Edina's Sharp-Shooter Graham: A Natural, And A Big Ten Recruit
EDINA, Minn. (WCCO) -- Edina basketball star Graham Woodward is a joy to watch.
He's the Hornet's all-time leading scorer, and set a single-game record by scoring 46 points against St. Louis Park last week.
Watch him practice, and you can see he's at home, almost at peace -- and it's been that way since he was a kid.
"As far as a basketball kid, he's a kid who's always in the gym," coach Pat Dorsey said. "He's the hardest working kid on the team."
Watch him play in a game, and you can see how special his feel for the game is.
How else do you explain no-look reverse lay-ups? Maybe it's his parents, and where they come from.
"For me, my parents are from Indiana -- that's kind of the state of basketball," Woodward said. "They instilled it in me at a young age. Watching the movie 'Hoosiers' when I was younger, it's really given me the basketball mentality all throughout my childhood."
He makes the difficult look easy, and at barely 6 feet tall, he has a little bit of a chip.
"It's been kind of difficult sometimes, but I've always tried to prove people wrong and work as hard as I can," he said.
It's all thanks to the hours when no one is watching -- where he gets into his zone.
"All the distractions, and things around me, go away," he said.
Next year he's got a Big Ten scholarship to Penn State.
"It was the coaching staff for me that sold it, as well as getting out there – the atmosphere, the campus, and the Big Ten," he said.
He's impressed his high school coach by being much more than a basketball player.
"He is a phenomenal kid," Dorsey said. "He's an A student, and he's well-liked by his classmates."
