Lamphere’s Ramsey leaving his handprint on Rams’ revamp
Madison Heights Lamphere senior combo guard Sema-j Ramsey became the Rams alltime leading scorer and the first player in school history to join the 1,000-point club last week in a game against Sterling Heights Stevenson, cementing his status as one of city’s most accomplished prep athletes in history.
Because of Lamphere’s lack of a real sports legacy on the hardwood and the fact that he plays for an Oakland County school that plays in the Macomb Athletic Conference, Ramsey’s prowess and accolades have gone largely unnoticed by local media outlets and fans.
The Lamphere community has appreciation for the coolas-a-breeze 6-foot-3 Ramsey’s impact — on both the basketball floor and as a wide receiver on the football field — though and his time in a Rams uniform won’t soon be forgotten. In fact, it’s surely to be remembered for long after he leaves the school’s halls.
“Sema-j was the centerpiece of the culture revamp in this basketball program,” Lamphere head coach Isaiah Novak said. “He made basketball relevant around here, he took the lead in making sure things were done the right way and every single one of his teammates followed him and believed in him and in that believed in what we were preaching as a coaching staff.”
A four-year starter, Ramsey averaged 16 points per game his first two seasons of high school hoops while earning an offer from U-D Mercy in the process. When Novak arrived two years ago, he asked Ramsey to sacrifice some of his offense to help balance out the team and Ramsey embraced the request. This winter, he’s averaging 14 points, four assists and eight rebounds per game. The Rams posted their first winning record in league action in two decades with a 7-3 mark out of the MAC Bronze. Lamphere is 10-10 overall.
“I challenged Semaj to turn himself into a complete bas