Smiles spread across each face as they contemplate the matchup. As talented a basketball player as Shayla Fields is, she knows going up against Sharmari Spears is a tall order.
“I don’t know. He’s got outside-inside game, I’ve got outside-inside game,”Fields mused. “It’d be a tough match even though he has height on me.”
Spears has no such reservations about playing Fields.
“I’d beat her,”he reported quickly with a wide grin. “I’d post her up and take advantage of her. And I’ll stop her jump shot.”
Fields andSpears actually haven’t played one-on-one yet, which is OK. Both freshmen have plenty of time to hit the courts over the next 312 years at Salisbury High.
Their coaches and long-suffering fans ask just one thing, though:Don’t get hurt. Fields and Spears have infused a high level of excitement back into the Hornet basketball programs, and both players have their sites set on some pretty lofty goals.
“I want to be the first freshman in the county to be Player of the Year,”Fields said. “And I want to break the scoring records here at Salisbury High.”
For Spears?
“Bring two state championships to Salisbury,”he said. “And I want to break the all-time Rowan County scoring title held by Scooter Sherrill.”
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Don’t mistake those comments as brash or cocky. It’s just a simple fact that the way Fields and Spears have performed as freshmen puts them in line to leave Rowan County as among the greatest ever.
Fields enters tonight’s game as the third-leading scorer in the county at 19 points per game. Her 306 total points puts her 78 ahead of the pace of all-time girls leader Stephanie Cross, who began her career at North Rowan in 1990-91.
Spears ranks second in county scoring with 17 points per game. His 272 points through 16 varsity games puts him 151 ahead of the pace of West’s Sherrill in his freshman season of 1996-97.
The numbers to reach? Cross, who had a fine career at the University of Maryland, scored 2,019 in her days with the Cavaliers. N.C. State’s Sherrill finished at 2,469 points.
Better than the individual feats, the Hornets’ boys and girls squads are fighting for playoff spots in the 2ACentral Carolina Conference.
“We knew we were going to build our teams around young kids,”boys coach Drew Mathews said of he and girls coach Jennifer Shoaf. “They’re special athletes.”
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Shoaf found herself spending a lot of time at Knox Middle School last year. Word of the eighth-grade scoring machine had gotten out, and the Salisbury High head coach wanted to see the incoming talent.
When the eighth-grade hoops season ended, Shoaf got to see the quick 5-foot-9 guard again — from the wrong side of the court.
“We played against her this summer at a High Point camp and I said, ‘Gosh, Ihope I never have to play against her again,’ ” Shoaf said. “I kept thinking I’m so glad she’s going to be with me, that’s going to help us so much.”
Exactly how much remained to be seen. Most freshmen don’t come in and dominate from Day 1, but on opening night against SouthRowan, Fields wowed her coach, and not just with the 17 points.
“She was all over the place, it was so all-around,”Shoaf said. “I don’t think anybody really expected her to do all she’s done so far. I can’t wait to see what it’s going to be like a couple of years from now.”
Fields said she started playing at the age of 5 and joined the AAU ranks at 9. She’s gotten plenty of attention from her days with the Carolina Classics squad, including letters from loads of colleges —before she stepped foot in high school.
She’s seen few speed bumps in her first year. A three-point performance against East Rowan in the third game of the season is long forgotten thanks to seven games with 20 or more points. She hit her career high of 30 against Lexington last week.
“I thought coming to high school was going to be pretty easy after doing everything in middle school,”Fields said. “It’s not hard, but it’s more difficult than I thought it would be.”
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Spears said his first dunk in high school stands out as a highlight so far this season. And it wasn’t a token two-hand flush. The 6-5 forward raced in on a fastbreak and skied for a rim-rattling one-hander against Robinson in the sixth game of the year.
“Right now he is a very talented offensive player, probably one of the best freshmen we’ve had at Salisbury in a long time,”Mathews said. “Some of the areas he’s going to have to improve is his work ethic in practice and the class room. By the time he finishes he should be one of the best players in this area.”
After dominating at Knox the last two years, Spears too had to adjust to the high school game. He’s had a few off nights, like the combined nine points in two games against talented West Rowan. But he also owns eight games of 21 or more points, and hit his career best of 31 against Robinson.
“Being a freshman, you’re facing juniors and seniors who’ve been playing varsity for a while, and they’re blocking your shots,”Spears said. “But it makes me better by having better people to play against.”
Mathews and Spears set a freshman season goal of 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. While Spears falls just short of those numbers at this point, Mathews said he’s pleased with the way Spears has handled himself.
“He’s in a unique family situation with a single-parent raising him by herself,”Mathews said. “He’s doing probably the best I’ve seen a young kid do in a long time. He’s handled his success very well and a lot of that success goes to the credit of his teammates.”
Spears said being raised by his mom, Ruthie Jones, has only made him “stronger mentally and physically.”
And don’t think that his teammates let him off the hook completely.
“The other guys on the team pick on us and have fun because we’re underclassmen,” Spears said. “They say they’re better than us, make us go get balls, stuff like that. But they’re just joking.”
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Their easy-going attitudes make Fields and Spears easy to like.
“All the teachers love her, they come watch her play,”Shoaf said. “She’s the talk of the school. The guys come in and they don’t want to know how we did —it’s, ‘How many did Shayla score?’ ”
This first whirlwind of a season has just a month remaining, which is hard for Spears to believe.
“I don’t want the year to end,”Spears said. “We’ve got some seniors I’ve bonded with closely and I’m not ready for them to leave yet. I look to them as my big brothers, to lead me on the right path.”
Luckily, Fields and Spears will have each other for three more seasons of Hornet basketball.
“We talk a lot, ask each other how many points we’re going to drop,”Fields said. “We just talk fun basketball.”
Don’t be surprised if discussions about that one-on-one matchup heat up soon, too.
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4256 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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