ROCKINGHAM — Following his first varsity season on the hardwood for the Richmond Senior High School basketball team, Nygie Stroman has been selected as one of the top 100 players in the state of North Carolina.
The 6-foot-6 sophomore power and small forward splashed onto the scene for the Raiders coming off a knee injury that kept him sidelined during his freshman year. He was a major part of Richmond’s turnaround season that saw it go from seventh in the conference standings to third.
The Raiders (17-12), Stroman and head coach Donald Pettigrew overcame a 1-5 start and strung together eight straight Sandhills Athletic Conference wins in the latter part of the season to make it to the second round of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association playoffs.
Stroman exploded onto the scene midway through the season, and finished the year averaging 11.8 points per game. He netted a career high 27 points against Purnell Swett High School on Jan. 25, and was second on the team with 6.2 rebounds per game.
His selection as one of the state’s best players came from Greg Grantham, the executive director of the North Carolina Basketball Coaches Association. Pettigrew received an email on Tuesday from Grantham, stating Stroman had been chosen to participate in an exclusive camp this summer.
“Coach Pettigrew called me to the office on Tuesday, and I thought I was in trouble,” Stroman smiled. “He told me I’d been selected and I really wasn’t expecting it.
“I really didn’t think people noticed how I played this season,” he added. “But I’m glad they did. This is a huge accomplishment for me, especially coming off my knee injury.”
The North Carolina Top 100 Showcase Event will be held at Davie County High School on June 22. Grantham noted that this will be “the only individual player showcase in the month of June that Division I coaches can attend.”
A one-day showcase, the event is expected to draw top Division I college coaches from around the state, as well as from Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Recruiters and college coaches from Division II and Division III programs will also be in attendance.
It will serve as an opportunity for Stroman and other rising standout players to show off their skills and compete against one other for possible college playing careers.
Although Stroman was selected as one of the top 100 players in the state, there will be 120 spots available for high school basketball players to participate.
“This is a chance for me not only to get my name and my play out there, but people are going to start to better recognize our program,” Stroman said. “We are trying to get the Raider basketball team recognized so we can have guys go to play at big colleges.
“I’m going to be competing against some of the top players in the state, and that’ll show me what I need to work on and what I need to do for my junior and senior years,” he added. “It’ll be a measure of where I am with other players in the state, and it’s my goal to be one of the best.”
Pettigrew, who has coached Stroman as a youngster with AAU basketball, repeated several times through the 2018-19 campaign that Stroman “was going to be something special” in the years to come.
And getting selected to the North Carolina Top 100 Showcase Event is a pretty good way to start his junior season.
