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Former Westside star misses home and mother, but boarding school move earned a chance to sign with Duke
Web posted Nov. 12 at 09:53 PM
By Andy Johnston
It is a special time, almost magical, a time when expectations abound and days are spent looking forward to that first game.
It is a time when almost everything else comes second, when life revolves around harsh practice schedules and suppers grow cold waiting for a son who stayed late to shoot a few extra free throws.
It is a time when mother and son rekindle a bond, one so deep, so strong, that it is unique to family.
See, when you are high school basketball star William Avery's mom, you look forward to, almost long for, November.
Only this November is different.
Avery is no longer at Westside High.
The superbly talented young man, who helped the Patriots to a Class AAA state title less than two years ago, transferred to tiny Oak Hill Academy for his senior year. Today, he will sign to play college basketball at Duke.
Her 17-year-old son is 300 miles away, playing for a boarding school tucked away in the rural rolling hills of southwestern Virginia. A school she had never heard of before May. She will attend a handful of games this season, but will miss most of them.
``It's going to be a tough year for her,'' says family friend and AAU coach Norman Parker. ``She gets a special enjoyment out of watching William.''
AVERY NEVER INTENDED on leaving Westside, but then again, he also never intended on sleeping late and skipping all those classes and making all those sorry grades.
His mother tried and tried to wake her son those mornings, but with her having to leave at 5:30 a.m., for an electricians job at Savannah River Site, nobody was around to make sure Avery got out of bed.
``I'd just stay asleep,'' Avery says. ``Sometimes I would go to school late, or not at all. I wouldn't do anything. I'd just sit around the house and watch TV or something. I'd just be lazy or something.''
So while Avery lounged around those warm spring mornings, his grades plummeted. The A's and B's were replaced by C's and D's.
It's not that he wasn't able, it's just that he didn't care. Basketball season was over, his impetus for attending school gone.
``He always told me that if I had let him play three sports he probably would've kept going to the classroom,'' Simonton says. ``I just thought that was too much for anybody. I told him to pick one sport and concentrate on the books. That's the way I felt about it.''
Avery knew his grades were plummeting, but he kept on snoozing through his classes. He kept pulling those covers around him and dreaming of playing Division I basketball, while at the same time, those very dreams were slipping faster than his grade-point average.
``When it dawned on me that I was doing this ... it was stupid ... it was too late,'' Avery says. ``I had already dug myself a hole.''
So with his GPA sitting at 1.4, his future a mess and junior college looking like a definite reality, Avery and Oak Hill found each other.
OAK HILL IS made for students with specific problems like Avery. Students who skip class, who crave special attention, who need the isolation and structured environment that very few places like the school can provide.
It would be tough to find another school more out of the way than Oak Hill, which is located near the miniscule villa of Mouth of Wilson, Va., where radio stations are more static than music and cows outnumber townsfolk (pop. 300).
It is non-existent on most road maps and nothing more than a small dot on others. The nearest town is Independence, Va., some 20 miles to the east.
Life is structured for the 160 students at the 110-year-old Baptist school. Classes are small, usually numbering about 10. Chapel services are held every morning at 8:45 a.m., and church is a must on Sundays. Socializing between sexes is kept at a minimum.
There is no skipping class at Oak Hill.
``I didn't want to take the tour because I had heard stories and I figured if I go up there, I'm not going to come back,'' Avery says. ``I heard there were dirt roads on campus. It was better than that. When we were riding out here, you couldn't see anything. No McDonald's. Nothing like that. No buildings. I knew I was in for something new.''
THERE'S ANOTHER REASON Oak Hill and Avery were a perfect match: basketball.
Amazingly, the little school in the middle of backwoods Virginia is a power. Not just in the state, but nationally.
And coach Steve Smith is always on the lookout for players like Avery. Players who are 6-foot-2, and can drain a 3-pointer as easily as throwing a pinpoint, behind-the-back pass. Point guards who are all-state and average 28 points and receive more letters from college coaches than Santa Claus at Christmas.
With players like Avery, Oak Hill is 316-22 in 11 years under Smith.
Virginia assistant coach Tom Perrin, who was recruiting Avery, knew his situation. He knew Avery's GPA would never allow him to play on the Division I level. He knew Oak Hill could probably help.
``Most of the time, that's how it happens,'' Smith says. ``Somebody will call us on behalf of a student somewhere and then we'll follow up. Usually, I'll know the name, but not every one of them has a chance. After looking at his transcript and hearing about his situation, I knew William had a chance. We knew he was capable of making it.''
So in May, Avery, his mom, and Smith talked for the first time on the phone.
Summer school was needed. Two classes - D's on the transcript - had to be retaken.
``I've been doing this a long time,'' Smith says. ``Sometimes you take a chance on a kid with a 1.4 GPA and it doesn't work out. I knew that wasn't the case with William. You could tell he had the ability.''
Simonton also needed help in paying Oak Hill's $13,000 tuition, and the school offered a generous financial aid package to help cover about 80 percent of the expenses.
Summer session started in July, and on the Sunday before it began, Avery, his mom and Parker made the five-hour drive and saw the campus for the first time.
``Will really didn't want to go summer school,'' Parker says. ``I told him, `You've got to stay, buddy. Don't come home, because if you do, you can kiss college goodbye.' He made the commitment then.''
IT WAS TOUGH, but Avery replaced those old grades with an A and a B.
Life at Oak Hill wasn't as bad as Avery thought it would be - ``It was like jail at first,'' he says - but he has gradually adjusted to the almost non-existent social life, to the structured lifestyle, to the work load, to the drab school uniforms.
Hanging out at Augusta Mall, at the McDonald's on Washington Road or in the parking lot of a pool hall in Cherokee Plaza on Gordon Highway, has been replaced by class, studying, basketball practice and more studying.
``I kind of had second thoughts about coming back after the summer, but mom kind of pushed me,'' Avery says. ``I wouldn't have changed. There's a lot of distractions at home. This was the best thing for me. A change of atmosphere, of environment.
``The social part is the only part I have a problem with, but the social part is not important anyway. If you think short term, it's tough, but if you think long term, you give it up. It doesn't affect me because I'm focused. I know what I'm supposed to do and I'm going to do it.''
Avery's commitment is obvious this semester. He's currently taking six classes and making five A's and one B, which is even more remarkable when you consider an A at Oak Hill is 94 and above and a B is 88 to 93.
``With this environment, we own him,'' says John Parsons, Avery's U.S. Government teacher. ``Here, he can't help but do well. He can't hide. When they start to fall down, they get immediate help. He's a typical Oak Hill student. He just didn't put an effort into it.''
THANKS TO OAK HILL and his new-found dedication, Avery's Division I dream will likely become a reality today.
Nine days ago, the young man who once thought junior college would be his only door to the big time, said he will sign with Duke on the first day of the early signing period, choosing the Blue Devils over Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and Syracuse.
Yes, Duke, the school with two national championships, a sterling academic reputation and those ``Cameron Crazies.''
``I knew my son wasn't a JUCO,'' Simonton says. ``He's going to the Harvard of the South.''
Says Parker, ``William has proved a lot of people wrong.''
Avery had known he wanted to attend Duke since playing in the Bob Gibbons Classic at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium in May. Something about the place attracted him.
``I remember walking out of Cameron and hearing him say how much he loved the place and how he wouldn't mind going to school there,'' Parker says. ``I told him he could if he was willing to make some changes. I think it was then that he really realized that academically he had to make that commitment.''
Says Avery, ``I don't think too many people can say they're going to Duke.''
IT IS NOVEMBER AND Oak Hill played its first exhibition game in what will be a long season last Thursday night. The opponent was a group of vertically challenged students from nearby Alice Lloyd College and the outcome was, well, expected.
The Warriors won 124-62 and Avery was spectacular and the fans applauded his every move.
He scored 18 points, had nine assists, five rebounds and five steals in 25 minutes. He led, he hustled, he defended, everything Smith asked him to do.
Yet something was missing.
In a month when he's on top of life, when everything is going his way, he was still a little down afterward.
``I miss a lot of things about home, but most of all I miss my mom,'' Avery says. ``I'm used to seeing my mom in the stands every game. I don't think she ever missed a game when I was at Westside, but I looked out there (Thursday night) and she wasn't there. That gave me a funny feeling.''
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