This Apalachee freshman basketball player moved to Georgia for an opportunity. Now it's here
“That’s literally Curry,” freshman John Tavarez shouts as Peyton Denmark’s three-point shot banks through the net. The crowd is loud and Apalachee is shortening the gap.Denmark is a freshman starting guard for the Wildcats, and probably the best player head coach Bill Batson said he will ever have the opportunity to work with.
While she didn’t score a ton of points in last week's 45-44 loss to Jackson County, her presence on the court was prominent. She didn’t take to the bench until there were two minutes left in the game, and even then, it was only for a brief stint before she was back in the thick of it trying to rally from their two-point deficit, adrenaline pumping through her veins.That can be a lot of pressure on a 14-year-old.
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"My team would tell you, I'm harder on Peyton than I am on anybody," Batson said. "I demand more out of her than I do anyone, and I think that helps keep her humble. We have seven phenomenal seniors on this team that I'm definitely going to miss next year and they kind of big sister her a little bit, too."
Denmark landed in Georgia for a reason. Her dad, Shawn Denmark, explained that they moved to the Peach State nine and a half years ago from a small-town in New York specifically so her career could blossom.
"If you're a standout athlete out there (in New York), you might go D3, but down here are the opportunities where you'll have Georgia looking at you, stuff like that," he said. "The reason we're in Georgia in the first place is that. We wanted to give more opportunities to both of our kids. ... The travel ball programs, the high school programs down here are so much better than they are out there. Again, what's happening with her right now is exactly why we're here in Georgia. Our sacrifice is (working out)."
Denmark already has the attention of big-name colleges such as Georgia, Georgia Tech and Ole Miss, according to Batson — colleges aren’t allowed to recruit until junior year. They've been in talks with him about her and her abilities − and the fact that she stands at 5-foot-10 at such a young age.
"It's kind of hit me that like, this is real," Denmark said. "This is real and I've got to focus now, because this is where (my career) is going."
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There are already some comparisons to Iowa great Caitlyn Clark, although only time will tell, but pro aspirations don't currently lie in her plan. Denmark has a dream mapped out for herself, and it doesn't include playing in the WNBA. She wants to play college basketball, preferably under Katie Abrahamson-Henderson at UGA, and then become a coach. She's already gathering experience in the second half, assisting her dad in coaching her 7-year-old brother's basketball team for the second year.
"I think it's pretty rare to not want to play as a pro, but I want to coach," she said. "I love to coach and (work with) kids. I'd prefer to coach college, but everything starts somewhere, so if it takes starting at the high school level or middle school level, then that's what it takes."
She's impacted the kids already, including Batson's daughter who is in the sixth grade. Part of the reason his daughter decided to give basketball another shot was because of Denmark, and he said she's thrilled that when Denmark is a senior, she'll be a freshman and they'll get the chance to play on the same team. The middle school girls show up to watch her, they want to be like her, they want to be around her.
She's an icon for young girls, even as a young girl herself.
Denmark has her whole life ahead of her. Batson said that's what's so exciting, the fact that they have much more time together. He's been coaching her since last year, when she joined the high school's junior varsity team as an eighth grader. He also helps run her AAU organization, Southeast United Elite.
"I coached every single (JV) game that she played in, on top of every varsity game, just because I knew how special she could be and she's going to be," Batson said. "We've been at this thing for a year and a half now and the potential is the part that excites me the most, seeing where she is now compared to where she will be in three and a half years, it's night and day. She's already an excellent player, ... the future is very bright."
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Apalachee High School's Peyton Denmark proving herself in freshman year
