Colton St. Cyr graduated from Lafayette High two an a half months ago, his future was uncertain.
“I had no idea what I was going to do,” said St. Cyr, a standout on Lafayette’s basketball team this past winter who led the Rams to a Region I tournament berth while leading the team in scoring and assists.
In fact, the only thing St. Cyr did know for certain was that he wanted his future to include basketball.
“I was unsure about a lot of things, but I realized that this was the last chance I had to do the one thing that I knew I wanted in my life,” said St. Cyr of entering this summer’s AAU basketball season with the up-and-coming Virginia Venom based out of Williamsburg.
An all-region shooting guard and one of the Bay Rivers District’s elite scorers, St. Cyr, who averaged roughly 15 points and five assists per game his senior year, had a few Division III offers from schools such as Emory and Henry and Randolph College, but hadn’t drawn major interest from any Division I programs.
What a difference a summer can make.
Thanks in part to a near five-inch growth spurt that shot the all-of-a-sudden dynamic guard to a hair short of 6’5 and a breakout summer on the AAU circuit, St. Cyr’s recruiting stock has skyrocketed since completing his high-school career back in February.
For the past month, St. Cyr has been chatting both in person and over the phone with coaches from schools such as Coastal Carolina, VMI, Richmond, Radford, Furman and Winthrop – all D-I programs – about the possibilities of him suiting up for their team in the near future.
Last week, Winthrop University offered St. Cyr a scholarship a day before flying him down for a visit after one of the school’s players went down with an injury and decided to red shirt.
After returning home to discuss his final decision with his mother, Marie, and his high school coach, Tony Traver, St. Cyr decided to spend a year at St. Ignacios, a college prep school in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which boasts a program that, according to its website, is ‘dedicated to increasing opportunities for student athletes to be recruited to play college basketball.’
“I didn’t want to rush a decision, and since all of this has sort of come along so quick, I thought it’d be best to spend one year going over all of my options,” St. Cyr said.
While nothing has been guaranteed to St. Cyr, who two months ago would’ve told you that he would most likely be attending Thomas Nelson Community College in the fall, he said simply experiencing the recruiting process has been like a dream come true.
“It’s been the best time period of my life,” St. Cyr said. “It’s been life changing just talking to so many different coaches and hearing them tell me they want me to play for their program. Exciting is an understatement. Not a lot of players from the Bay Rivers get Division I looks, so I can’t even explain how fortunate I am just to be in this position.”
St. Cyr said it all began at a Nike EYBAL Invitational tournament earlier this summer in Charlotte, North Carolina.
His Venom squad had already competed in their two scheduled games on Sunday and were preparing to head home when his team’s coach, Donovan Bridgeforth, was approached by the tournament director.
“He asked us if we wanted to play one more game because some team didn’t show up or something,” Bridgeforth said. “I asked him, ‘Against who?’ He told me it was against Team United (a Charlotte-based Nike EYBL affiliate), the number three ranked team in the nation, on the main center court where are the Division I coaches were. I told him, ‘Sign us up.’”
On one of the biggest of stages Bridgeforth said his Venom squad had ever performed, St. Cyr went out and stole the show from many of the nation’s top recruits by burying six three-pointersin the first half alone.
“That game changed my life, and we weren’t even supposed to be out there,” St. Cyr said.
Among the handful of coaches taken by St. Cyr’s performance was former University of North Carolina star guard Shammond Williams, who spent 13 years playing in the NBA and Europe and is now an assistant at Furman.
“He came up to me immediately after the game and asked, ‘How did I miss this guy?’” Bridgeforth said of Williams, who has been heavily recruiting St. Cyr ever since and suggested the idea of attending St. Ignacios Prep. “That was the reaction from a lot of coaches who watched the game, and now all of them are trying to get him in their programs.
“So many things have come together for this kid because of his hard work.”
Said St. Cyr of earning such high praise from a former college hoops star, “That was the most special moment ever for me as a basketball player,” St. Cyr said. “I met [Williams] at Fork Union a while back and he didn’t really know who I was or anything. Now we talk a lot.”
St. Cyr says it’s no coincidence that while his physical stature has grown, so has his recruiting stock. Since entering his senior year at roughly 6’1, 165 pounds soaking wet, St. Cyr has shot up to a hair short of 6’5 and put on about 10 more pounds of body weight.
His coaches say the added size has helped St. Cyr add another dimension to his game.
“He used to be known more as a spot-up shooter,” Bridgeforth said. “Now he’s so long that you have to respect his ability to get to the basket because his ball-handling and explosiveness have also improved.”
And his jumper is apparently still just as sharp given the remarkable shooting performance he put on in Charlotte back in June.
“It’s definitely helped me expand my game,” St. Cyr said of the late and all-of-a-sudden growth spurt. “The doctors say I could still grow two or three more inches and put on 15 more pounds, so if that happens, my future could look pretty good.”
Bridgeforth added, however, that St. Cyr’s improvements are as much mental as they are physical.
“In order to be a Division I player, you have to hate losing more than you like winning and I think he’s taken on that spirit,” said Bridgeforth, who played Division I ball at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. “His toughness and competitiveness really stand out more. There were a few games this summer that he probably the played the whole game, whereas last year he might have asked to come out for a breather.
“He takes losing more seriously, and that’s the attitude you have to have.”
St. Cyr says he’s anxious to leave Sunday, August 9 for South Carolina to begin training at St. Ignacios, but said it still hasn’t quite hit him yet.
“It’s still kind of surreal to me,” St. Cyr said. “It’s almost like I’m going to wake up any second and be back to the position I was in May.
“I definitely have a lot to be thankful for. Coach Traver has had a huge impact on me as a player and has taught me a lot about the game, and Donovan has been working with me since I was a freshman. I’m counting my blessings.
