STRAIGHT OUT OF EAST CLEVELAND,
East Cleveland a city nestled in the North East Corner of Ohio.
A proud city that was once the home of Millionares, plush
houses and the high life. Today, the city has a high forfeclosure
rate, declining housing valuses and a struggling reputation, yet
amidst this backdrop we found they also have a magnificent
diamond in the rough and -after a summer of polishing- that
diamond is begining to shine. Lenay Sims a 5'8 combo guard from East Cleveland Shaw
High School, is a talent beyond belief. This well built, athletic young lady is helping to bring pride back to empty streets and helping to put pep back into a program that has seen many better days.
Lenay is as good a scorer "as I have ever had" stated Kirk Perry of the Next Level Summer Program. That is a big statement from a team that has seen the likes of Myesha Perkins (Misssouri), Shay Selby (Duke) and Karisma Penn (Illinois). Lenay has handles, can get the rack and fill the jumper at will. Lenay gets to the basket with such ease that many think she is only a slasher. It is not until she pulls up a sweet mid range jumper that blazes nothing but net that everyone in the gym suddently realizes that not only can she get to the rack, but she is a "lights out" shooter as well. Lenay had a great year with her high school last year, routinely going over 20 point per game, but she really exploded on the scene this summer where at times she was almost unstopable. Lenay is gifted with great basketball timing, a wicked in and out move and her first step deceptively exposive, when combined together, you get an athletic kid who does whatever sh wants to on the court. After a stellar performance at the Candace Parker Adidas Invitational in South Carolina, the other coach explained that after awahile he stopped trying to stop her and just hoped she would run out of gass, stating "I rotated every guard on our team to guard her, and she still got 30."
While Lenay had not received as much local attention as some of the players in her class, she has gotten our attention and has moved up into the top 10 players in the state of Ohio as ranked by the "Girls Grassroots Report." |
