West Oaks slays prep hoops’ biggest beast
BOYS BASKETBALL would play the game. Much respect him.”
There was no time or place for much of a celebration party. The Flame had to drive nearly six hours from Oak Hill’s campus in remote Flint Hill, Virginia., to Charlotte to catch a flight home because they had a home game Tuesday night against Sunshine Independent Athletic Association rival The Rock of Gainesville — the only Florida team West Oaks has lost to this season.
Gillion said players went to class Tuesday morning and waited until the afternoon to get a little rest before the 7:30 p.m. game.
“I told the guys no excuses — this is what they came to West Oaks for,” Gillion said of the tough turnaround.
Seven of West Oaks’ nine varsity players have Division I scholarship offers, and the Flame have been ranked in the top 25 of national polls, trailing only Montverde and IMG Academy among Florida teams.
Staton, a shooting guard who left state champ Pompano Beach Ely to play his senior season for the Flame, has a long list of mid-major offers and is getting increasing interest from Alabama, according to Gillion. Tracey, a three-star prospect according to 247Sports, holds offers from USF, Florida Gulf Coast and FIU, among others. Nguimbi already has offers from Alabama, Iowa State and USF, among others.
And the most highly recruited West Oaks player is 6-1 junior starting guard AJ Neal, the son of Gillion’s wife and assistant coach, Diana.
West Oaks, which has an enrollment of about 150 students in grades K-12, withdrew from the Florida High School Athletic Association in 2008 after being sanctioned for major rules violations. It has the reputation as a school without rules that reloads its roster with transfers every year. But Neal has been at the school since sixth grade, and Miguel and Nguimbi have been on board since they were freshmen.
Gillion said Tuesday the team’s gradepoint average is 3.1 on a 4.0 scale and that every one of his players is on track to be academically eligible for athletic scholarships. Staton, he said, already has 57 college credit hours.
Outside of SIAA play, the Flame mostly packs their bags to play a number of games on the Grind Session national circuit, which caters to a plethora of basketball powers that play outside traditional high school governing bodies.
West Oaks drove to Grind Session weekend events in Mississippi and Atlanta and flew to Kentucky for Jan. 4-5 games. It is scheduled to go to two more Grind Session events in Kentucky. to