By Isaiah Sampson

If you’ve seen Lavale Coleman around campus, you would probably say he’s just a laid back cool basketball player.

What many don’t know is the struggles that he has faced throughout the years to get him to Jamestown.

As a 6’4 forward for the Jimmies, Coleman has yet to get on the court to display his basketball genius due to a foot injury he suffered last fall after the alumni game. He would go on to have surgery right after and has been rehabbing ever since that day.

After foot surgery, if you are comfortable enough with no swelling or pain in your foot, you are allowed to participate in team activities again. That could take up to 6-8 months or maybe even a year. In Lavale’s case, it’s going to be a year before he’s back doing basketball activities.

Lavale is from San Diego, California where his love for basketball began. His family moved to Arizona where he knew it was time for him to start taking his basketball skills and putting them to use. He attended three high schools while in Arizona; Deer Valley, Willow Canyon, and the basketball powerhouse Hillcrest prep. There at Hillcrest prep is where Lavale started to get more notoriety for his skills on the court and got a preferred walk-on spot at a Division 1 school where he redshirted his freshman campaign.

He would then go onto play for Palomar Community College for two years where he would average 14 pts/7 ast/4 reb as a freshman and 16.5 pts/8 ast/5 reb for his sophomore season. Lavale was all conference as a freshman and all state the following year.

He ended up signing with the Jimmies last spring to play basketball at the Division 2 level where he believes his experience at the Division 1 level will propel him here at Jamestown.

You won’t see Lavale with a sad face or not cheering his teammates on while in the racing for the GPAC Conference Title and the National Championship. He will always be smiling and giving the best team spirit he could give knowing that his teammates wishes he was out there with them.

Look for Lavale Coleman to make a big comeback in the 2019-2020 season when he’ll finally get to show his basketball genius.

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