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Rising up in a tough, gritty surroundings in Milwaukee, Te’Jon Lucas discovered refuge throughout his adolescence on the Silver Springs Neighborhood Heart.
There, he received his first summer time job. There, he acquired ACT prep, did his homework, took driver’s ed, ate meals, and, in fact, honed his basketball expertise.
“I noticed associates that handed away to violence,” Lucas recalled. “That neighborhood heart was a blessing. It helped me observe my desires and saved me out of hassle. I went there on daily basis throughout highschool.”
It was there at Silver Springs that he discovered his function — which led to him enjoying school basketball on the College of Illinois, College of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, and, now, BYU.
However his function transcends basketball.
The sixth-year senior level guard has supplied veteran management and he's working to assist the Cougars return to the NCAA Event. Whereas Lucas loves being a part of BYU’s program, he’s additionally happy with his Milwaukee roots and he’s grateful for those who helped him alongside the best way.
A kind of mentors, Anthony McHenry, served as government director of the Silver Springs Neighborhood Heart for almost 20 years. McHenry noticed Lucas’ potential early on. And McHenry left an enduring impression on Lucas.
McHenry would preserve the middle open after hours for teenagers, like Lucas, to assemble on daily basis.
“He’s like one other father to me,” Lucas mentioned of McHenry.
Marie Lewis, Lucas’ mom, mentioned she owes a debt of gratitude to McHenry.
“There’s not sufficient cash for me to pay Mr. McHenry for the issues he did for my son,” she mentioned. “Silver Springs wasn’t only a place to hang around. You couldn’t play and not using a good report card. Mr. McHenry would keep on the weekends. He would pay for teenagers to go to tournaments out of his personal pocket. He made positive that they’d eat. He’d pay for a lodge room.
“I do know with all of my coronary heart that if that wouldn’t have been accessible to Te’Jon, I don’t know the place he’d be. I don’t know if he can be a statistic. I wished to ensure that he was not.”
Lucas’ sister, Marishonta, was additionally positively impacted by Silver Springs. She graduated from school and is now an legal professional.
Lewis set excessive requirements for her kids and he or she taught them to look out for others.
“A whole lot of youngsters from the initiatives on the basketball workforce, I’d take them dwelling, feed them. I might pack meals for them after they go on the street,” she mentioned. “I all the time instructed my kids, rising up, being Christian, you give at church. I introduced them as much as pay their tithes. If you happen to do this, God will bless you. I all the time taught them it’s higher to present than to obtain.”
So it ought to come as no shock that Lucas has huge plans — and people plans contain giving again.
“My mother and Mr. McHenry all the time saved me going,” Lucas mentioned. “I received my work ethic from my mother. Rising up in Milwaukee, you face loads of challenges. There are loads of exterior issues that folks get distracted with, like violence and medicines. I used to be blessed and really grateful for my supporting solid, my mom, my father and Mr. Anthony McHenry.”
Lucas has already earned a level in neighborhood engagement, and sometime he needs to begin his personal neighborhood facilities for teenagers in addition to adults.
“A whole lot of occasions when individuals graduate from school, you’re alleged to have it discovered and also you’re alleged to know what you’re doing. A whole lot of occasions, you don’t,” he mentioned. “Some adults don’t know what they need to do. I need to have a job search, tech studying, pc expertise, to assist individuals out and have sources for these in the neighborhood of Milwaukee to allow them to have a greater end result.
“Ultimately, I hope to open up a couple of, hopefully one in Utah and one in California. That’s one in every of my largest issues — I need to give again to those that have given to me.”
Lewis describes her son as “quiet and humble,” somebody who likes to construct others up.
BYU coach Mark Pope has loved having Lucas, and his unselfish perspective, in this system.
“This Te’Jon Lucas is a particular soul. I shake my head each single day,” he mentioned. “I really like this child a lot. He’s simply anxious about the precise issues. It’s actually spectacular.”
‘Discover Your Goal’
Final August, Lucas signed a reputation, picture and likeness take care of Stele Hats, a Utah-based firm.
STELE X TEJON LUCAS
— Te'Jon Lucas (@too_smoove23) January 8, 2022
Discover Your Goal Hat
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3. Share and tag me in buy put up for a reshare!https://t.co/t1W4ESbntfpic.twitter.com/XrmZXEkfqd
In collaboration with Lucas, Stele has produced hats representing Lucas with the theme “Discover Your Goal.” Lucas hopes his story will encourage individuals to find their function.
“It’s unbelievable having the ability to share my story and perhaps lookup within the stands and see anyone with my hat on or my shirt on. I've loads of help at dwelling. I used to be the one one in Milwaukee to graduate and play Division I basketball,” Lucas mentioned. “I've loads of help in Milwaukee.
“BYU’s fan base is superb, with the next all around the nation,” he continued. “Having them study extra about me and serving to them perceive who I'm as an individual and the way grateful I'm for this chance to play and placed on this jersey.”
What does Lucas need BYU followers to find out about him?
“I’m a grinder and a tough employee. I consider something can occur that you just put your thoughts to,” he mentioned. “That’s what individuals have to know. I used to be raised in Milwaukee and I really like the place I got here from. That’s one thing I need individuals to acknowledge and perceive.”
Lucas was impressed with former BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum’s work with Stele and the best way he’s preventing the stigma surrounding psychological well being.
Stele’s Brock Rasmussen reached out to Lucas and talked about designing hats and shirts primarily based on Lucas’ journey.
“Our aim as an organization is to create a model that’s an aspirational identification of what you’re alleged to turn out to be,” Rasmussen mentioned. “That’s why I really like Te’Jon’s story a lot. He's actually targeted on how his neighborhood helped form who he’s turn out to be. That’s why each hat or shirt has a narrative behind it. We would like individuals to embrace that piece of him.”
From Milwaukee to Illinois, and again
In Milwaukee, Lucas was one thing of a late bloomer. He solely had two scholarship affords after his junior yr of highschool.
However throughout his final yr of AAU ball, schools began noticing him. Lucas was the final individual invited to the NBA Prime 100 camp, which additionally included Miles Bridges, Carsen Edwards and Payton Pritchard, who're all within the NBA.
“I used to be the one one not ranked within the prime 100 (recruits),” Lucas mentioned.
Based mostly on his play, he began getting recruited by USC, Memphis and different colleges. He left the camp with 10 scholarship affords.
“It was loopy. It was surreal to assume, ‘I truly belong right here with these guys.’ I used to be given a possibility and I used to be in a position to reap the benefits of it,” Lucas mentioned. “Extra doorways began to open up. The camp was in June. In July, everybody was like, ‘Who’s this child?’ I’m strolling round with my NBA Prime 100 bag. I received my Illinois supply.”
His senior yr of highschool, his season was minimize brief by an ankle harm. Lucas enrolled at Illinois and began the ultimate 17 video games of the season. There was a training change after his freshman yr and his recreation didn’t match the brand new coach’s fashion.
After his second season at Illinois, Lucas transferred to his hometown workforce, Milwaukee-Wisconsin, with the aim of bringing the town a championship.
In two years, Lucas starred for the Panthers — he was a two-time All-Horizon League honoree and led the convention in steals and assists in 2019-20 — however they fell wanting their goal of creating the NCAA Event.
Journey to BYU
Lucas wished a contemporary begin for his remaining season of eligibility and final spring he entered his identify within the switch portal.
All collectively, Lucas heard from 17 applications, together with Kansas and BYU. The Jayhawks confirmed appreciable curiosity in signing Lucas however on the final minute, they signed Arizona State switch Remy Martin as an alternative.
The Cougars had been the primary workforce to contact Lucas — assistant coach Cody Fueger can be a Milwaukee native and he had recruited him earlier than.
Lucas realized that BYU can be the precise place for him, despite the fact that he’s not a member of faculty’s sponsoring establishment, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“My final aim is to get to the (NCAA) Event. I had my match hopes knocked out my freshman yr,” Lucas mentioned. “That’s one of many issues I wished to do. I may have gone to a really excessive main college. I had an opportunity to decide on Kansas and different colleges. However I wished to go someplace the place the tradition is established. Coach Pope has executed an amazing job of creating gamers.”
Lewis was concerned within the recruiting course of final spring and he or she did her analysis on the colleges courting her son.
“We’re not desirous about coming to Kansas simply to put on your identify throughout his chest on a T-shirt or jersey,” she instructed a Jayhawks coach. “If he can’t be a predominant contributor to your workforce, we’re not .”
Fueger, in the meantime, was persistent, calling Lewis on daily basis.
“After we talked to teach Cody and coach Pope, it was so real,” Lewis mentioned. “It’s what drew us to BYU. Once they say they're household, they actually had sincerity. At BYU, it felt prefer it was household. I belief coach Pope.”
And Pope has put loads of belief in Lucas.
This season, Lucas is averaging 10.8 factors per recreation, a team-high 4.5 assists, and a pair of.3 rebounds. He’s taking pictures 43% from the ground, 35% from 3-point vary and 79% from the free-throw line. In 9 of the final 10 video games, Lucas has scored in double figures.
“Te’Jon Lucas is such an enormous IQ defensive participant,” Pope mentioned. “When you've got a quarterback on the market defensively like Te’Jon, it makes your life straightforward.”
Lucas poured in a season-high 18 factors in a win at Utah and he scored a game-high 16 factors, whereas allotting seven assists, in a victory over Portland.
“Te’Jon is an exceptional passer. He's actually good off the bounce,” mentioned guard Alex Barcello. “He’s a lockdown defender. He likes to get his teammates concerned. Who doesn’t need to play with a man like that?”
Barcello and Lucas have fashioned a good bond, and it reveals on the courtroom.
“I’ve constructed a extremely shut relationship with Te’Jon over these previous few months,” he mentioned. “The center-to-hearts that we’ve had collectively, our minds are in the precise place. We’re the identical. We need to win.”
For now, Lucas and Barcello are targeted on serving to the Cougars get to the NCAA Event.
When Lucas finishes his basketball profession, he plans to indicate his gratitude for what he’s been given by opening his personal neighborhood heart with the hope that it advantages others like him.
“With out the Silver Springs Neighborhood Heart, I wouldn’t be the place I'm in the present day,” he mentioned. “I’m fairly positive that there are children on the market that may positively use the identical assist that I had and slightly little bit of steering simply to allow them to see the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel.”
Alongside the best way, Lucas needs to be a mentor, like Mr. McHenry, and help these youngsters find their function.