-up with 13–5 Covington, Wimberly is confident her team can play well. She said that if they played a complete game and gave their best effort, the Lady Bulldogs could stay on the floor with any team, including Covington.

“Last year we lost in the first round to the No. 1 seed, Franklin Monroe. I think we were a little nervous,” she said. “This year we aren’t going to be nervous. I am going to step it up, and I know everybody else will too.”

Wimberly says she learned a lot of the basketball from her older brother, Reece, who also played at YSHS. But Reece says that everything Evin is doing right now, she is doing because she has worked for it on her own.

“I’m amazed at her ability, I really am,” Reece said. “She understands the game better as a sophomore than I ever did in high school.”

Her basketball coach, Shirley Cummins, agrees, saying that Wimberly is easily one of the most “coachable” players she has ever seen. Cummins also pointed out that as a sophomore, Wimberly is ahead of most high school players.

Recently, Springfield Shawnee standout Brittany Smart became only the 34th player in Ohio history to reach the 2,000-point mark for a career. Seventeen games into her sophomore season, Wimberly has already tallied 798-career points. If, as one would expect, her scoring numbers continue to rise as her game matures, Wimberly has a chance of joining Smart in the elite 2,000-point club.

All of this individual success leaves Wimberly with difficult decisions that are usually only reserved for high school seniors. Spring is the season when seniors who can play college ball must decide what school they will play for in the fall. Although only a sophomore, Wimberly is faced with such a decision now.

Wimberly must decide this off-season whether she will stay at YSHS, or whether she will attend another school that will offer her more exposure and perhaps a chance to attend a big-time college basketball school.

“It’s a really hard decision,” Wimberly said. “I love my friends, I like playing for YSHS, and we are going to be a lot better next year. But I still haven’t made up my mind yet.”

According to Reece, there are a number of area schools that would be excited to have Wimberly join their teams next winter, including top-tier programs like Chaminade-Julienne and Xenia. “Of course they would want her, they’d be crazy not to,” Reece said.

—Brian Loudon