Friday, July 18, 2008
Staying on task
Aaron McFarling
Recent columns
Plenty of times, he wanted to quit.
Not basketball -- James Otey has never wanted to quit playing basketball -- but the process itself. The studying. The tutoring sessions. The repetition of courses. The trudging to class.
It was hard, he admits. Harder than most other things he's done in his 20-year-old existence. But as much as he wanted to give it up, James Otey chose not to for one reason.
"I'm trying to live a better life," he said. "Trying to do something with myself."
He's doing it. Last week -- more than two years after graduating from William Fleming High School -- Otey signed a full basketball scholarship to Johnson C. Smith University, a Division II school in Charlotte, N.C.
But the bigger milestone came two months earlier, when Otey finally met NCAA academic eligibility requirements -- a culmination of countless hours of often-frustrating work.
"It was a great feeling," Otey said. "I never thought I'd get to that point, but I did."
He's had the court talent all along. An All-Group AA pick for the Colonels, Otey made 90 3-pointers while averaging 16.8 points a game in 2006.
But when he graduated that spring, he realized his grade-point average was miles away from where it needed to be if he were to continue his career in college.
Options limited, Otey latched on with the fledgling Heat Basketball Academy, a Martinsville-based program founded in '06 by former Laurel Park star Jason Niblett.
The goal of the academy is to give athletes an opportunity to raise their grades through community-college course work while also playing high-level basketball that wouldn't count against NCAA eligibility.
Photo by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times
"This was my second chance of doing something with myself. So I had to take advantage of it. If I hadn't done this, I don't know where I'd be." -- ex-William Fleming basketball star James Otey
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In other words, it was the perfect fit for Otey -- provided it worked.
"He was one of the first kids to come through the door," said Niblett, who had known Otey since his junior year at Fleming. "He actually helped the program get on its feet."
The program soon flourished, thanks in part to an influx of Australian stars, including Connecticut recruit Ater Majok. Majok's presence -- along with that of UNC Charlotte recruit Rashad Coleman and several others -- helped Otey gain further recruiting exposure.
But until he got his grades up, it didn't matter how much college coaches liked him.
Otey was determined to gain academic clearance. He took six classes at Patrick Henry Community College his first semester, then another three his second semester. He then added two summer-school courses.
"This was my second chance of doing something with myself," Otey said. "So I had to take advantage of it. If I hadn't done this, I don't know where I'd be."
Niblett says the process included several "ups and downs."
"It wasn't that he didn't feel like he could make it," Niblett said. "He always felt like he could make it. But studying and putting in the work was something new for him. I would make him study and get with his tutors and grind it out academically, because there's more to it than basketball."
Niblett arranged for Otey to have a tutor for each of his classes. He had to repeat one course because of a poor grade, so he did.
Entering this year, Otey could sense he was getting closer but still had work to do.
Meanwhile, he blossomed into the Heat Academy's second-leading scorer, averaging 21 points and 5.4 assists while playing point guard and shooting guard.
It all came together in May, when Otey finished his required course work. Johnson C. Smith coach Steve Joyner -- whose program is a member of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the same conference as Virginia Union and Virginia State -- was ready to jump in and sign him.
"We know it's been a two-year process for him to try to develop himself academically," Joyner said. "A lot of times, you don't see student-athletes stay with it. They drop off or drop out at some particular point. But we're excited about the fact that he continued to work on himself to be the type of student that he needs to be to gain entry."
Niblett is, too.
"I'm just so happy for the kid," Niblett said. "He's come a long way from high school, with a lot of people doubting him that he could get it done. Just to actually see him ink his name on the dotted line -- words can't explain it."
Otey is finishing up two summer school classes this month. In one -- a computer class -- he currently has a A.
The schoolwork will only get harder as he goes. But there are plenty of hints that Otey's priority shift is more than temporary.
On Monday, when asked when he might be practicing so that a Roanoke Times photographer could take his picture, Otey thought for a minute.
"Probably Wednesday," he said.
"I won't be playing tomorrow. I've got class."
