He’s only 23. He’s been a team leader at both the high school and college levels.

Pierce is his name. Basketball is his game.

“I can’t get enough of it,” Michael Pierce said. “It’s been this way all my life. I experienced the thrill of two state championships in high school., and now I have a college degree because of basketball.”

Pierce, the only player to have started in both of Whiteville High School’s back-to-back state 2A championship game victories in 1999 and 2000, graduated from Coker College in Hartsville, S.C., last spring with a degree in sports management. He was a three-year starter for the Cobras, averaging 14 points and seven rebounds his senior season.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Pierce, who mainly plays the shooting guard position, has been invited to a vet camp for the newly organized Wilmington Sea Dawgs of the American Basketball Association. He got the invitation from Sea Dawg coach Kevin Whitted after participating in a recent try-out.

“The camp starts on Oct. 13 and the season begins in November,” said Pierce, who is expected to play at the shooting guard spot for the Wilmington team.

The Sea Dawgs will play a 40-game schedule against other ABA teams, mainly in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern areas of the U.S.

“I’ve always wanted the chance to play professional basketball,” Pierce said. ”This is a start. I’m happy that it is close by so my family and friends can come watch me play,” he said.

Pierce credits his mother Catherine Pierce and older brother Danny Pierce for the major portion of support and encouragement he has received since he first started playing the game.

“My mother always told me to work hard for what I wanted and not to give up when things got rough,” Pierce said. “Much that I know about basketball, I learned from Danny. He was a really good basketball player when he was in high school but he didn’t get a lot of the opportunities I had because he had to work a lot of the time. They are my inspiration.”

Pierce said he playing pro basketball has always been one of his goals and that he hopes to take it as far as he can.

After his playing days, he would like to get into coaching sport.

“ I feel like I need to do all I can to attain what I can in basketball because I love the game so much. It has always been part of me.”

FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS

HIGH SCHOOLS: Whiteville 24, South Brunswick 14; South Columbus 33, East Columbus 13; West Columbus 27, Red Springs 26.

COLLEGES: Clemson 28, Wake Forest 21; Miami 27, North Carolina 17; Alabama 34, Duke 13; South Carolina 34, Kentucky 18; Auburn 31, Arkansas 17; Georgia Tech 38, Maryland 15; East Carolina 24, Virginia 10; Texas 28, Oklahoma 26; Georgia 20, Tennessee 17; Florida 29, LSU 21; Michigan 32, Michigan State 22;
Southern Cal 37, Washington 20; Iowa 25, Purdue 16; Pittsburgh 26, Syracuse 14; Penn State 23, Minnesota 21.