VMI signs familiar basketball name
Ot Elmore is the son of former Keydets great Gay Elmore, whose number was retired.
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Thursday, May 16, 2013
When a basketball scholarship became available during the late stages of the spring signing period, VMI couldn't resist the bloodlines of Fork Union Military Academy guard Ot Elmore.
Elmore is the older son of Otmer "Gay" Elmore, whose number was retired after he finished his career with 2,422 points.
Gay Elmore held the VMI career scoring record from 1987 until Reggie Williams passed him in 2008.
"It's always been [Ot Elmore's] dream to play for VMI," Fork Union postgraduate coach Brooks Berry said Wednesday.
The Keydets did not make a scholarship offer to Ot Elmore when he was a senior at South Charleston (W.Va.) High School, where he averaged 16.3 points in 2011- 12, but he remained on their radar.
VMI ended up taking a pair of players off Fork Union's 19-8 squad - Elmore and his fellow wing, 6-4 Julian Eleby from Fayetteville, N.C.
"Some doors opened," said VMI coach Duggar Baucom, who lost two underclassmen who decided to transfer.
Elmore signed Wednesday afternoon, and Baucom had a letter of intent in hand by the end of the day.
"Any time your dad's jersey is hanging in the rafters, I think it puts on a little added pressure," Baucom said. "Gay was one of the best players ever to play here, but we just want Ot to be Ot. We want him to be the best Ot he can be."
Elmore should know what he's getting into.
"It's huge for us to ever get a kid who wants to be here," Baucom said. "A lot of kids don't grow up wanting to go to VMI, unless they're a legacy, which he is. He understands automatically what the school can do for him. We have to teach kids what a great place this is. He understood that immediately."
Gay Elmore liked Lexington so much that he went to law school at Washington and Lee, as did his wife.
The Elmores have a second son, Jon, who plays at the Christ School in Arden, N.C., and is seen as a Division I prospect for the class of 2014.
Eleby does not have a VMI tie, but Berry said Eleby reminds him of a young Reggie Williams. Berry, at Virginia Commonwealth on Wednesday with another Fork Union prospect, bumped into Williams in training at VCU's athletic facility.
"It's one in a million that he'd ever be another Reggie Williams, but he starts out with a similar kind of skill set," Berry said.
1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County
2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day
3. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen
4. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys
5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football
6. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping
7. WOYM: Fewer stinkbugs? You may have wasps to thank
8. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust
9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli
10. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible
THE ROANOKE TIMES
