BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Keystone Heights High School seniors Dezaray Bright and Rexi Lewis signed letters of intent to play college basketball during a May 4 ceremony in the KHHS gym.
Bright is going to Cairn University, a private, Christian school in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, that competes at the Division III NCAA level, while Lewis is going to Oak Hills Christian College, a school in Bemidji, Minnesota, that competes at the Division II level in the North Region of the National Christian College Athletic Association.
“Right now, I don’t really feel it yet,” Bright said. “I’ve still got two months before I have to go up there. It’s a great opportunity. I didn’t think I was going to be going that far, and it hasn’t hit that I’m going that far yet, but I am so excited to go.”
Lewis described her opportunity as “unbelievable.”
“I wasn’t ready for it to be over, so I started looking into college ball,” Lewis said. “I didn’t think I could do it. Then, I got a call from Coach (Bryant) Tucker at Oak Hills. It’s amazing.”
Bright said she likes the atmosphere at Cairn, citing the small classrooms and how “loving” everyone she met was.
One of the biggest reasons she chose Cairn is because she felt that was where God was leading her, even though she had the chance to also go to Oak Hills with Lewis.
“It would’ve been great to go there with one of my teammates, but I felt like God was pushing me toward Cairn,” Bright said.
Lewis said Bright has been more than a teammate, describing her as “my best friend for like forever.” She would’ve loved to have continued her playing career alongside Bright, but is happy that Bright has the chance to play at Cairn.
“It’s a higher division. She deserves to play up there,” Lewis said.
As for why Oak Hills was right for her, Lewis said she likes the fact that everyone there feels like they’re part of a “huge family.” On a visit, she heard people say nothing but good things about the other people they were on campus with, whether they be students, teachers or coaches.
“I was like, ‘This is definitely the place for me,’” Lewis said.
She also likes the fact that it’s a Christian school.
“That was pretty important,” Lewis said. “I was willing to go anywhere to play basketball, obviously — (Oak Hills) is in Minnesota. It being a Christian school made it even better. I get to go and explore my faith, get deeper into it and really figure out what God wants me to do.”
Bright had a career that consisted of 1,000-plus rebounds. She was the team’s leading rebounder each of the past four seasons and averaged double-digit rebounds per game the last two years. Keystone Head Coach Jessica Carter said you wouldn’t think Bright’s 5-10 or 5-11 the way she battles against taller players.
“She was going to bump you out of the way, even if you were her own teammate,” Carter said. “She was going to for it. She knew that’s what her job was, and she knew how to do her job.”
Scoring was also something Bright was good at, though she had to be encouraged to take her shots. It’s a role Carter said her team needed Bright to embrace the last three years.
“She should’ve had 1,000 (career) points,” Carter said. “She really should’ve, but she was so unselfish when she first came to varsity.”
As it was, she led the team with 142 points as a sophomore and was the second-leading scorer the past two seasons with totals of 211 her junior year and 301 her senior year.
Bright is used to getting her points around the basket, but Carter said Bright is most likely going to play a guard position or possibly at small forward in college.
“I definitely need to work on being more than just a post player,” Bright said. “I need to be more of a guard, too. I have to make sure I can spread around the whole court and help my team as much as possible.”
Carter said, “She’s going to be working on her outside shots, but she already has been. She’s in the gym almost every day working her outside shots. She shot a couple of threes this year just to start transitioning into that. That’s going to be her biggest obstacle, learning how to hit those shots outside and be confident in those shots outside.”
Working on her game will be nothing new for Bright.
“She works nonstop outside the gym,” Carter said. “She played travel ball with another coach to get even better. She went to camps. She was always working on herself to get better.”
The same could be said for Lewis, who is really still learning the game of basketball. She decided it was a sport she wanted to try out for as a seventh-grader. She didn’t make the team, but served the role of manager that year, which allowed her to practice with the team. Her eighth-grade tryout was successful.
Lewis said she admitted to her first coach that she had no idea what she was doing, but was put at ease when the response she received was that it was OK, that she would be taught what to do and receive help in developing into a player.
She may not have thought she knew much then, but Lewis knows plenty now, if you ask Carter. The coach said Lewis was like an extension of her on the floor during games and was able to get her teammates to play the way they needed to play.
“Rexi knows the game,” Carter said. “She was the one where I would put her in (the game) and say, ‘I need you to help get this back together because we have gone crazy.’ She knew where to tell somebody to go. She knew all our plays. She knows the game, and she’s smart about it.”
Carter said Lewis had the knack of always being where she needed to be. If she didn’t come up with a steal, she’d at least get a hand on the ball and force a turnover that one of her teammates would recover.
Lewis’ court savvy has Carter proclaiming, “She is probably going to be one of the best coaches ever if she ever coaches basketball.”
Carter said one of the things Lewis needs to do at the next level is to stop second guessing herself and be more confident as a player. Carter believes Lewis will have the perfect coach to continue her development.
“I think she’s becoming more confident in her game, and that’s just going to build with this coach,” Carter said, adding, “I think he’s going to develop her into a phenomenal player.”
Lewis said, “I just need to keep working on my confidence and build up my ability to shoot and dribble and be a team player.”
She’s willing to do whatever it takes to get better because she wanted the opportunity to play at the next level and now is ready to embrace the challenges when it appeared as if her dream might not come true.
“It came to a point where I had honestly given up,” Lewis said. “(The offer from Oak Hills) was perfect timing. I just felt like God put it right in front of me and said, ‘This is where you need to go.’”
When it comes to thinking about what it’s going to feel like to step onto the court for the first time as a college player, Lewis said, “Terrifying.” However, she said it’ll probably be like her first-time experience as a junior varsity player at KHHS. That, too, was terrifying, but it eventually became exciting because it was a chance to play at a higher level.
“After the first few seconds, you get into it, and you’re like, ‘This is even better than before.’ I can’t wait to see how much better college ball is than high school,” Lewis said.
That first time on a college court is something Bright has been thinking about.
“I’m imagining it now,” Bright said. “Every time I go to bed, that’s the first thing I think about. ‘How am I going to play? How am I going to do this? I honestly don’t know.”
Whatever happens on the court remains to be seen. Carter, though, isn’t hesitant to say that things are going to work out just fine for Bright and Lewis when it comes to their future in general.
“They are two who are going to make their place in this world,” Carter said. “They’re passionate. They’re determined. They’re dedicated. More than that, they know, ‘Hey. I want to be somebody.’
“They’re just all-around great, young women.”
