Prospect Spotlight: Trey Quartlebaum (2019)
LAWRENCE, Kan. — One of the state’s top young point guards, Lawrence 2019 Trey Quartlebaum is taking on a new role with the Lions as Lawrence gears up for a season with a new-look team.
At 6’1, Quartlebaum is an athletic point guard who can get to the basket, shoot the 3 and shoot the mid-range jumper. He saw significant varsity time off the bench for a talented Lawrence squad a year ago, but has taken his game to new heights in the offseason.
“I’ve been working on having more efficient moves to get my shot off and getting to the basket and playing above the rim,” he said. “The biggest difference in my game from last year is my athleticism. I’ve been working on flying around the court and making plays.”
Quartlebaum has spent the offseason competing for KC Run GMC, one of the nation’s premier 16U squads.
“This spring has been pretty good,” Quartlebaum said. “I didn’t play that much last year so I’ve had a chip on my shoulder going into it to show what I can do. I’ve focused on taking a leadership role on my team and communicating more.”
This June, Quartlebaum has taken on a new role for Lawrence, a squad that featured both talent and depth a year ago as the Lions advanced all the way to the Class 6A state championship game. But the program has a new look this season after suffering big losses to graduation.
“My high school team doesn’t have many returning guys from last season,” Quartlebaum said. “We wanted to go into June and win games but that wasn’t the most important thing to take out of it. We focused on finding our roles, building team chemistry, and getting a feel for each other’s games.
“Last season I was more of a reserve guy off the bench but this season I’ll have to take more of a leadership and scoring role.”
Adding to the losses to graduation has been the loss of Clarence King, a talented 2019 guard who played a big role with the team a year ago. King’s injury will have a big affect on Lawrence this season until he returns.
“Clarence’s injury affects everyone’s role in a way,” Quartlebaum said. “He’s a great scorer, so we’ll have to make up his scoring while he’s out.
“He’s also a great rebounder too so we’ll have to focus on that too. My role will change because now I’ll be looked at to make a play if things aren’t going well.”
Quartlebaum has drawn interest the most interest from Denver and Elon, and has also heard from Florida Gulf Coast.