The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER helping Webb School clinch their second consecutive senior girls basketball title in Cookeville, Tennessee, rising young basketball sensation Rhema Collins was happy to return home to spend time with her family and get some good old home cooking.

Collins, the 17-year-old, 6-foot, 2-inch forward, played an integral part in Webb’s 68-48 win over Middle Tennessee Christian School on March 5 in the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association Division II Class A championship.

The 11th grader, in her first year at Webb, has been playing basketball for the past 10 years, including a stint at both Jordan Prince Williams High and St John’s College before she left to go to Schoolhouse Prep in Miami, Florida, and eventually transferred to Tennessee.

“It’s a great feeling. This has been my dream since I was little,” Collins said. “I always told my brothers that I want to win a state championship and we did.”

Playing on the team coached by Matt Shewmake and Eric Brewton, Collins was called upon to do a lot of rebounding and to keep her opponents from imposing their will inside the paint.

“The competition was tough,” Collins admitted. “The girls play with a lot of hunger. Nobody just lays down and allows you to beat them. We had to fight for everything we wanted.”

Home on spring break before she returns to Tennessee on Sunday, Collins said she just wanted to spend some time with her family, including her parents Angela and Steve Collins and four brothers, whom she hasn’t seen in a while.

Of course, the other thing she was excited to do at home was to eat a lot of Bahamian food, especially her favourite being snappers and peas and rice, which she claimed she can’t get in Tennessee.

When she returns to Tennessee, she will prepare to play in the AAU Tournament from April to July. Then it’s back to Webb to begin preparing for her senior year and the journey to college where she intends to pursue a degree in sports medicine, if her goal of playing professionally in the Women’s National Basketball Association as a pro overseas doesn’t work out.

To those Bahamians, whom she played with and against and are still trying to live out their dreams of playing basketball, Collins advised them not to give up.

“Just keep going, Don’t give up. You can’t just sit around and do nothing because it’s not going to come just like that,” she said.

“Hard work brings talent and talent doesn’t work hard.”

Her mother Angela Collins said she’s overwhelmed by the achievement of her daughter.

“I am so blessed to have a talented daughter like her. She’s focused,” she noted. “I’m very excited and I am one very proud parent. It’s very good to have her home because she lives so far away and I really don’t travel like that.”

Angela Collins said eventually the goal is to be in the stands watching and cheering her on.

“She’s growing up and she has a mind of her own, so as long as it’s something positive to take her through life, I’m happy for her,” the elder Collins lamented.

“I believe she will be going to the WNBA.”

She noted that they are looking forward to Rhema Collins setting the sporting platform for the family and after earning the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture Rising Star Award last year, the younger Collins acknowledged that she is ready for the challenge.

Collins admitted that school has been going great so far off the court and she’s looking forward to completing the year in May.

And after playing on the junior national team at the age of 14, Collins said she will be willing and ready to represent the Bahamas again if her number is called to make another international trip.

Collins thanked coaches Terrance ‘Red-Eye’ McSweeney from the Diamond Basketball Development Programme, Varel Davis from the Bahamas junior girls national team, and the faculty and staff of St John’s College for the role they all played in her life.