Area hooper got no Division I offers. Now he’s making them regret it at North Idaho
Yattah Reed was puzzled. Federal Way High School’s boys basketball coach watched as players around the state pulled in college offers, while his star player, Vaughn Weems, received none.
Weems was one of the best players in Washington his senior year in the 2022-23 season, averaging a 17.6 point, 10 rebound double-double. He was the two-time league MVP in the Class 4A North Puget Sound League. He led Federal Way’s storied program to an undefeated league title his senior year and a third-place finish in the 4A state tournament at the Tacoma Dome.
He was tall, athletic, strong, could flush dunks and finish at the rim, could knock down shots and was a high-level defender, too. He seemed like a can’t-miss prospect, but for whatever reason, college recruiters didn’t agree.
“In Vaughn’s case, I just felt like he deserved an opportunity,” Reed told The News Tribune on Monday. “I could not figure it out. They’d say, ‘Yeah, we’re interested,’ and then sign someone Vaughn scored 30 on. It was just frustrating.
“I wasn’t mad at the coaches, because at the end of the day that’s their program. It was more of a frustration because I knew how hard Vaughn worked.”
At a certain point, Reed felt personally responsible for Weems’ lack of recruiting attention. He wondered if he had done something wrong along the way.
“I had him for four years,” Reed said. “He was a product of my coaching, and I thought I was coaching him in a way he needed to be coached to play at the next level.”
Reed said the knock he heard on Weems was that he wasn’t an elite outside shooter and college recruiters weren’t sure what position he’d play at the next level. At 6-foot-5, he wasn’t tall enough to be a Division I forward, but he hadn’t put enough on film to show he could be a college shooting guard, either.
Reed always felt the concerns about Weems’ shooting ability were overblown. In Federal Way’s system, he just didn’t need to be a shooter. Since he was so much stronger and more athletic than most defenders who matched up against him in high school, he mostly attacked the rim and got his points in the paint.
“It wasn’t that he couldn’t shoot — he was shooting like 70 percent from the field,” Reed said. “He’s doing what he’s coached to do.”
Reed understood that college coaches wanted to see more shooting on film, so he challenged Weems. One game, he told Weems that if he didn’t start shooting threes, Reed was going to put him on the bench.
Weems shot five or six 3-pointers that game. He made all of them.
“We knew he could do it but it wasn’t asked of him to do,” Reed said. “He was just being a star in his role.”
Weems eventually got a chance at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene. Longtime NIC coach Corey Symons went to school with Reed briefly at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, so there was history between them. Symons has had a lot of success pulling high school players from the Seattle-Tacoma area over the years. Weems is the latest example.
FROM UNWANTED TO UNSTOPPABLE
Weems was disappointed he didn’t pull in any offers out of high school, too, but he tried to stay positive and make the most of the situation.
“It was just a lesson,” he told the TNT by phone this week. “A chance for me to take in, learn, see what I had to do better and get to the next level.”
Now he’s one of the nation’s best junior college basketball players and will almost certainly be a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-American this winter in his sophomore year. He’s the country’s leading scorer, averaging 28.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, nearly a double-double. He’s shooting 52.9 percent from the field, 35.4 percent from 3-point range and 78 percent from the free throw line.
He is playing the shooting guard position with ease, alleviating any lingering concerns that he’d be a player without a position in college.
“He’s as good a scorer at three levels as I’ve ever had,” Symons said. “Unbelievable mid-range game, best finisher around the basket that I’ve seen. In high school, you didn’t see his shot as much. He’s shooting the ball really well.”
Now the offers are rolling in left and right from mid-major Division I programs. Weems said he’s received offers from Nevada, New Mexico State, Montana State, Montana, Green Bay and others. He hasn’t forgotten about all the schools in the Pacific Northwest that passed on him the first time around.
“That was literally what kept me motivated,” he said. “You didn’t want me then but you’re gonna want me now. I’m gonna show you how much you’re gonna want me.”
Symons thinks the mid-major programs are just the next stepping stone if that’s where Weems ends up.
“He’s a high-major kid,” Symons said. “He’s got a lot of options now. Every day he keeps doing this, it gets better. He’s a hard-nosed kid. He’s a quiet kid, but the minute he steps on the floor, he’s a dawg, he works his tail off. He’s our best rebounder, our best passer. He leads us in almost every statistical category. … He has the things you really can’t teach.”
Weems said he hopes to make a decision on his future sometime in the months after his basketball season ends. He offered some advice for high school players going through similar situations.
“Just stay the course, keep working,” he said. “Your work will eventually pay off. Stay focused, don’t let anything distract you.”
The success at the junior college level and the resulting offers are validation for everyone involved: for Symons’ program and its ability to develop players and send them off to the Division I ranks, for Weems and his belief that he was good enough to play Division I basketball and lastly, for Federal Way coach Yattah Reed, who can rest knowing that he wasn’t crazy all along.
“I’m finally right, for once,” Reed said, laughing. “It’s rewarding just to see him have the success that I felt he deserved. … Whoever gets him, it’s going to be a great investment. He works hard, he loves the game, he never misses practice and he’s a gamer.
“You don’t have to worry about if he’s going to show up to play. He’s all about action.”
