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By: Brian Smith

The dream of playing college basketball for Shalexia Little became a reality on Sunday. The Springwood School star announced her intentions to play for the University of Montevallo. Little was happy to discuss how she reached this memorable moment in her young life.

“It’s peaceful, knowing that it’s all over with,” Little said with a smile. “Now that I know I’m going to college, I can just work on getting better in high school and winning the state championship this year.”

Little does not just want to win the title either. There’s an added goal for Springwood’s girls basketball team.

“The goal is to win the state championship, but also go undefeated.”

As for Little’s ability to help Springwood reach its top objective, she defined what she does best on the hardwood.

“I think it’s my aggressiveness and hustle because the reason I score so much is because I’m getting the basketball off of a steal or something like that. So I’d say just being aggressive and (playing) defense.”

She’s certainly a scorer. Little dropped 39 against Edgewood Academy and another 30 versus Calvary Christian this season. She does know that to help herself, as well as Springwood, Little needs to improve her game.

“My shooting,” Little stated when asked what’s the most important area to get better. “I need to get my field goal percentage up, and knock more 3-point shots down.”

Another aspect of Little helping Springwood be a good basketball team stems from leadership. She’s happy to pick her teammates up when things do not go well.

“When my teammates do something wrong, I just feel like I try to make sure that they know it’s okay. Just get back on defense, let’s work on the next play. There’s no point of standing around worrying about what just happened. So I just let them know not to get too down on themselves.”

Preparing for college, Little knows she needs to make a major step up before getting there.

“I have to elevate my game to a whole different level. Because college is just way different than high school. It’s going to be faster and more physical, so I have to learn how to adjust.”

To help Little reach this point and continue to improve, she’s been blessed with excellent mentors and coaches. 

“It starts with (head) coach Lisa Sampson. Over the summer, she took me to some AAU practices, to some camps, and really sacrificed a lot of her time with her family just to make sure that I get to where I need to be.”

“She took me to the Monevallo camp, and that’s where I got the offer from. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be signing today.”

Little was also quite happy with her relationship with assistant coach Calvin Crab, someone who’s also pushing her to be better.

“Coach Calvin, he is the one that gets me in the gym as many days a week as I want. If he’s going to the gym, he lets me in. If he’s going to the gym, he’s also going to let me know. He just helps me get a lot of work in.”

As for why Little wanted to be a college basketball player, she didn’t have to go far for inspiration. Her sister Shaquala Walton was the driving force.

“I would say my sister. She went to Opelika High School. She graduated and then she went to college. I always wanted to be like her. She’s the closest one to me that I’ve seen play and inspire me.”

Congratulations to Little, her family, and everyone associated with the Springwood athletic department for helping her dream become a reality.