Southwest men’s basketball coach Verties Sails, Jr.
has announced the signing of six student-athletes to
National Letters of Intent. The group includes
Westwood High School’s Antonio Young and Nathan
Walton, Hamilton High’s Donald Boone, Christopher
Evans of Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in Ft.
Worth, Texas, and Greg Grimes of Louisville Ballard
High School and Laurinburg Institute, and Richard
Lively of Silver Lake Regional High School in
Kingston, Massachusetts.
Young, a 6’0” guard, averaged 18.0 points, two
rebounds, and three assists per game as a senior
under Westwood coach Harold Johnson. Young was named
All-District 16AA, honorable mention All-State, and
to The Commercial Appeal’s Best of the Preps
All-Metro Team. He scored a career-high 33 points
three times- against Fairley, Carver, and Kingsbury.
Walton, a 6’4” guard, was a teammate of Young at
Westwood and averaged 12.7 points, six rebounds, and
seven assists per game. He scored a career-high 32
points against Trezevant. Walton was named to the
2005 Memphis All-Star Team.
Boone, a 6’3” guard, played for former Saluqi player
Keelon Lawson at Hamilton High. Boone averaged 15.5
points, 11.5 rebounds, and four assists per game,
leading the Wildcats to a 25-10 record, the District
16AAA tournament runner-up and the semifinals of the
Region 8AAA tournament. Boone was selected to The
Commercial Appeal’s Best of the Preps All-Metro
Team, All-District 16AAA, and was Most Valuable
Player of the Martin Luther King Tournament.
Evans, a 6’7” post player from Paul Lawrence Dunbar
High School in Fort Worth, Texas. Evans averaged 22
points and 14.5 rebounds as a senior and was named
to the all-district and all-state teams. As a
sophomore, he played on Dunbar’s 2003 State
Championship team. Evans was coached by the
legendary Robert Hughes, who will retire this season
after winning 1,333 games in his career – a United
States high school record.
The
6'7" Grimes, who attended prep school for one year
at Laurinburg (NC) Institute, played his high school
basketball at Ballard High School in Louisville,
Kentucky. Grimes averaged 15.0 points, eight
rebounds, six assists, and five blocks his senior
season and was named to the Louisville All-Metro
Team. In 2004, he led Ballard to a 27-8 record, the
region championship, and state runner-up.
A
prototypical power forward, the 6'8", 245-pound
Lively was a three-year letterman for coach Dick Arieta at Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston,
Massachusetts, where he averaged 15 points and 12 rebounds per game. A
two-year starter in high school, Lively led Silver Lake to the Division
1 state quarterfinals.
