The Lewis Chronicles: Part 1

Ron Bailey, Publisher

Talented, intelligent H.S. junior guard consents to chronicling his season.

December 1, 2010 - Hello, my name is Jamal Lewis and I am a 16 year- old Christian, student-athlete from Springdale, Maryland. I am a 6-foot, 165-pound, starting point guard for the prestigious Sidwell Friends School in Northwest, DC. I have been attending this school since 7th grade and this is currently my junior year. I was a little hesitant when Ron Bailey, from I95Ballerz.com, asked me to write a diary on his website because I had no idea what I was going to talk about. I thought about it though and realized that this was the perfect opportunity for people to understand what my life is like going to a school like Sidwell and playing a high level of basketball.

Jamal Lewis, at an unsupervised workout this fall, applies effort to both his crafts; academics and hoops.

As many of you know, Sidwell is one of the best academic schools in the country, with a college like atmosphere and college level courses. The average student at my school is typically two years ahead of another student in the same grade at another school. My GPA’s have ranged from a 2.8 to a 3.4. My average GPA from my sophomore year was about a 3.4 and that was my best year academically since I’ve been going to Sidwell and trust me I was excited.

Now that you know a little bit about my life as a student, I can now tell you a little about my life as an athlete. Sidwell is not a traditional basketball power with great basketball history. However, my coach, Eric Singletary, is looking to change that and has done a good job coaching us and putting us in situations where we can show people what we can do. We have played in the Rock Summer league, the Gonzaga DC Classic, and the Ronald Curry Christmas Tournament, where we have played and beaten good teams. In my first two years of playing high school basketball, I have been lucky enough and am truly grateful to have been named all-MAC all-District first team, alongside Tyler Thornton of Gonzaga, Cedrick Lindsay of Gonzaga, and Donte Thomas of Ballou, a honorable mention all-Met.

Last summer, I played with DC Assault 16’s, under coach Nate Britt. We played against some of the best players in the country in some of the best tournaments of the summer like the Desert Duel in Phoenix and the adidas Super 64 in Las Vegas. My play in the summer and with Sidwell has earned me offers from GW, VCU, Delaware, Boston University, William and Mary, Penn, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale. Some other schools that have expressed interest in me are Boston College, UVA, Miami, St. Josephs, Notre Dame, Stanford, Rice, James Madison, and Memphis among others. I am really excited about these offers and I look forward to what God has in store for my future.

Thanks for reading my first diary entry and be sure to look for my other entries every other week!