Former Manchester basketball player Brittany Davis gaining steam as rising senior

Summertime offers a chance to regroup and relax for many high school students. Greenville High’s Brittany Davis is not one of them.

Davis, who started her high school career at Manchester, is preparing for her third and final season at Greenville. The 5-foot-9 guard is hard at work with trainer Lakeves “Brewster” Prather and is utilizing the days off from school to maximize her basketball potential.

When Davis isn’t playing with her AAU team, she’s following the lead of Prather, who runs A1Skills Training & Development out of Manchester. The two started working during Davis’ freshman year and have spent countless hours together ever since.

For Prather, it was evident pretty early that Davis come become a special player.

“No. 1, it’s her drive,” Prather said. “She’s pretty much a gym rat. She doesn’t mind putting in the work. That’s one of the first things I noticed about her. She’s willing to stay in the gym when all of her other peers were at home. She was always just willing to work.”

Since that time, Davis has maximized those training hours into some standout play on the court. After her only year at Manchester, she transferred to Greenville, where she averaged around 30 points per game as a sophomore. That number went up to 36 points per game as a junior in a season which saw the Patriots reach the Class A Elite Eight.

Her play has not gone unnoticed amongst college coaches. Mississippi State, which played for the national championship last season, offered her the chance to become a Bulldog. She committed to the school in March.

“They had sent me a lot of stuff in the mail, and I had gone down to the school,” Davis said. “I had watched them practice a couple of times. I liked their program and everything that’s there.”

In Prather’s eyes, Mississippi State’s interest in the guard shows just how talented the rising senior truly is.

“That has elevated her name out of the roof,” Prather said. “Just this past year, they beat the No. 1 team in the nation (Connecticut). For them to have interest in her, that speaks volumes.”

Prather said the goal is for Davis to average around 41 points per game in 2017-2018 with some 50-point showings and a few 60-point games to boot. The upcoming weeks and months of work with be devoted to improving Davis’ play with her right-hand --she’s naturally left-handed -- while also improving her 3-point shooting.

Prather lauded her basketball IQ and her ball-handling skills, two features that have been monumental in her strong play on the court. According to Prather, there’s plenty of Davis highlights yet to come.

“She’s going to make a ton of noise this year,” Prather said.

Davis said she can’t wait to get to Mississippi State, but she knows there’s plenty left to accomplish before then. She wants to lead Greenville to a state championship and feels the upcoming young batch of Patriots are capable of doing just that.

“I’m excited,” Davis said. “We just have to put in the work every day. The hard work’s going to pay off at the end.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2017 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Former Manchester basketball player Brittany Davis gaining steam as rising senior."