Dorien Williams, who is on the Summit Academy Middle School (27 Huntington Street) basketball team, was recently announced as one of six finalists among junior high school basketball players for the Brooklyn Nets Ultimate All-Star Award presented by Hospital for Special Surgery.
Williams and the other five finalists from the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) will be awarded a spot in the Brooklyn Nets Summer Basketball Clinic, and the winner of the Ultimate All-Star award will receive a $3,000 grant for their school’s athletic program.
The winner of this contest will be honored on the Barclays Center court in a ceremony when the Nets host the Chicago Bulls on April 9.
She is in her first year living in Brooklyn after previously living in Frankfort, Kentucky. She has made the transition very well and was an easy choice to be recommended for this award by her athletic director Dytonya Mixson, who is also her AAU coach.
“I receive e-mails about these type of things and I saw this email and it was a no brainer,” Mixson said. “She was an easy pick because she is a star athlete, on the honor roll and one of the best middle school basketball players we have at Summit. It was an easy selection.”
When the 8th grader first found out in December that she was nominated that month she could not believe the news. Voting will continue for the six monthly winners until the end of March, and everyone is able to vote five times per day.
“I was shocked,” Williams said. “I said let me breathe and then realized I was actually a finalist. I didn’t know what to think because I just moved to New York the end of July.”
She went on to describe more about how happy and overjoyed she was when she found out at home.
“I was just cleaning my room and my mom came in saying (screaming) ‘Dorien you were nominated,” Williams said. “I said ‘what’. And then we were just freaking out and screaming. I called my grandma and told her. We were just freaking out because it was unexpected. It was crazy.”
Williams was nominated based on her grit, determination and desire to succeed on the basketball court and in the classroom. She is not only a leader on her middle school basketball team but is also a very highly successful honor roll student.
She wants to continue playing basketball in high school and college and this motivated middle school student knows that she has to achieve academically to do so. She also loves the game of basketball, which gives her even more incentive to give it her all academically since she realizes that her schoolwork is important.
“I plan to continue my academics because I currently have a 4.0 GPA,” Williams said. “I want to keep that up because even if I don’t get a basketball scholarship, I want to get an athletic scholarship because academics always come first. That’s my top priority before basketball is my academics.”
She puts her academics first and prioritizes that aspect over her passion for basketball, which the up and coming star she just started playing in 7th grade because she wanted to try something new.
“Say I have practice, but I have a ton of homework to do, I always do my homework first because I know if you fail your classes or just fail one class, then you aren’t going to be eligible to play,” the Kentucky native said. I know that, so that is why I keep my academics on point, so I can be eligible to play all the time.
The executive director of Summit Academy, Natasha Campbell, has been very impressed with Williams and sees her as an example of what she wants a student at Summit Academy to be.
“They moved here from out of state which means that we feel we are doing something right,” Campbell said. “Someone who doesn’t know us personally investigated and researched us and felt like this was the best opportunity for their daughter. We are thankful for have Dorien because she is an exemplar of what we want for our scholars. Someone who is engaged academically, civically and athletically.”
The rising star, who has emerged quickly as a basketball player, is very much looking forward to the opportunity to take part in the Brooklyn Nets Summer Basketball Clinic at Barclays Center because it will be a way to expand her skills and build on the camp experience she has already had.
“The Nets summer camp would be a fun experience because it would be another camp experience for me because I went to the junior All-American camp a few months back, and it was tough because it was kids in the same class as me (2022), and I was just seeing my other competition,” Williams added. “It will be more experience for me and will help me in the long run.”
The coach of her basketball team at Summit Academy has been pleased with how coachable she is.
“She has been such a delight to teach and share my knowledge of the game with,” Coach Bingham said. “She soaks it up like a sponge.”
The 8th grader lives in the Flatbush neighborhood. Mixson added that many people in the school don’t actually live in Red Hook and that the school can attract people in many parts of Brooklyn because of the small class sizes.
Williams, in addition to her commitment to her studies, is very talented basketball player. Her middle school team went undefeated this season except for the one game she missed due to sickness, and in July she will be going to tournaments in Pennsylvania and Georgia with her competitive travel (AAU) team.
Her basketball season with Summit Academy has come to an end, but she is excited to now go all in with her AAU team, as this will be her first full season with the travel team. She played last summer but didn’t feel as much of a member of the team as she will this season.
“I didn’t really know anyone and didn’t do much because I was still new,” Williams added about last season. “Now, I am getting the full experience and am really excited to play with the Lady X-Men.
It is hard for the 8th grader to soak in the possibility of winning this award but it will really mean a lot to her.
“If I win that would mean a lot because I haven’t even been here that long, and I am already being recognized for big things and I didn’t expect any of this to happen,” Williams added. “It is so much to take in. It is crazy.”
Her family and friends have been voting for her often and spreading the link to others to encourage as many to vote as possible. She enjoys the support she has been receiving and will find out soon if she gets this one of a kind award.
You can vote for Dorien on this website.
