Calvin Temple becomes 1st D1 basketball player at Center Hill
Calvin Temple considered holding off signing his national letter of intent to IUPUI to see if he could garner more interest from Division 1 programs from now until the end of his senior season.
But his mother, Lisa Miller, and stepfather, Aundra Miller, made sure he wouldn’t miss a great opportunity at grabbing a free athletic scholarship.
On Friday, Temple, who wore a Jaguars’ long sleeve T-Shirt with the hat to match, became the first basketball player at Center Hill to sign to a D1 school.
“It feels great, but I didn’t know I was the first one really,” Temple said. “Hopefully, the younger kids will follow in my footsteps. I hope I started a tradition.”
It took a lot of patience for Temple to get to this point. It took a lot of time in the gym for the 6-foot-1 point guard to get the attention of different colleges from around the country. Remember, after Temple transferred from Olive Branch to Center Hill at the beginning of his junior year, he was ruled ineligible to play for the Mustangs.
Maybe, Temple needed a setback for a strong comeback. He’s been on a tear ever since, from last summer at MUS to the start of the high school basketball season. His coach, Newton Mealer, saw the fight in Temple once the handcuffs were taken off of him.
“It’s exciting for him, because of the story of Calvin Temple, how he has gotten to where he is through the adversity,” Mealer said. “All of the things he has gone through, to still be able to lead our team and to still be able to be a humbled guy, it’s a special moment for that reason for me as a head coach.”
The recruiting process can be long and overwhelming at times. Not only did Temple had to focus on his schoolwork and show up for practice every day, but he had to take phone calls after practice from coaches that were interested in his services. From there, official visits were set, and Temple had to pay close attention to which school really had his best interest.
This type of process can take months up to a year before a kid decides on where he wants to go. Temple has that process out of the way and can now focus on helping Center Hill compete for a district and state championship.
“I want to kill, kill everyone in our way,” said Temple, who’s coming off a 23-point, five-assist, and six-steal performance in the Mustangs’ 96-63 win at Horn Lake to keep Center Hill undefeated (4-0).