Rebels’ Hunter shows that transfers work

Adam Candee

Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 9:35 a.m.

He grew up in front of Las Vegas basketball fans, a do-it-all guard with a ceiling as high as the Stratosphere. He earned a scholarship to Georgetown and eventually came home to play for UNLV, where he is now the hope of the Rebels' backcourt in 2003-04 as a senior.

Yet Demetrius Hunter said he made it all possible for himself before his junior year of high school. That is when Hunter made the decision to transfer from Green Valley to Cheyenne before the 1997-98 season.

"When I made the jump to transfer to Cheyenne, I put in my mind that I had to be more mature," Hunter said.

While many coaches and experts deride the current wave of local and national students transferring high schools for athletic purposes, Hunter is an example of a player who used a change of venue to maximize his ability and grab a college scholarship to a big-name school.

Always regarded as a skilled player with injury problems, Hunter began his high school career at Green Valley, although he lived in the zone for Rancho. Hunter chose to participate in a program that culturally diversified Green Valley by bringing in students from Rancho's zone.

But when Gators coach Gene Carpenter stepped down after Hunter's sophomore year, Hunter's family moved into Cheyenne's zone and he played for coach Larry Johnson and the Desert Shields.

Although he had become good enough to play with the best of the summer all-star teams as a Gator, Hunter feels that he turned a corner at Cheyenne that he would not have without changing schools.

"It was kind of like a fresh start," Hunter said. "I wanted to show people what I can do."

The improvement was not just as a basketball player.

"It made me a better person overall, because if you go from Green Valley to Cheyenne, that's a big jump," Hunter said.

Two more years of hard work earned Hunter a scholarship from Georgetown, although he eventually decided to sacrifice a year of eligiblity and come back to UNLV, after a coaching change with the Hoyas, to be closer to his young daughter.

Hunter, however, cautions that his path is not necessarily the one he would recommend for all young basketball players or even for his own children. He said the most important factor in a decision is that it should be made by the kid himself, as his mother allowed him to do.

"You can't treat it like a business at that point in a kid's life," Hunter said. "That's the most fun they will ever have playing this game.

"If you keep switching from school to school, you're never going to have the group of friends you remember now."

Hunter said his outgoing nature made it easier for him to make friends, so the social shock of going across town to a new high school did not really affect him. His feeling is that making his own decision took away any potential animosity he could feel changing schools.

"Is the kid happy or is he trying to make his father or mother happy?" Hunter said. "They look at it as wanting (the kid) to be seen on TV, but that's one of the most fun times in a kid's life."