By JED LOCKETT
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
July 23, 2008 11:01 pm
—
BLUEFIELD, Va. — As a host of young children were leaving the Bluefield College Dome, dreaming about possibly becoming a Ramblin’ Ram one day, a couple of people were entering to make that dream a reality.
Wytheville natives Tennis Simon and Ethan Mills signed letters of intent to play at Bluefield College on Wednesday. Simon was named VHSCA Player of the Year as a senior and both helped George Wythe High School win the Virginia Class A State Championship.
Bluefield College men’s basketball head coach Jason Gillespie was thrilled.
“They’re winners,” Gillespie said. “They played a very fast style in high school and that translates really well to what we’re trying to do at the college level. And I think they’re great kids on and off the floor for us.”
Gillespie is looking far into the future to forecast success for Simon and Mills. But he does not rule out either of these players possibly helping the Rams right away.
“I kind of think of both of these guys as huge-upside guys who will pay off more down the road than immediate,” Gillespie said. “But they’re good enough to (make an immediate impact) as well if we needed them to.”
Bluefield College recruits basketball players from wherever they can get them. But they take particular note of any local talent that is available — such as Simon and Mills.
“They were just down the road in Wytheville,” Gillespie said. “We’re always kind-of paying attention to how teams close by do. Both of my assistants had been in contact with them and seen them at different times over the course of the spring.”
Simon averaged 18 points and five rebounds per game as a senior for George Wythe. His most notable performance was a 23-point, 11-rebound night against Gate City in the state title game.
“Tennis is just long and skilled, a very smooth player on the wing,” Gillespie said, “can shoot it, can take it to the basket. He’s a little deceptive that way. Anytime that you’ve got a player that’s been the Group A state player of the year, he’s done some things well in his career and over the course of a season.”
Mills averaged nine points and 6.5 assists per game during his senior campaign and earned first-team all-district honors. Gillespie believes he could be the latest in a long line of great point guards to play at Bluefield College.
“With Ethan, Ethan is just a super-quick point guard who I think really made that team go,” Gillespie said. “I think he’s got a chance to be a really good college point guard.”
Gillespie characterized his 2008 recruiting effort as “Better than expected”. He is building for the distant future and he believes that this group of players will give him the opportunity to win many years down the road.
“We’ve got one commitment left that we need to sign, we’ll sign next week who is a program changer,” Gillespie said. “A 6-9 jumping jack who’ll really help us out. We signed a couple other guys that we weren’t expecting to get.
“And I think we’ve really established a good core of younger guys to come in and start tying to replace the five seniors that we’ll be losing at the end of this year.”
Gillespie is almost done with the offseason chores. He just has one task left to take care of.
“Sign our big guy,” Gillespie said. “That’s it. And then wait for the guys to come back.”
— Contact Jed Lockett
at jlockett@bdtonline.com
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.
Photos
Jason Gillespie