Sumner High’s Tellis Smith came out of nowhere to become one of the area’s top track and field athletes during his senior year in 2010. In his first and only year of high school competition, Smith won invididual state championships in the 200- and 400-meter dashes at the Class 3 state championships in Jefferson City. Smith also turned in stellar times of 21.57 in the 200 and 47.76 in the 400. Smith is still going strong. This week, he is competing in the 2010 USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. The 6’3” 150-pound Smith is competing in both events this week.
The Demetrious Johnson Charitable Foundation/Mariott Union Station National High School All-Star Basketball Game will be held on Saturday night at Harris-Stowe State University. Some of the top players from around the country will play against a team of kids from the St. Louis metro area and the state of Missouri. It’s a great opportunity for fans of local colleges such as Missouri, SLU and Illinois to get an early look at some of their top incoming recruits against the best of St. Louis and the Show-Me State. It has become a must-see game for the summer. Tickets are on sale at the door for $10.
Chaminade College Prep basketball standout Bradley Beal was selected to the USA Basketball 17-and-under team that will compete in the FIBA 17U World Championships in Hamburg, Germany in July. Beal was the leading scorer for Team USA last summer for their gold-medal winning squad at the FIBA Americas Tournament in Mendoza, Argentina.
Congratulations to Oakville High basketball standout Javier Duren, who recently gave a verbal commitment to attend Yale University of the Ivy League. The 6’4” Duren has been a key figure in the Tigers’ back-to-back Final Four appearances in the Class 5 state tournament. He returns as one of the top players in the area in the Class of 2011. To top it off, Javier is also a 4.0 student in the class room. I like it.
Also, former McCluer North basketball standout Anthony Booker will attend Iowa State University. Booker spent the first two years of his collegiate career at Southern Illinois before transferring out of Carbondale. He will sit out the 2010-11 season via NCAA rules, then he will have two years of eligibility remaining at Iowa State.
Congratulations to Cordez Vaughn, who has been hired as the varsity football coach at Hazelwood West High. Vaughn served as the Wildcats’ defensive coordinator last season before being promoted to head coach. Before coming over to Hazelwood West, Vaughn was also the defensive coordinator at Gateway Tech. While at Gateway Tech, Vaughn helped develop the talents of former prep All-American Sheldon Richardson. Vaughn also has collegiate coaching experience at Southeast Missouri State and the University of Arkansas-Monticello.
The Larry Hughes Fundamentals Basketball Camp will be held on July 6’9 at the St. Louis Sports Center (6727 Langley Ave.). The camp is for boys and girls from ages eight to 15. For more information, contact Justin Tatum at (314) 825-7954 or by email at justintatum@hotmail.com.
My final thought on the recently-completed NBA Finals. The 2010 Los Angeles Lakers took a page from the book of the 1985 Lakers, which also beat the Boston Celtics for the world championship. In 1984, Magic Johnson’s Lakers lost to Larry Bird’s Celtics in a seven-game series where the Celtics basically out-toughed the Lakers in a physical, bump-and-grind series. The following season, Magic and his boys came back a lot tougher as they wrested the crown away from Boston. The 2008 Celtics basically did the same thing to the Lake Show as they bullied their way to an NBA title with very little resistence from the Lakers. The 2010 series was a different story as the Lakers played “Bully Beatdown” with the Celtics, which included those 23 offensive rebounds in Game 7, which made the difference. Having Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum in the lineup as well as a older, stronger, more committed Pao Gasol helped the Lakers turn the tide.
(You can follow Earl on his basketball website, www.earlaustinjr.com. You can also follow him of Facebook).
