Persistence - and proximity of family - paid off for Florida State as it nabbed one of the country's top wing prospects in Chasity Clayton of Alexandria, Va.
Ranked No. 30 in the 2008 class by HoopGurlz.com, Clayton chose the Seminoles over Duke, whom she believed had lost interest, according to her club team coach, James Nichols.
Chasity Clayton
At 6 feet 1, Clayton is one of the more dynamic athletes in the country and has undergone a smooth transition from forward to wing. She is extremely long and explosive, and attacks well off the dribble, on which she stays low and slithers through defenses or explodes over them to attack the cup.
Scheduled to make an unofficial visit to Duke in two weeks, Clayton hadn't heard from the Blue Devils since the end of the July evaluation period and assumed their interest had waned.
"What attracted her to Duke to begin with," Nichols said, "was the Ivy-League-level academics, Joanne McCallie's initial enthusiasm about her, Duke's status as a national-level program, and the opportunity to play with former Team Unique teammate Joy Cheek, D.C.-area homegirl Jasmine Thomas, and fellow 2008 Shay Selby, whom she watched play in several adidas-sponsored events over the last spring/summer season."
Florida State was the first school to attempt recruiting Clayton, when she was a sophomore at Bishop O'Connell in Arlington County, Va. Clayton also is originally from Panama City, Fla., and still has most of her relatives, including her grandparents, in the area. Clayton was at an unofficial visit at FSU with her grandparents on Monday and made the commitment to coach Sue Semrau then.
"She also loves the school, and loves the campus," Nichols said. "As for the basketball, she loves FSU's style of play, she really likes the make up of the roster, size-wise and athleticism-wise, and is enthusiastic that FSU will be playing her at the wing/guard-wing/forward positions. She is really enthusiastic about Coach Semrau's stance to 'let me be me, while helping me develop into one of the top wings in the ACC, and in college women's basketball.' Chasity also likes the fact that Florida State is one of the top programs in the ACC, and is an Elite-Eight program; but Chasity also feels that she can help Florida State get to the Final Four, and beyond, in her four years there."
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Glenn Nelson is the founder and publisher of HoopGurlz.com. He also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girl's basketball teams. Glenn previously was the editor-in-chief at Scout.com and a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle Times. His work also has appeared in several books and national magazines. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). For more on Glenn's World, click here [0]. He can be reached at glenn@hoopgurlz.com [1].