Three Offers for Ayers
Although his father is the coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, shooting guard Ryan Ayers is making a name for himself in the basketball world. The 2005 prospect, ranked No. 69 in the Rivals75 already has offers from three high majors and is also being recruited by three ACC powerhouses.
“Villanova, Virginia, and Penn State have all three offered Ryan,” said Ayers’ coach Jim Fenerty of Germantown Academy in Philadelphia. “Wake Forest, Duke, and Maryland are also very interested in him and have been in to see him play. Penn is also in the picture, since Ryan is a very strong student.”
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As one would imagine, the 6-foot-6, 190-pound Ayers embodies the basketball characteristics of a coaches son.
“First of all he is very fundamentally sound and versatile at this point,” said Coach Fenerty. “He can play the guard position and small forward for us, even the big forward at times. He is an outstanding defender, and he has as sweet a shooting stroke as anyone we have had here in a long time.”
The focus of the 15-3 Germantown Academy program will not be on recruiting tonight as they will face an extremely talented Penn Charter, led by Virginia bound Sean Singletary and Notre Dame bound Robert Kurz.
“Well Penn Charter has Robert Kurz, who is going to Notre Dame, and Sean Singletary, who is going to Virginia,” said Coach Fenerty. “So that tells you something about them. And those guys are surrounded by pretty good players, so we are just trying to get our younger players ready to compete.”
Three of those younger players Coach Fenerty referred to are prospects in there own right. Brian Grimes, a 6-foot-7 junior, Joe Traynor, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, and Andrew Ott, a 6-foot-10 sophomore, are all receiving division one looks.
“Andrew Ott is a kid who is mobile and has good hands,” said Coach Fenerty about the young big man. “He is still learning to play the game, but he has a huge upside.”
As strong as Germantown Academy’s lineup may be, Ayers by far is receiving the most attention.
“He is not going to make a decision until after his junior season,” said Coach Fenerty. “With his dad being the coach of the 76ers, everybody wants a piece of him. So far we have been able to protect him from a lot of that.”