Discovering Quality Education
I took a drive down Carver School Road late this morning. I went a mile or so past Carver High to a school that isn’t so well known in Winston-Salem.
Quality Education Academy might not be well known around here, but word of its prowess seems to be spreading in the fast lane world of national prep basketball powerhouses.
QEA is in its second year of playing basketball. Some of our readers have probably not heard of QEA, because they really don’t play many teams from around here — even though Isaac Pitts, the head coach and athletics director — would relish the opportunity to play local opponents.
QEA, known as the Fighting Pharaohs, plays a national schedule and that wouldn’t change even if they did pick up a few local games. If QEA did play local teams, it would be fun to watch the show, but the other teams wouldn’t stand much of a chance.
Only one player on the team — point guard Stargell Love, who has committed to Baylor — has committed to a Division I college. But the team is full of Division I prospects.
I sat down today with Pitts and Simon Johnson, the executive director of QEA who co-founded the school in 1992, and later, with Quincy Miller, a 6-10 junior who rated among the very best players in the nation for the Class of 2011.
It takes a lot less time to ask Miller who hasn’t offered him a scholarship than to ask who has. I found that out the hard way.
In the coming weeks, I will have a story about the quick rise of QEA as a national basketball powerhouse. But next week, I plan to have a story on Miller, a native of Chicago who is probably far and away the best current prep player who calls Winston-Salem home.
The Pharaohs don’t play a lot of games close to home, but they are playing at Oak Ridge Military Academy on Friday night.