Wesley Myers won a pair of city championships, but his greatest accomplishment came away from the court.
It was in the classroom, where the recently graduated Boys & Girls 6-foot-2 combo guard truly got it done.
Myers verbally committed to Niagara this week, and barring something unforeseen, will become the first Boys & Girls player to go straight from high school to Division I in four years. Boys & Girls coach Ruth Lovelace told The Post Myers is a qualifier after finishing strong and getting the required SAT score, snapping a recent trend of academic shortcomings at the school for star basketball players.
“I take pride in that,” Myers said. “That’s an accomplishment.”
“He’s a kid who pretty much listened academically, listened to what he needed to do,” Lovelace said. “It was important for him and his family to qualify, and he got it done.”
The Brooklyn native’s recruitment was unusual. As a junior, when he was a key part to the Kangaroos winning a third straight PSAL Class AA crown and a state title, big-name programs such as South Carolina, Dayton and Miami were interested, but this past year there was very little buzz about him. Prep school was an option, before programs such as Niagara, Hofstra and Rider came on strong late.
“I think Wesley can have a great career at that level,” Lovelace said of the MAAC. “In his career, he has gotten recruited by bigger schools, but I named five kids to him who didn’t play as freshman and didn’t play as sophomores. I asked him, ‘What do you really want?’ My thing is to go somewhere where they want you, where you’re going to play. That’s what’s it’s really about, that’s what you want out of your basketball career.”
Despite winning those city crowns prior to this past season, The High failed to send any of those players — such as Mike Taylor, Leroy Isler and Malik Nichols — straight to Division I ranks.
Myers paid as much attention to his classes as his jump shot. His senior year was solid, if unspectacular, as the unassuming guard averaged 15 points, nearly five rebounds and four assists, though the Kangaroos’ three-year run atop the PSAL ended in the second round of the playoffs.
Lincoln shooting guard Isaiah Whitehead added scholarship offers from Miami, Arizona and UCLA this week, he said. They join St. John’s, Minnesota, Louisville and Syracuse as the top schools recruiting the highly rated rising senior.
Whitehead’s Lincoln teammate, Elisha Boone, picked up offers from Hofstra and Drexel.
Iona signed 6-foot-11 forward Daniel Robinson of IMG Academy in Florida.
Former Christ the King star Isaiah Lewis signed with JUCO Hutchinson Community College in Kansas.