GAME DAY Youth Sports Magazine Upstate SC - February 2012 : Page 16

Hoop DREAMS “The doctor told my mother I’d never walk again. After I got out of the body cast, I was four, and started playing basketball ... .” on accident in which she was hit by a car at age 2. She was in a body cast for 1 year. KIONNA JeTer, LES TIMMS III PHOTOS

HOOP DREAMS

Karen L. Puckett

“The doctor told my mother I’d never walk again. After I got out of the body cast, I was four, and started playing basketball ... .” JUST IN THE EIGHTH GRADE, KIONNA JETER averages 15 points per game as lead scorer and serves her Spartanburg High School teammates as a co-captain. In less than five years, she plans to attend the University of North Carolina as a Lady Tarheel basketball player. However, about 12 years ago none of this would have been imaginable. The very sport that Kionna excels at nearly robbed her of the opportunity to just that. When she was two years old, she watched her uncle and his friends playing basketball in the driveway. The ball got away from the players and bounced into the street. Two-year-old Kionna ran after the ball and was hit by a car, causing multiple fractures, including her arm and leg. She was in a body cast for a year. “The doctor told my mother I’d never walk again,” Kionna says. “After I got out of the body cast, I was four, and started playing basketball on my little basketball goal.” She quickly moved past the Little Tykes indoor goal and shooting hoops in her backyard and then in recreational leagues, such as Upward. Lady Vikings Coach Sharon Dillon first heard of Kionna the summer before her seventh grade year. “I watched her play that summer and knew Kionna had no business playing junior high or junior varsity ball,” Dillon recalls. “For her to develop as a player, she needs to be challenged every day.” As the starting point guard who usually plays the entire game, Kionna certainly gets that opportunity. Last year as a starting guard, she averaged 12 points each game. This year as starting point guard, in addition to her scoring contribution of 15.1 points per game, she averages 6.6 steals, 3.4 assists and 4 rebounds. “On defense she’s involved in almost every play. She dives for every loose ball,” Dillon says. “She’s a natural athlete and puts the work into her game and it’s paying off.” When the Lady Vikings leave the court after practice around 5:30 after school each day, Kionna is not finished with her “work.” She goes home to spend some time with her grandmother, Mary Penson, eats dinner, and finds the time to improve her game. “I always do 50 pushups, and I shoot outside on my goal. Then I do drills, ball handling, foot work, the things I know that I have to work on,” Kionna says. But she emphasizes that as much as she loves basketball, she puts her schoolwork first. “I think about school first,” she adds. While her stats are impressive, the 5-foot-5 Kionna stays grounded, thanks to those around her. “I choose to hang around people who are a good influence. They keep me grounded,” Kionna says, adding that her Grandma still has a list of chores for her to around the house, from taking out the trash to cleaning the bathroom. Dillon is also another positive influence on Kionna’s life. “She spends a lot of time with us,” Kionna says. “She pushes me on the court more because she knows I have four more years here. I’m young, and she knows I’m trying to get somewhere in life using basketball to get there.” Dillon, for her part, looks forward to seeing Kionna grow as a player and a young woman. “You just have to come watch her play,” Dillon says. “Kionna has so much potential and she will take every name off the (all-time stats) list. You can’t teach what this child has.”

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