Dream Home to be raffled Saturday
August 16, 2012
LSU prepping without Mathieu
August 23, 2012
On a warm, beautiful fall afternoon in Houma, a 7-year-old girl picked up a basketball and started to play.
The year was 1997 and the child was Sumar Leslie – her innocent face beaming with joy with her new-found hobby.
“I only even got interested because my brothers played and I just wanted to do what they were doing,” Sumar says looking back. “That’s the only reason why I touched a ball.”
She had no idea a 15-year-adventure was about to get under way.
Sumar dribbled and shook – this game wasn’t as tough as the youngster first thought.
The moves she exhibited amazed her parents who had never seen their daughter in an athletic realm.
“Sumar did things with the ball at a young age that you just don’t see kids do,” her father Raymond Leslie says remembering the first days of his daughter’s career. “She’s always had that ‘it’ in her.”
Sumar positioned herself and readied for a shot.
Swish.
Another shot.
Nothing but net.
Again and again and again – buckets.
Now, it wasn’t just her parents watching with awe.
Her brothers took note, too.
Long outcast from the neighborhood game because she was a young girl, it was now impossible to ignore Sumar’s stature.
“We didn’t want her to play with us – she had the ugliest shot in the world,” brother Raymond David Leslie said. “But then one night, she made like 33 in a row, so we stopped and said, ‘OK, I guess we have to let her play with us now.’”
From 7-year-old roots, Sumar has since fallen in love with the sport.
Her tale consists of ups, downs, fulfilling wins and tough losses.
But through it all, it’s led to the culmination of her dream – she’s now in the pros.
The former Vandebilt Catholic and Nicholls State standout capped her journey this week when she signed with the Ammerud Queens in Norway.
Saddled with close family and friends by her side, the now-grown woman exhibited the same child-like love for the game when proclaiming her pride for being a professional player.
“This is a blessing,” she said. “It shows that any dream can be reached and conquered if a person keeps God first in their life. I’m so happy and proud.
“This is only the beginning. The real hard work begins now.”
The beginning:
It was late 1989 and Patricia “Mama” Leslie was watching the Price Is Right on daytime television.
The Houma woman was already a mother of six and was pregnant with another as the game show lit up CBS’s airwaves.
As a new contestant tested their luck at the grand prize, the mother saw something that caught her eye.
“There was a woman on the Price Is Right named Summer,” Mama Leslie said. “And I remember thinking to myself, ‘That’s such a pretty name.’”
A few months later on April 5, 1990, Patricia gave birth to her seventh child – a 7-pound, 20-inch daughter.
A play off the name she had seen months before, the Leslie’s named the child Sumar Shalina Leslie.
“I didn’t want S-u-m-m-e-r,” the mother recollects. “I wanted something different.”
“So they came up with Sue-mar,” Sumar says back with a laugh – a play on how people often mispronounce her name.
Sumar is the seventh of eight children born to Houma family Raymond and Patricia Leslie. Preceding Sumar are three boys (Troy, Ike and Raymond) and three girls (Shun, Salunda and Starr).
Following Leslie is another boy (current Vandebilt standout guard Lionheart).
Mom and dad say Sumar was a high-spirited, good-natured child.
“She was always happy,” the mom remembers. “She never cried or fussed much. She was a good baby.”
“That was daddy’s baby girl,” Raymond says back. “She was a great kid.”
But pure innocence had to be traded for toughness at a young age as the toddler grew older and started to play with her siblings.
Always loaded with competitive spirit, Sumar said she did everything her brothers did – hide and go seek, tag or even tackle football.
No mercy was shown to Sumar by the rough and tumble boys.
“Cuts, scrapes, bleeding, crying – I think they made me do all that,” Sumar says with a laugh looking back. “They used to beat me up pretty good.”
“They did some things to my girl that I probably still don’t know about,” Mama Leslie says. “And honestly, I don’t even think I want to know.”
But away from the contact sports, there’s basketball – a staple of the Leslie family.
Her brothers always played around the neighborhood – each exhibiting skills.
Sumar used to watch from afar, admiring the intricacies of the sport.
“We didn’t let her play because she was a girl,” Raymond David explains. “Who wants to play with a girl at that age?”
“I sure kept my eyes on them and what they were doing out there,” Sumar remembers looking back. “I think looking back having to study the sport first made me better.”
Not wanting to be left out, Sumar picked up a ball at age 7 and decided to give the sport a try.
She quickly progressed and showed signs of having massive talent.
Her brothers caught wind and brought an important question to their mom and dad shortly thereafter.
When answered, it started a storybook tale into motion.
The makings of greatness
Ike Leslie took a deep breath and gathered courage before asking his mom the question.
“You want Sumar to do what?” Mama Leslie remembers with a smile at her son Ike’s request.
Seeing that his sister had talent on the hardwood, Ike urged Mama Leslie to sign Sumar up for Terrebonne Parish Recreation.
The request came as a shock to the mother, who didn’t realize Sumar was interested in the sport at such a high level.
But the parents conceded to the brother’s wish and Sumar was registered the next day for youth basketball.
Sumar’s tough, physical upbringing showed in her first-ever competitive game.
“She fouled out in the first quarter of her first game,” Mama Leslie explains as laughter breaks out in the room among the rest of the family. “She used all five of her fouls in the first few minutes.”
“I didn’t understand the rules yet,” Sumar said. “I didn’t know that five fouls meant you were out and I didn’t know that what I was doing was even a foul in the first place.”
It didn’t take Sumar to fall in line with the sport’s customs.
Even though her shooting technique was a little wacky in the beginning.
Sumar was an instant success in TPR – accumulating 15-20 points every game.
She found that success despite a slingshot-type shooting technique in which she hurled the ball at the basket from over her head with both hands.
“It was awful,” Raymond David says with a laugh. “Two hands behind her head – it wasn’t the way they teach you – that’s for sure.”
After a year shooting with improper form, Sumar learned the proper way to caress the ball as an 8-9-year-old player.
She became much more lethal.
With her new shot at her disposal, Sumar developed a reputation as being one of the area’s best.
It was then that she developed one of her life-long nicknames: Sumar Rain.
“You better get everything ready, because the rain is about to blow through,”Sumar’s father explains. “That’s what other people would say before they had to play Sumar – the rain was coming.”
“From there, it just stuck,” Sumar says.
As the young child grew into a young woman, Sumar continued to excel in local competition.
As her success continued, she progressed toward high school.
When that day finally came, Sumar enrolled at Vandebilt and started what’d become one of the most decorated prep careers in the history of local high school sports.
Lady Terrier life takes Leslie to the college game
Most high school players have growing pains when they enter the prep level.
The competition is tougher – the opponents are bigger, faster and stronger.
From day 1 as a Lady Terrier, Sumar showed she could compete with anyone.
Raymond and Patricia’s child started throughout her Vandebilt career and was an instant success.
As a freshman, Sumar started and helped lead the Lady Terriers to a district title and a bid in the second round of the playoffs.
As a sophomore with a roster choked full of college talent, including former Mississippi State standout Bethany Washington, Sumar thought she was going to get a state championship.
The Lady Terriers rolled through that season with a nearly flawless record.
After pounding both St. Michael and Broadmoor in the opening two rounds of the playoffs, Vandebilt was penciled into a quarterfinals road game with Glen Oaks – the other favorite for the coveted Class 4A ring.
Before a jam-packed Baton Rouge gym, Sumar and her teammates fought as hard as they could to knock off Glen Oaks.
It was a game that Mama Leslie said she will never forget.
“That was the best basketball game I’ve ever seen,” Patricia says. “The girls on both sides played so hard. The energy, the intensity and the passion that was in the hearts of everyone on both teams – it was unbelievable.
“The games today aren’t the same as they were then.”
On this particular day, the ball didn’t bounce Sumar’s way, as Glen Oaks scored a thrilling 70-68 double overtime win.
Sumar said she remembers walking off the floor against Glen Oaks – calling it the toughest loss of her career.
To make it worse, Glen Oaks rolled through the rest of the postseason and earned the state title.
“We wanted to win that game so bad,” Sumar says. “And we were so close. I’ll never forget that day for the rest of my life. That was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to deal with.”
Following the loss in her sophomore season, Sumar still had two more years as a Lady Terrier.
But with a lot of her supporting cast graduated, Vandebilt’s best shot had passed.
The Lady Terriers lost by 27 to Glen Oaks in the state semifinals Sumar’s junior season.
Her final prep game came in a 68-60 loss in the quarterfinals to Parkway.
“It was hard to believe and have it sink in that my high school chapter was over,” Sumar says, remembering her final game at Vandebilt. “It was tough.”
In total, Sumar had no reason to hang her head.
The Lady Terrier great scored 2,344 points with 562 assists and 495 steals – all school records.
Because of that success, she had a plethora of colleges to pick from.
She ended her recruitment process when she chose UL-Monroe over most of the in-state schools and also Louisville.
But her brightest college days didn’t come as a Warhawk – the next chapter of Sumar’s story had dark undertones.
Monroe hardship sends Sumar home
Sumar doesn’t talk much about her days at Monroe – they weren’t some of the brighter days within her life.
She said she enrolled within the Warhawks program because she thought she could make a difference and help take the program to a new level.
On the floor, she was a contributor, seeing time as a starter in both her freshman and sophomore seasons, averaging 6.5 and 4.8 points per game, respectively.
But off the floor, the Houma native said Monroe wasn’t a good fit.
Sumar said she didn’t agree with the coaching techniques exhibited by coach Mona Martin.
She added that she didn’t have many friends within the team.
“It was just time for a change,” Sumar said. “I needed new scenery around me. I don’t regret going to Monroe
After one and a half seasons in Monroe, the Houma native decided to transfer.
With another slew of offers to pick from, she decided to enroll at Nicholls State and finish her career at home.
“I had a lot of offers, but I chose Nicholls,” Sumar said. “Like I originally intended to do in Monroe, I wanted to make a difference and take a program to the next level.”
Per NCAA transfer rules, Sumar had to sit out the first half of the 2010-11 season – her junior year.
Once back on the floor, she immediately returned to her Vandebilt form.
Sumar averaged 11.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in her first year back on the floor.
But when Southland Conference play heated up, fate through a wrench into Sumar’s plans and forced her to refocus her attention.
Broken hand refocuses new pro
A few weeks into conference play, Sumar started to feel an ache in her right hand.
She initially played through the burn, but her performance took a hit.
When the pain became unbearable, she finally succumbed and visited a doctor for an X-ray.
The news wasn’t good.
“It was broken,” Sumar said. “I don’t know when it happened, but it was broken and I was out for the rest of the season.”
Having to watch her teammates play without her was like torture for Sumar. The standout said she struggled to come to grips with the situation.
“I had to sit out for a year in Monroe and then right when I get back, I have to sit again,” she says. “I love this game. I don’t like to watch. That was not a fun time for me.”
With her basketball future at a crossroads, Sumar said she rededicated herself to the sport.
With one last chance to shine at the college level, she wanted to make sure she was ready for her senior season.
“My hand was hurt, but my legs were fine,” Sumar said. “So right away, I started to run to make sure I kept up with my conditioning. When I got cleared to use my hand again, I lifted weights and I shot and I did everything I possibly could to be ready for the next season.
“I had just one more chance and I wasn’t going to waste it.”
Sumar’s final crack at college hoops was clearly her best.
Now fully healthy, Sumar led the Colonels in almost every statistical category, averaging 15.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. She did so while shooting 46 percent from the field and 43 percent from the 3-point line.
While Sumar racked up numbers, the Colonels piled up wins.
Nicholls had its best-ever season in 2011-12.
The Colonels won their first-ever postseason game in a 20-point win against Central Arkansas in the Southland Conference Tournament.
In that game, Sumar piled up a career-high 13 assists.
“What we did last year was remarkable,” Sumar said. “It really was. No one expected us to do any of the things that we did, but we were just a few plays away from possibly winning it all and going to the NCAA Tournament.”
With her Nicholls career in the books, Sumar had a few months to think about her basketball future.
She decided that she’d forego the work force and push to become a pro.
After fielding interest from close to 10 teams in various countries, one email changed everything for Sumar.
Norway about to get a taste of Sumar
On Aug. 10, 2012 at 9:14 a.m., Sumar logged onto her basketball email account to see if anything new was available.
She had one unread message.
It was from Patxi Exposito – an assistant coach with the Ammerud Queens.
They were offering to make Sumar’s dream come true.
After a third-place finish in 2011-12, the Norway-based team said they wanted to sign Sumar to try and go over the top and win the league title.
The wins, the losses, the injuries – it was all now worth it.
The good times, the bad times – every moment had now paid off.
While reading the words within the email, the Houma native burst into tears out of jubilation for what was occurring.
“I can’t even explain it,” Sumar says. “I was just so overwhelmed and so overtaken with emotion. I couldn’t do anything except laugh, smile and cry.”
Since signing with the Queens, Leslie has been tirelessly working out to prepare for her professional debut, which will come on Sept. 21.
She will depart for the foreign land in the next few weeks.
Sumar said she cannot wait to test her luck at the professional level.
“I’ve never won a championship level at any level,” Sumar said. “That’s my goal – to go there and get my first ring. I’m excited to see what the world has for me.”
Her parents are equally excited.
“I don’t want my baby to go, but I know this is what’s best for her,” Mama Leslie said. “She’ll do great things.”
“Her season here has changed,” Raymond said. “It’s time for her to find out what’s out there for her.”
What is in Sumar’s post-Norway plans – that remains to be seen.
No matter how it plays out, she said she will remain positive and take everything in stride.
That’s the attitude that got her onto the basketball floor as a kid and it’s what will take her throughout each leg of her professional career.
“It seems like a long time ago when you think that I was that little girl just learning to play,” Sumar said. “But here I am now. I want to show everyone that they should never give up because anything is possible.
“I was once the little girl who shot the ball the wrong way. Now, everything’s different. Without God, nothing that happened in the middle would be possible. But if people keep him alive within your spirit, anything is possible.”
Houma native Sumar Leslie readies for a shot during a workout. Leslie’s dream came true this past week when she signed a professional contract with the Ammerud Queens to continue her playing career.
