A three-time Gatorade Player of the Year, New Bedford's Ahnay Adams is headed to Miami
MARION — To chase her basketball dream, Ahnay Adams made the decision to leave New Bedford four years ago to attend the Tilton School, a prep school in New Hampshire.
“I wanted to keep going on my own path in my own lane and allow basketball to distract me from going down the wrong route,” Adams said. “It’s been totally worth it.”
Nearly 150 miles from home, a focused and determined Adams took her game to the next level and beyond.
She recently wrapped up an impressive four-year career that saw her become the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,776 points.
“Ahnay is so special; it brings tears to my eyes to think about how hard she has worked,” said Tilton head coach Tara Brisson. “She didn’t just dream it, she did it. I am so proud of what she has accomplished on the court and the person she has become in her four years at Tilton. She has left the place, this program, and this team in a better place than when she found it.”
After leading the Rams to the inaugural Girls National Prep Championship earlier this month, Adams was named the New Hampshire Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year for the third straight year, a rare feat.
“It’s so beautiful and fun to watch Ahnay,” Brisson said. “It’s not only because she’s talented, but she plays with an energy and passion that just shows how much she cares about it and how hard she’s worked for everything she has achieved.”
With a desire to be the best, Adams focuses so much of attention on her weaknesses.
“Most athletes only want to work on their strength. Nay is the complete opposite,” said Brian Rudolph, who has trained Adams since elementary school. “She wants to work on her flaws. She’s diligent with it. She’s not afraid of her flaws. She embraces them and that’s what makes her special.
“I always tell her, 'Your best years are yet to come.'”
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Adams averaged 19.8 points and 7.2 assists per game over her four years at Tilton and ended her career as the nation’s No. 39 recruit by ESPNW.
“She is different,” Rudolph said. “Her mindset is on a different level. I don’t think people realize how much she works at her craft. It’s amazing.”
Adams is committed to play for the University of Miami next year.
“Dreams do come true,” said the 18-year-old Adams. “I just didn’t know it was going to take me this far and allow me to go and play Div. I basketball with a full scholarship, allowing my mom and my little brother to look up to me.”
Adams said she only started playing basketball when she was 10 years old as a getaway.
“I used it as a therapeutic escape,” she said.
It turned into much more than that.
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Adams got serious about the sport in the seventh grade and never looked back.
“We started traveling around the whole country,” she said of competing with MCW Starz AAU program. “Basketball opened up a lot of doors for me.”
Throughout her journey from New Bedford to Tilton to Miami, Adams never lost focus.
“She’s paved her entire way with her own work ethic,” Brisson said. “People have told her, ‘No you can’t,’ and she’s shown them, ‘Yes I can.’
“For me I believe I’ll be talking to you in four years when she is being drafted into the WNBA. I believe the sky's the limit for her. She can do literally whatever she wants to do because she has the determination, the drive, the work ethic and the desire to do it.”
This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford's Ahnay Adams named three-time Gatorade Player of the Year
