Dominique Archie

Offered per Rivals

09/02/04: "His first trip is set up for Sept. 10 when he’ll call on Dave Odom and the South Carolina Gamecocks. Virginia Tech will be his second trip and that is the following weekend. Also on Archie’s list are Georgia and Georgia Tech." - theInsidersHoops.com (4 to 2)

08/05/04: "The class of 2005 prospect is bouncy athlete that can handle the ball, rebound with the bigger players inside, dunk in traffic and defend on the wing. He improved after each event and as he did, his recruitment made some noise. . . . he said there is a select group that he’d visit if the decision were to be made today. "I’d say Georgia, Virginia Tech, Arkansas State, Cincinnati and South Carolina,” Archie said. “Most schools said they’d like me to come in the fall so I’ll probably get something set up."

The checklist is simple in the schools, he says. "They need to have my major. A lot of the schools I’ve looked at don’t have it. I want to study civil engineering.” - RivalsHoops.com

07/15/04: a pic, with the ball -
http://augustachronicle.com/images/headlines/071504/28046_512.jpg

Dominique, who turns 17 in August, is a kid trying to figure out how to become a young man. The rising senior at Josey High is a person searching for the keys that will unlock a successful future.

He sits pensively atop a picnic table at North Augusta's Riverview Park, rolling a basketball around with his right foot. He doesn't smile much. He doesn't frown much. He seems to always be somewhere in between. His mother, Susan, says her son has always been quiet, always in thoughtful silence. She says he's yet to reckon with the death of the closest thing to a true father figure he's ever known, Susan's dad. Additionally, she says he hasn't come to terms with the firing of his high school coach of three years. "But he's trying," she says.

Perhaps there's something to be said for that, for being a perpetual work in progress. Susan Archie says Dominique was constantly quiet growing up as the result of a speech impediment, one that drew the barbs of fellow schoolchildren for years. Noticing her child was falling behind in communicating with others and building relationships, Susan enlisted her son in social situations - specifically, sports.

First was football, which evoked mild reviews. Next was baseball, which drew a lukewarm response. The third attempt was basketball. "I don't know what it was about it that he loved, but it worked," Susan said.

Believe in fate? Check out Dominique's growth pattern, according to his mother. When he was 11, his first year in competitive basketball, he was 5-foot-8. Two years later, he was 6-1. When he started high school he was 6-4. Now he's 6-7, and "still growing."

WHEN SPEAKING OF Dominique, a growth spurt is far more than a physical term. Through basketball, he's learned to relate better with others, Susan said. One person he got to know especially well was former Josey coach Emmett Rouse, a traditionally winning coach, who was fired from the school this past spring.

Susan remembers how infuriated her son was the day he learned of Rouse's release. He vowed he would play his senior season elsewhere, regardless of who was brought in as a replacement. He didn't back down from that stance when Sam Lilly was hired from Silver Bluff High. "I was worried I was going to lose a couple of them," Lilly said. "I didn't know how many of them would take to my coaching style just based on the hurt they went through."

His first day on the job, Lilly asked Dominique if he was going to come back. He told him he didn't know. "I don't think he wanted to accept the loss of his coach," Susan said. "Sometimes you get frustrated, but you have to go on." The conversations continued, with Dominique's mother and grandmother imploring him to stay. "I told him, 'You have to be apt to change. You have to give Sam Lilly a chance,'" she said.

Only in the past month or so has Dominique started to do warm, he admits. "I was really close (to leaving)," he said Tuesday. "We're all right now. I'm going to stay." His new coach has noticed the difference. "I think he's almost there," Lilly said of Dominique, who's still narrowing his college choices. "He's starting to believe in what we're doing."

Dominique's increasingly selfless play helped Josey win a tournament at the University of South Carolina camp in June. Lilly is pleased particularly with his developing inside-outside versatility, ability to pass out of double teams and the way he's playing within himself.

Dominique's charge forward was compromised somewhat Wednesday evening when he was involved in a fight during his team's second game in the Peach Jam.

If he can return to the track he was on prior to Wednesday, many, Lilly included, believe his future is limitless. "Dominique can be the next NBA player out of Augusta," said Lilly, who is no stranger to professional sports, having played cornerback and safety in the NFL in the late 1980s and early '90s. "I think Dominique is going to show people more than he showed last year, and the year before that. I believe in what he can do. I know I can get him to do things he hasn't done yet." More, Lilly sees a young man beginning to emerge, one he says he'll need to be a leader in the fall. "I admire him a lot for what he's trying to do," Lilly said. "He is changing." - Augusta Chronicle