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Custis will take courtfor Walters State

June 12, 2007 12:35 am

BY JIM McCONNELL

Making a big impression at North Stafford High School was easy for Darrin Custis. The 6-foot-9 senior has towered over most of his classmates since his sophomore year.

Fulfilling his potential on the basketball court? That wasn't so simple.

Custis, a quintessential "late bloomer," rode the bench for the Wolverines' JV team as a 6-foot-8 sophomore because his desire and work ethic didn't match his stature. As a junior, he teased his coaches and teammates with flashes of brilliance but was too inconsistent to crack the varsity starting lineup.

Finally, when he seemed destined to be remembered mostly as a tall guy who could do some really impressive dunks, something clicked inside Custis' brain. He began to take the game more seriously last summer, putting in the work necessary to become a complete basketball player.

The results have been encouraging. After a strong summer of AAU basketball and a solid senior season for North Stafford, Custis signed recently with Walters State, a junior college in Morristown, Tenn. In two years, he'll have a chance to join the list of former Senators who have gone on to play basketball at four-year schools.

"When I hung out with the players, they seemed really determined to win and get a ring. That's the kind of team I want to play for," he said.

North Stafford boys basketball coach Mike Darnell is convinced that Custis' best basketball is still ahead of him.

"You can see it when the light goes on and a kid starts to believe," Darnell said. "Once he started to realize he could do something with basketball, it's been all systems go."

Custis is the third member of North Stafford's senior class with intentions of playing college basketball next season. Leading scorer R.J. Cornelio already has signed with Division II power Pfeiffer, while backup point guard K.B. Jones was invited to walk on at Division II North Carolina Central.

In the midst of a storybook season, North Stafford's softball players didn't hesitate to take time out to help a friend.

At last Monday's spring sports awards banquet, the Wolverines presented a check for $3,000 to Justin Whitaker, a North Stafford baseball player who is battling cancer.

The team raised the money through three main ventures. The biggest was a raffle for a 5-day trip to Disney World, which was donated by one of the softball players' parents. They also hosted a pancake breakfast and organized a car wash where they encouraged customers to buy $6 raffle tickets.

"Everybody thinks athletes are just in it for themselves, but they're not," North Stafford coach Pam Kantor said.

Brooke Point two-way lineman Isaiah Hamlette performed well enough during Virginia Tech's football camp last Saturday to earn a scholarship offer from the Hokies.

Hamlett, one of the Commonwealth's top defensive line prospects, already had offers from Virginia and Wake Forest. He was one of two local players invited to Blacksburg; the other was Stafford linebacker Jake Johnson, who has orally committed to Tech.