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football Edit

West Virginia Likes NY Guard

Mitchell Beauford, a slippery 5'11'', 180 pound combo guard from Christ The King High School in the Middle Village neighborhood of Queens, is a athletic backcourt player who hasn't gotten as much recognition as he should have this summer on the AAU circuit.
Beauford competed at The Charlie Weber Tournament at West Virginia University and at The 17 and under Nationals in Orlando with The Long Island Roadrunners, coached by Dave Edwards. Beauford ordinarily plays with Artie Cox's Brooklyn-Queens aka Sonday Express, based in New York City. Cox is an assistant coach at Christ the King.
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West Virginia has been very active in their recruitment of Beauford, calling often, and UAB has also expressed consistent interest. Quinnipiac has also called to inquire. Edwards said that Iona and Rider had also expressed preliminary interest. Beauford does not yet have any offers. He will have in-home visits with the staffs from West Virginia and UAB during the week of September 9th. Mitch does not have any on-campus visits lined up, although he did get to check out WVU's campus during the Weber Tournament.
Beauford is an athletic combo with a strong frame. Mitch has a football background, which accounts for some of his strength and physicality. Beauford is blessed with tremendous body control, which allows him to jockey through traffic for buckets. Mitch has a knack for scoring in traffic, with his body control coupled with his athleticism. Beauford doesn't always show off his leaping ability, but he is a quick leaper who explodes to the rim. This reporter saw Beauford throw down a reverse alley-oop off a halfcourt feed from a teammate at the IS8 league in Queens back in the spring; a serious feat for a sub-six footer. He has those kind of athletic capabilities.
Beauford is generally a reliable shooter from mid to long range, comfortable pulling up along the baseline. Defensively Mitch has pretty quick feet and a good frame to take on big-physical guards.
Right now, aside from a lack of exposure on the summer circuit, what is probably preventing Beauford from getting more interest is his size. He's under six feet, but plays bigger when he gets on the interior because of his leaping ability. Beauford seems more comfortable on the wing than manning the point, but he can handle both positions competently.
Beauford is a guy who could get snatched up by a mid to high major program and be a real surprise. The fact that he hasn't received interest from more mid-major programs in the Northeast is a bit baffling. Beauford would be an excellent pick-up for a mid-major program and would be a sleeper type who could be a contributor at the high major level.
Christ The King, coached by Bob Oliva, has two other mid-major plus type prospects in the class of 2003 in point guard Japhet McNeil, who purportedly had an excellent week at The Five Star Honesdale camp this past week, and athletic small forward Justin Marshall, who has received a wide variety of interest from mid-majors programs in the East.
Beauford carries an 80 grade point average. He has scored 820 on the SAT.
"I'm going to take that again," said Beauford.
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