Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Cummings Signs With Central Baptist College
SIGNING OFFERS POSITIVE FOOTNOTE TO SEASON FOR CUMMINGS
LINCOLN — On Thursday, Lincoln senior Kendra Cummings officially extended her basketball career to the next level — signing a national letter of intent to play college basketball for Central Baptist College.
That singular act was like opening a ray of sunshine for a program that struggled in 2016-2017, finishing with a 5-22 record.
“It’s been a tough year, her coach and assistant coach got fired; so we had to do all the recruiting on our own,” said Kendra’s mother, Tennille Cummings.
In the midst of the challenge of navigating applications to college with an intent to land an athletic scholarship for Kendra — without having the expertise or influence of a high school basketball coach to promote Kendra’s potential, the family committed the situation to prayer.
“We prayed about it and decided to let God lead her where she’s meant to be,” Tennille Cummings said.
As the family opened themselves up to the possibilities, Kendra began researching college basket- ball programs and submitting video highlights. With her parents, Darrien and Tennille Cummings, of Lincoln acting as her advocates, Kendra held onto her dream of playing women’s college basketball and took the lead role in the process. Those efforts and Kendra’s persistent faith that she would one day play college basketball culminated in a scholarship offer.
Lyle Middleton, head coach of the CBC Lady Mustangs, of Conway, took notice. In between a conversation on a Monday and a scheduled try-out on a Thursday, Middleton’s wife was looking at Kendra’s video. Middleton said if any kid shoots enough they can score a lot of points, noting he was looking at other tangible factors which came across from the video.
“What was impressive was her committment to work hard,” Middleton said. “We’re excited to have her be a part of our program.”
Middleton offered Kendra $9,000 a semester with an opportunity to crack the starting lineup as a freshman.
“Kids today lack the IQ of the game, every kid today wants to go out and dribble it and shoot it, but
they don’t understand the fundamentals of the game,” Middleton said, explaining a team concept is often missing.
“The generation now, it’s a lot harder to keep them focused on the game. Her IQ of the game is a lot better than a lot of kids, especially at her age. She understands help- side defense, she understands when to attack the basket, she understands when to be a role player. She has an opportunity to do a lot of things for us.”
Kendra is accustomed to playing all over the court. Michelle Lumsargis, who served as a volunteer, intern assistant coach for the Lady Wolves this past season, described how Kendra’s versatility was utilized.
“We used her everywhere,” Lumsargis said. “She did everything for us, bring the ball up, post up.”
Kendra honed her game with the help of big brother, Tyler Cummings, a 2014 Lincoln graduate, and record-holder, his 415 yards rushing during a 2013 playoff win, 41-22, at Maumelle is the seventh best individual rushing total in Arkansas history. Brother and sister would play 1- on-1 with the same intensity each showed in competition.
“She never quit, she always kept coming back no matter how many times I threw her around,” Tyler Cummings said. “She always bounced back, she’s very resilient.”
Both athletes suffered torn ACLs during high school, and both returned to finish on a high note with strong senior seasons.
“It’s all mental getting over something like that,” Tyler Cummings said. “She got to witness me overcome it and she took it on full- heartedly, not once, but twice; and was able to overcome it.”
Doctors told Kendra she shouldn’t play basketball anymore after tearing her ACL twice. Looking back, she is glad she choose to continue to compete.
“Apparently I didn’t do too bad cause I got this opportunity, it’s pretty exciting,” Kendra said.
She plans to major in Kinesiology at CBC, having earned All-Conference and All- State recognition as a senior averaging 15 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists per game. Kendra has also received an invitation to play in the 2017 Arkansas All-Star basketball game this summer, the first Lincoln athlete to receive such an honor since her brother Tyler Cummings was selected for All-Star football in 2014.
Kendra has fond memories of competing at Lincoln, noting fan support was always there even when the Lady Wolves didn’t have a good record.
“It’s a great place, a small town, everybody’s always rooting you on and that’s always good.”
“I just want to say thank you to my teammates, we helped each other through a lot of things,” Kendra said. “I want to thank my parents and Coach Davenport, I would not be the player I am today without him.”