Vincy baller scoring big

US-based Vincentian basketball player Sophia Young continues to make waves on the college circuit. A recent article in USA Today magazine has been extolling her pursuits as a Player of the Year candidate as a forward for Baylor, the university she represents.{{more}}

Jill Lieber, a journalist for the prestigious journal, writes that “Young, an education major, is not only starring on the courts but academically as well making the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honour Roll with a grade point average of 3.0 or better.”

Back on the court Young is first in the Big 12 in rebounding and third in scoring and has chalked up “double digits in all 17 of her teams games as well as posting a Big 12-high nine double-doubles.”

The article highlights the fact that Young only began playing basketball in the US after a stellar beginning at home as a netballer.

The writer quotes a coach as saying that after teaching Young the rudiments of basketball “It was like pouring gasoline on a fire.”

Lieber the writer describes the Vincentian lass in the following manner:

‘Young, 21, the emotional leader of No. 8 Baylor (14-3, 4-2 Big 12), is one of the best power forwards in the game. She’ll lead the Lady Bears as they play at Oklahoma State on Saturday.

In her fifth year of organized basketball, Young, a junior co-captain, leads the Bears in scoring (17.3 points a game) and rebounding (9.8 average). She and senior forward Steffanie Blackmon (15.9 points, 8.1 rebounds) have powered the Bears this season.

“She’s a feel-good story that has affected a lot of people’s lives in a positive way,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson says. “We’ve all learned lessons from Sophia in perseverance and independence. How many young people would leave home at that young age and come and know no one and do what she has done? I couldn’t have done it.’

So we back home here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines can continue to hear good things about this homebred sporting talent. The game of basketball in the USA is just beginning to discover that there is more where Adonal Foyle came from.