Recruiting Report: Amir Whitlock (2020)
Amir Whitlock of DeLaSalle has helped Gain Elite win 17 of 29 games this year while also preparing for his senior year at DeLaSalle. Gain Elite has played a fun schedule traveling to different parts of the country including last…
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Continue ReadingAmir Whitlock of DeLaSalle has helped Gain Elite win 17 of 29 games this year while also preparing for his senior year at DeLaSalle.
Gain Elite has played a fun schedule traveling to different parts of the country including last weekend’s competing in the Adidas Summer Finale – an event they qualified for – and the NY2LA event in Milwaukee earlier in the month. It’s a schedule that Amir believes has helped him a great deal.
“AAU season has went pretty well considering that we have had injuries and our team is basically all new people from last year,” Whitlock explained.
“All year we have played pretty good national competition, for example the Adidas Gold Gauntlet Ginale was really tough, the teams we played in there we very good, and had more experience as a team then us. Talent wise we were never overmatched which made it fun to play in.”
At DeLaSalle, the Islanders rarely play in team events (besides Gopher Team Camp) but they do a lot of work-outs as a group.
“High school wise in the summer we don’t play much as a team, we have only played in the Gopher Team Camp but we have workouts in the mornings during the week so those are the equivalent of us playing together like other teams do to prepare for next season,” Amir said.
The Islanders won their seventh title in eight seasons last March but may face their toughest title defense in a long time. Minnehaha Academy has opted to move up to Class AAA meaning the Islanders and Redhawks will likely clash at some point next year. The Islanders are up for the challenge.
“I expect that we will be pretty good this season and I will play a bigger role with the tough learning curve of a school like DeLaSalle out of the way,” Whitlock said.
The Islander senior class consists of Whitlock, Jalen Travis, Andrew Irvin, Semaj Hart, and Matthew Seawood. They will be supported by juniors Keijuan White, Evan Boyd, and Cade Haskins. The talent for a great team is there.
“We expect nothing less then we ever expect to win state DeLeSalle a history and expectation of winning and we will try to carry out that expectation,” Amir said. “We know it will be tough and the exciting part about it is we aren’t the favorite to win this year so proving everyone wrong always makes things exciting.
“I think winning state last year and all the battles along the season will eventually help us be ready for the battles we have to win next year to become state champs.”
Amir is an excellent student and has spent his summer at Ivy League games as well as talking to Ivy League schools.
“The camps were good because I got to talk to the coaching staff and players at both schools and see how they operate as a program. Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Penn, Columbia and Dartmouth have reach out to me.”