Why was Geno Auriemma in Charlotte? Charlotte Catholic’s Blanca Thomas is that good
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation last year, it closed businesses and schools. Like many students, Charlotte Catholic’s Blanca Thomas had more free time than usual, and she used it to become one of the nation’s top-10 girls basketball players in her class.
The pandemic hit, in earnest, in the spring of 2020 when Thomas was in eighth grade and just really deciding that basketball was what she wanted to do. With school and life disrupted, Thomas asked her trainer and travel-ball coach, Randall Clark, to come and work her out at home. Almost daily, the two worked on her game.
By then, Clark had been working with the 6-foot-5 Thomas for a year. She had always been tall and Clark had always been impressed with her natural gifts: her footwork, her ability to catch passes from any kind of angle and how she just had this natural ability to score.
What he hadn’t seen was the total commitment to the game. But now he was, and the improvement came in rapid chunks.
“Up until then,” Thomas said, “college basketball was something people talked to me about because of my height and that was the only reason why. But once I started playing more and training more, I went up to Randall and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ During COVID, I didn’t have much to do so Randall would come work me out in my driveway, and I opened myself up to recruiting.”
Thomas was not on many recruiting radars back then, but that changed in a hurry.
Quick results, national rise
Thomas dominated for Clark’s travel team in her eighth-grade summer. She led the Lady Attack Elite team to wins in two national tournaments, and at the biggest girls travel event of the year, the Run For The Roses in Indianapolis, the center got her first college call from Michigan.
A few months later, Thomas began her freshman year at Catholic. She averaged 18.3 points, 13.6 rebounds and 6.8 blocks. Catholic coach Bobby Conrad said Thomas was a near unanimous choice for Southern Carolinas conference player of the year. At a school that’s produced its fair share of college talent, including Elijah Hood, who was once a national high school football player of the year, Conrad believes Thomas is the most decorated recruit ever at the school.
And she’s got three full seasons to play.
“She’s the most skilled player that I’ve ever been around at her size,” Conrad said. “To have her size but also her skill level is amazing. On defense, she makes people not want to drive period. Every day she blows me away.”
ESPN’s latest national rankings for the class of 2024 include four players from the Carolinas. Camden (S.C.) High School’s Joyce Edwards, a 6-2 forward, is No. 1 in the nation. Fuquay-Varina 6-2 forward Sarah Strong is No. 5, Thomas No. 6, Jay M. Robinson 6-3 forward Ella Hobbs is No. 16. And North Pitt’s 5-4 point guard Zamareya Jones is No. 23.
“Being ranked like this never crossed my mind,” Thomas said. “I went from not being ranked at all to being No. 8, and I was shocked by that, and then recently they came out again and I was sixth. It’s been such a little amount of time, when I’ve been able to accomplish all that, it blows my mind.”
Moving up the boards
Clark — who has trained players like Stephen and Seth Curry, Antawn Jamison and Boston Celtics first-round draft pick Grant Williams — said this shapes up to the best N.C. girls class in history.
He also thinks that Thomas hasn’t done rising up the list.
“She still has a long ways to go,” Clark said. “She hasn’t come close to tapping her potential. A lot of stuff she’s capable of doing, she hasn’t shown and won’t show until she’s 100 percent confident in it.”
Clark said Thomas has a nice jump shot that extends to the 3-point line and has greatly improved her game when facing the basket instead of always posting up.
Colleges are already lining up. Schools like Georgia, Louisville, N.C. State and North Carolina have offered. UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who has won 11 women’s national championships, brought several assistants to Charlotte last week to watch Thomas practice.
“I was nervous,” Thomas said. “I’m not going to lie. That was probably the most coaches we’ve had at a practice.”
Clark, whom Thomas calls her trainer, coach and best friend, thinks this is all just the beginning.
“When it’s all said and done, in the class of 2024, she should be No. 1 in the country,” Clark said. “She really should be.”
