“Where Are They Now” – Catching Up with the Players of Ridge Road’s 2018-2019 Juggernaut
Every now and then, you have a perfect storm of sports excellence. A great example of this is the 2018-2019 Ridge Road Middle School basketball team. Start with the basics – 20-0 record, city champions, smallest margin of victory an…
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Continue ReadingEvery now and then, you have a perfect storm of sports excellence. A great example of this is the 2018-2019 Ridge Road Middle School basketball team. Start with the basics – 20-0 record, city champions, smallest margin of victory an 11 point win over Bailey Middle School (a game in which Ridge scored the first 16 points of the game) and a 17 point destruction in the finals of the NBA All-Star Invitational against Providence Day whose leading scorer, Chandler Brooks, is widely viewed as a big time, high major Division One recruit. Almost as compelling as their accomplishments though was the unusual manner that this team came together.
As is customary when youth teams are dominant, there were the usual whispers about “recruiting”. As the blowouts piled up, angry parents, who remembered Ridge as being mediocre in prior years, wondered why and how all this talent had coalesced on this Raven Squad. To put this transformation in perspective, the top two returning 8th graders on the Ridge team were supposed to be Nykerah Engle, a smooth,long lefty PG with great feel and Jada Creech, a bruising big, who now as a 9th grader is getting first quarter minutes on a Mallard Creek team that looks like an early season championship contender. Creech started no games for Ridge and Engle only ended up starting six out of twenty games, despite being a captain. Five young ladies were the primary starters over the course of the season. These are their journeys and their stories.
Ashley Fowler – The 5’8″ sharpshooter had spent the prior two years at Corvian Charter before deciding to attend Ridge where she literally walked across the road to attend. A rugged wing with range out to 22 feet, she was a consistent double figure scorer for the Ravens and is now one of four 9th graders playing for a potent Mallard Creek varsity squad.
Kairah Booker – The 5’9″ big moved to Charlotte after her father, long-time NBA vet, Trevor Booker, injured his foot and was unable to catch on with an NBA team last year. She quickly moved into the starting lineup and provided playmaking and rim protection for the lady Ravens. Today she is earning solid minutes in the Mallard Creek Mavericks big rotation as a true freshman. Tremendous untapped potential.
Jordan Latter – The 5’7″ wing was a defensive dynamo and a tempo setter for the lady Ravens. She was able to finish with either hand at the rim and could be counted on to be a lockdown defender on the opposing team’s best scorer. Now, she is matriculating at Providence Day School for the undefeated Knights. She is a key part of their rotation as evidenced by her 11 point scoring effort against South Lake Christian Academy earlier this week.
Samiyah Suffren – A 5’6″ combo guard and a force of nature for Ridge. She stuffed the stat sheet on a regular basis, and along with Latter and her backcourt mate (see below) terrorized the competition on the defensive end of the court. Now Suffren is running point for the undefeated lady Mavericks of Mallard Creek as a freshman and is averaging 16 points a game after posting a career high (2 games, hahaha!) 21 points in Creek’s 54-44 victory against Butler.
The aforementioned backcourt mate of Samiyah Suffren was the only 7th grader in the starting lineup for Ridge. She also, on a team with Suffren and three other girls playing prominent roles on varsity squads in the 2019-2020 season, led Ridge in scoring, assists and steals. The final piece of the Ridge puzzle was 5’4″ PG Lili Booker. Booker has a tremendous knack for making the right play and her basketball instincts were otherworldly. She scored 19 points in the city championship against Chandler Brooks and Providence Day despite dealing with the flu and a 102 temperature an hour prior to the game. Her exploits during Ridge’s season earned her an invitation to Tampa and the Middle School All-American games held during the Women’s Final Four. Sadly though, Booker is a cautionary tale. In March she suffered a serious knee injury which has sidelined her ever since. She is expected to be back on the court in January 2020. If she returns to form and joins Suffren in Mallard Creek’s backcourt for the 2020-2021 season, the Mavericks will be a formidable foe for years to come. Best wishes to this dynamo for a speedy and complete recovery.