Saturday, October 17, 2009

Steele’s Simmons decides on Tennessee

Thanks in part to a dream she had this past week, Steele girls basketball star Meighan Simmons will fulfill her childhood dream and play college basketball at Tennessee.

Simmons, a senior shooting guard who is among the nation’s top recruits, announced the commitment Saturday night after wrestling for several weeks between Tennessee and LSU.

“It’s always been a dream (to attend Tennessee), but I just needed to know that that was actually the place I am supposed to be,” said Simmons, the reigning two-time Express-News Player of the Year who averaged 24.9 points last season.

“I prayed before I went to sleep every day this week asking for God to show me a sign.”

She got the sign she needed during the wee hours of Friday morning.

After awaking at 3 that morning from a confusing dream in which she saw both Tennessee and LSU “pulling” on her, she fell back asleep and had a second dream that offered some clarity.

“I saw myself in the huddle, and the coach was drawing the play, and it was (Tennessee) coach Pat (Summitt),” she said. “She was drawing up a play for me to hit the game-winning shot at the national championship. We ended up winning the game, and then I woke up.

“I asked myself, ‘Did I really just have a dream about that?’ All of that stuff with having a dream about committing to Tennessee as a child, it was just a confirmation.”

Beyond the dream, the 5-foot-9 Simmons said she picked Tennessee because of the atmosphere.

She informed Summitt of her decision Saturday evening and said she might sign her national letter of intent during the early signing period from Nov. 11-18.

“LSU was an amazing opportunity,” she said, “but what made my decision was that at Tennessee, the girls acted like my high school basketball team. They made everything fun.”

Simmons, who is ranked as the nation’s 24th-best senior prospect on the ESPN HoopGurlz 100 list, needs 342 points to tie former Jay star Clarissa Davis’ city scoring record of 2,759 points.

Simmons averaged 4.7 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 3.0 assists last season in leading the Knights to their second straight trip to the Class 4A state semifinals.

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