Recruiting Report: Miles Lester (2017)
A native of Andover and Overland Park, Kan., 2017 Miles Lester is taking a little different route to the college game. At 6’1, Lester is a natural point guard with terrific court vision and leadership qualities, Lester has the ability to knock down…
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Continue ReadingA native of Andover and Overland Park, Kan., 2017 Miles Lester is taking a little different route to the college game.
At 6’1, Lester is a natural point guard with terrific court vision and leadership qualities, Lester has the ability to knock down open jump shots in the mid-range or from 3 and brings intensity to the defensive end of the court.
Lester said as a kid, he always dreamed of strapping up for one of the nation’s elite prep school teams. Wilbraham & Monson Academy was one of four schools he applied to and decided to attend there because it provided the best opportunity basketball wise, socially and academically.
His first year at Wilbraham & Monson, the team returned Wenyen Gabriel who is now a starter for Kentucky and a projected lottery pick, but was in need of a point guard.
“The opportunity to come in and play right away in the best basketball league in the country was another important factor in my decision,” he said. “Also, I wanted to experience independence and be ready to attend college. We lost a lot from our team last year, and have a roster filled with young guys. We have some really good players though, one 2019 who is ranked in the top 100 and a 2020 who I believe someday will be ranked among the top 100 as well.
“I am really excited about the chance to lead the team as we have gelled together and have locked in on our goal on making playoffs. For any team in the NEPSAC the goal is to make the playoffs as only about one quarter of the high-level teams get the chance to make it so I would say that is our goal and expectations currently.”
Heading into the July recruiting period, Lester was getting a wide range of recruitment from schools at the Ivy and Patriot League level all the way up to a couple high major programs.
But he missed July and much of the fall with injury which set back his recruitment. Now 100 percent healthy, Lester says he has an open mind to considering colleges during the winter period and plans on making a decision in the spring.
This summer he was able to take visits to Tulsa, Columbia, Yale, Lafayette, Cornell, Brown, and Dartmouth and says most of his interest is schools at the high academic level.
“I am thankful for (that) as academics is an extremely important factor in the decision to me,” he said.
In the spring, Lester played on the Adidas circuit with the New England Playaz, one of the top Adidas programs in the country. The squad was coached by John Carroll, who was once the head coach of the Boston Celtics and Lester said he felt he was able to take his defense to another level before the injury.
Lester says he looks forward to playing Vermont Academy, who won the league last year and have a team with a player ranked in the top 10 and three other players in the top 100.
“Every team in our league is stacked like this, so I look forward to the chance to play all of them,” Lester said.