Whitewater High is proving to be fertile recruiting ground for girls basketball. Recent years have seen six Lady Wildcats live the dream of playing college basketball with more on the way.
The class of 2019 produced a dynamic duo in Jada Claude and Courtney Smith.
After playing for Duke and Morehead State, Claude transferred to Georgetown this past season where she started all 30 games as a junior, averaging 7.2 points and 4.7 rebounds a night. Smith averaged 12.2 points and 4.6 rebounds a game as a redshirt junior for the UNC Pembroke Braves.
A quartet of Cats in the class of 2022 just finished their first year of college hoops.
Ellia Chance started 19 games for Agnes Scott College, averaging 7.9 points and 4.2 rebounds for the Scotties. Charity Cloud appeared in 19 games for Oglethorpe University. Kechi Okonkwo played for Southern Union State Community College. Leah Smith played in 12 games for LaGrange College.
Recent graduate Kasi Okonkwo will join the collegiate ranks this year at Southern Virginia University.
The Cats are beating the odds. It is estimated there are more than 400,000 girls high school basketball players, and only 1.2% of them go on to play division 1 college basketball.
“I am very proud of all the girls that come through the basketball program,” said Rashad Muhyee, who coached all of the college Cats in high school. “We have been blessed here at Whitewater to have some great student-athletes. They work extremely hard to achieve their goals, from joining the military to getting into their dream college or continuing their athletic career.”
College coaches better take notice: The Lady Wildcats are coming!
