Lakeview Head Boys Basketball Coach Brian Williams, Head Girls Basketball Coach Dewaskie Fuller, and Athletic Director Devodrick Ridley hosted an unsigned senior showcase for boys’ and girls’ basketball on March 29.
“The purpose of the event is to get student-athletes a venue to present their basketball skills to college coaches that would not regularly see them,” said Fuller.
“The student-athletes in this area often get overlooked due to lack of media coverage. We are too far north for Alexandria, too far south for Shreveport, and too far southwest for Monroe. This makes this area hard to receive consistent media coverage to showcase student-athletes,” said Williams.
“I have led showcases in the past when I was a coach and saw the need to reintroduce showcase to Coach Williams and Coach Fuller,” said Ridley.
Collectively all three of the coaches contacted several colleges ranging from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kansas to come and see the untapped skills in the under-covered region. Visitors included Southern Arkansas Tech’s Coach Levinson MBB, Pratt Community College’s Coach Eddy MBB & Coach Rodewald WBB, Neosho Community College’s Coach Davis MBB/WBB, Louisiana State University of Alexandria’s Coach Perkins, and Southern University of Shreveport’s Coach Hines WBB. Coach Williams and Coach Fuller were able to reach out and get attendance from boys and girls from the following schools: Winnfield, Natchitoches Central, Arcadia, Mansfield, Menard, Homer, St. Mary’s, Airline, MacArthur High School of Oklahoma.
The event was a success and the coaches were able to present the expectations of a college athlete to the students. The coaches that attended were able to put a few underclassmen on their watch list for the future. All coaches involved stated that they just want to give back to student-athletes and provide them with an opportunity to bounce that ball for as long as possible and to attain the ultimate goal of free education out of the deal.
In the words of Coach Williams, “it’s bigger than basketball.”
