The players, coaches and administrators of the 2008 Basketball Coaches Without Borders Youth Summer League sat on the hot outdoor basketball court, staring at the large man with the microphone.
‘‘I’m going to keep it real short,” said Dallas Pryor, recent graduate of Shenandoah University in Virginia and guet speaker at the league’s opening day ceremonies. ‘‘Because I’m about to have a heat stroke myself.”
The kids, many with towels or shirts draped over their heads in a make shift attempt for shade, laughed in appreciation of this gesture. Pryor knew how they felt. Six years ago he was a member of the summer league himself, playing on the same court and in the same heat.
Last Saturday, Dallas Prior returned to the Frederick-based summer league to accept the 2008 Nicholas Leakins Higher Education Completion Award from the Basketball Coaches Without Borders organization. It was the first academic award given by the non-profit summer basketball league since its inception in 2000.
According to BCWB President Dwayne Whitten, Pryor is the first member of the league’s SAT prep program, the Nicholas Leakins SAT study group, to graduate in four years.
‘‘What I remember from it was the opportunity to come out with my friends and have a good time during the summer, playing basketball,” said Pryor, a former All- USA South Conference defensive lineman at Shenandoah, a Division III school. ‘‘I’ve been affiliated with the organization for the last six years or so. I was also in their SAT program. They helped prep me for the test, helped me peruse my collegiate options.”
In attendance that morning were members of Mr. Leakins extended family. The SAT program was created in 2004 and named posthumously after the former educator from the Frederick area.
‘‘These are the kind of things he lived for,” said Edward Leakins Wars, Mr. Leakins nephew. ‘‘He was an educator all his life. Seeing this award in his name and in his honor, he would have been ecstatic.”
For many members of Mr. Leakins family, it was their first visit to College Estates Park in Frederick to see the league. ‘‘I’ve heard a lot of good things about them” said Ermine Leakins Wars, Mr. Leakins niece, ‘‘It gives the kids in the area an opportunity to say ‘This is something I can do’.”
According to Whitten, it is positive word of mouth advertising that has allowed the league to grow over the past eight years. ‘‘When we started out in 2000 we had six teams in the senior division and eight teams in the junior division,” said Whitten.
‘‘This year we’ve gone to twenty total teams; we’ve got twelve in the juniors, eight in the seniors and probably over fifty percent of the people who’ve joined our league this year have responded back ‘how did they hear about us’, it was from a friend.”
‘‘My friends told me about the league and we decided to play,” said Robert Luphan, a 15 year-old student at Thomas Johnson High School. Luphan is one of the many kids in the league from outside the Frederick city limits. According to Junior Board President Raymond Whiten Jr., there are participants registered from as far out as Walkersville, Middletown and Thurmont.
‘‘We like the diversity. We like to bring everyone together. It mainly started as a city type league but its spread out to the county as well,” said Whitten Jr.
Pryor was one of the original kids in the league from the Frederick area. He attended Frederick High, where he was a member of the Cadets’ football team as well as their indoor and outdoor track teams.
He recently graduated from Shenandoah with a degree in business administration with a concentration in management.
‘‘I’ve known Dallas for a long period of time” said Darrell White, head of public relations for the organization,
‘‘Dallas was just a little kid going to public school here in Frederick County and we knew right then and there he was going to be special.”
‘‘To see Dallas grow into the fine young man that he is today and be able to do what we all would like to do, give to the community what it has given to us and that is hope and opportunity, and it’s just great to see him prosper the way he has.”
‘‘A lot of my advice I would give to the young guys is just to stay positive,” said Pryor,. ‘‘There are lots of little things, instances of adversity, they will face as they continue to mature.
‘‘Stay positive, keep the goal in front of them and continue to strive for excellence.”
