Newcomer Danzy provides spark for Lee Academy hoops, named Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week

Everything had to fall perfectly into place for Lee Academy to find their new star player in AJ Danzy.

His father, Arthur, was friends with Cavalier Athletic Director Lee Gainey growing up and eventually moved north to New York. That's where Danzy was raised and developed his skills on the court. Last year, the Danzys moved back to the area, and AJ played for North Central.

As luck would have it, Lee Academy was looking for someone to take over the basketball program long term. Brad Bochette, the school's headmaster, took over the program in the middle of last season when Woody Lathan stepped away for health reasons. While Bochette loves basketball, splitting time between basketball and his full-time job as headmaster is a challenge. Gainey says his old friend was back in the area, and the rest is history.

AJ Danzy has been the player the Lee Academy program has desperately needed. He instantly stepped in and provided a scoring punch, scoring 53 points in two wins last week. That performance helped him earn Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week honors, earning the support of his new program.

The struggling Cavs needed a spark, and Bochette is glad he found one in the electric senior guard.

"Definitely an experienced player and a ball-handler. Those are both things we were lacking last year. We had no seniors last year, so it was pretty much a group that had played JV and moved up to play in a very difficult classification and region. We just did not have a lot of nights last year where we had a chance. Having someone with his experience and his ability to score, that's made everybody else better."

Danzy provided two strong performances last week, which were sorely needed. Most of the Cavalier roster didn't have much time to focus on basketball leading up to the season, as they were still hard at work on the gridiron. Seven players on the basketball team were on the SCISA 1A state champion football team at Lee, so they only had four practices before tipping off against Carolina Academy in the opener.

The Cavaliers were able to grind out a 53-51 win in that first game, stealing a pass in the final seconds to seal the victory. Danzy scored 27 points in the win, scoring half of Lee's points.

"Having a player that's already conditioned to play the game and knows to play the game was big," Bochette said. "We needed every one of his 27 points because we won the game by two."

Danzy was quick to give credit to his teammates.

"We work as a team. Playing as a team makes us stronger," the senior said. "We've scored a lot of points, and we've worked hard, even in practice.

They did good in football, and now they're getting into basketball. We're getting better."

While Danzy flashed his ability to score, he said the key to getting out to a strong start was good defense.

"We played good defense, did good pressing," Danzy said. "We just took good shots and drove well."

The Cavaliers then hosted Thomas Sumter on Thursday, and Danzy put on another strong performance. He finished with 24 points, seven of which came in the final quarter as Lee looked to put their rivals away for a 54-37 win.

"He scored when he needed to score late in that game and distributed well. He had five assists, so he's done a little bit of both," Bochette said. "He runs off the ball well, and he runs that point."

Danzy was often surrounded by elite basketball talent as he honed his skills in New York. Now he's taking advantage of the opportunity to run the show.

"Where I was from, there were a lot of people that were really good, and I didn't always have a lot of opportunities," Danzy said. "Now I'm somewhere where I can play and help the team."

Bochette thinks the combination of AJ and Arthur Danzy will help turn around the basketball culture in Bishopville.

"There's an energy, yes, but it's just a supreme confidence that comes with his experience level," Bochette said. "He's played a lot of basketball in New York and then last year when he moved down here. So many of our guys play football, and they don't really touch the basketball a whole lot outside of the season. That's something Coach Danzy will change. He'll change the culture.

"Coach Danzy has brought energy. He's a very enthusiastic coach, and I think our guys needed that; I needed that. He's going to take this program to really good places over the next few years."