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December 23, 2004
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December 23, 2004 |
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sports Wimberly receives full scholarship
Evin Wimberly, the YSHS girls basketball team’s star senior, has been offered a four-year full sports scholarship to Lafayette College. Wimberly will play point guard for the Lafayette Leopards next fall. After becoming the first girl at YSHS to break the 1,000-point mark in her junior year, Wimberly has since increased her career high school total to 1,548. As a freshman, she averaged 29.9 points per game, and continued to average more than 20 point a game in her next two years. Now a senior, Wimberly’s average has dropped to 16.4 a game. During her first three years at YSHS, Wimberly was voted one of the top five players in the Miami Valley and has been named to the Metro Buckeye Conference first team, the All-Southwest District team and the District 15 all-star team. In addition, she received honorable mention for all-state status last year. Wimberly, who first played with a Fisher Price hoop at the age of 5, grew up playing basketball with her two older brothers, Chris Campbell and Maurice Wimberly Jr. No one taught her how to play exactly, she said, she just played a lot, developed a competitive edge and got better and better. In sixth grade she joined the boys team, and in seventh grade she started playing summer ball as a point guard with the Dayton Dribblers, an Amateur Athletic Union girls team. As a sophomore, she joined the Dayton Lady Hoop Stars and for the last two years has played on the Dayton Metro team, which finished 2–4 at nationals last year. If anyone has had the most influence on Wimberly, it has been Maurice Jr., now 24, who has come as close to the encouraging, pushing, driving force of a coach as anyone has, she said. Maurice comes to every game he can and tells her what she needs to work on. He tells her before the game, during the game and afterward, too. “He’ll say ‘box out, drive, shoot, everything. He yells shoot a lot,’ ” she said. “I’m used to it. He’s been doing it all along.” Maurice, who was particularly attentive to the only girl in the Wimberly family, said he became actively invested in making sure Evin got her priorities straight after he made mistakes he didn’t want his little sister to repeat. School is a priority, basketball is secondary, he said. But if Evin uses her athletic ability to get through school, he said, she will hone valuable tools to use in the job market. He said he likes to test his sister to make sure she’s listening. “I get on her a lot because when she’s mad she plays better, she’s a competitor,” he said. “As soon as she throws her hand at me to wave me off, I know she’s playing well.” Evin’s father, Maurice Wimberly Sr., who has supported her as well, said his daughter’s greatest strengths are her quickness, speed and ability to drive left or right handed. He has been videotaping and watching her games along with his wife, Corrine, and her parents, Charles and Delores Campbell. Evin must be responding to the support of her crew because her academic record was good enough for schools such as Central State, Howard, Brown and Eastern Illinois to court her. She said she chose Lafayette for its high academic standard, small class size and the basketball team’s fast-break character. Lafayette, a Division I school in Easton, Penn., has an enrollment of 2,700 students and is a member of the Patriot League Conference, which also includes American University, Colgate, Penn, Princeton and the Navy and Army women’s teams. Even through the pressure to choose the right school, Wimberly has maintained her modest, calm personality off the court. Maurice Jr. says that’s because no matter where she goes or what she does, his sister knows who she is. “She’s always been a quiet leader,” he said. “She likes to show by her actions more than by her words. She’s content to be herself.” Lady ’Dogs split 2 games
The YSHS girls basketball team held its own against Xenia Christian’s towering twin players last Friday night but couldn’t keep up with their Metro Buckeye Conference rivals, and lost 69–49. The Lady Bulldogs rebounded the following night to soundly defeat Cedarville, 57–43. The team is now 4–6 this year. The Lady ’Dogs knew they would have to work hard to stop Xenia’s Frazee sisters, who stand over six feet tall. YSHS started the game in control, pushing the ball down the floor and pressing their way to an 18–16 lead at the end of the first quarter. They used fast hands to block and steal and fast feet to get around Xenia’s weak defense to tie the score at 30 at halftime. But Xenia had had enough and took off in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Bulldogs 19–8. The Lady ’Dogs never got back in the game and couldn’t stop Megan Frazee, who scored a game-high 34 points. “This was one of their best offensively controlled games, and I’m very proud of their growth and effort,” coach Shirley Cummins said. Megan Burrick led Yellow Springs with 13 points. Evin Wimberly scored 12 to go along with 7 rebounds and 5 steals, Carly Bailey scored 10 and grabbed 14 rebounds, and Tricia McLinden scored 8 with 2 steals, 2 blocks and 6 rebounds. Saturday’s game against Cedarville went quite differently. The Lady ’Dogs were hungry for a win and went after every loose ball, converting 27 steals into basketballs. Yellow Springs jumped ahead 18–8 in the first quarter and outscored the Indians in the next two periods. Cedarville made a 12-point run in the fourth quarter, but it was too late to change the outcome. Bailey led the Lady Bulldogs with 19 points and 17 rebounds. Burrick followed suit with 18 points, 5 steals and 5 rebounds. Wimberly just missed a quadruple-double, getting 10 assists, 11 rebounds, 9 steals and 7 points. Bulldogs lose third MBC game Yellow Springs had Xenia Christian by the tail last Friday night until the fourth quarter, when Xenia took over and won 70–56. The Bulldogs could not pull themselves together during the following night’s game and lost again by a wide margin, 60–44, to Greenview. Yellow Springs is 4–3 overall, 1–3 in the Metro Buckeye Conference. Playing at home against Xenia Christian, the Bulldogs pushed early to the basket, and defended their court by cutting down hard on Xenia’s attempted shots. The ’Dogs took a 17–14 first quarter lead and continued with a press to break up Xenia’s flow. Though Xenia scored twice right before halftime, the Bulldogs were ahead 30–25. Three minutes into the third quarter, Xenia tied the score at 32, when Yellow Springs scored eight straight points, on 3-pointers by Ryan Silvert and Brad Benning-Clark and a 2-point basket by Cody Johnson, to go up 40–32. Xenia responded with several of its own 3-pointers and forced the Bulldogs to commit a couple of turnovers. Several minutes into the fourth quarter, with the score tied at 53, Xenia grabbed a 63–53 lead with a minute and a half left. The Bulldogs started to foul, but it was too late. Xenia won by 14. YSHS alumni hoops tourney YSHS will host an alumni men’s basketball tournament on Sunday and Monday, Dec. 26 and 27. Due to lack of registration response, organizers Brad Newsome, Greg Felder and Jason Randolf organized the teams by class. Members of all classes are invited to play. The Classes of 1988–94 will play the Classes of 1984–87 on Dec. 26 at 4 p.m., followed by the Classes of 1995–98 against the Classes of 1999–2001 at 5. At 6, the Classes of 1983 and earlier will play the winner of the 4 p.m game. The last game of the evening will be the Classes of 2002–03 against the Class of 2004 at 7. The semifinals and finals will be played Dec. 27 beginning at 6 p.m. The times and dates of each game will be posted on a bulletin board in the high school gym. The participation fee is $10 and admission is $3. Proceeds will be used to help purchase practice jerseys and a shooting machine for the boys basketball program.
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