Turning over a new life

When Sami Wylie returned to South Philly High last Thursday, his old basketball coach had a memento to share with him.

From an envelope, George Anderson pulled out the Feb. 16, 1995 edition of the South Philly Review.

The decade-old newspaper depicted Wylie, his face buried in his arms following an 80-79 loss to Engineering & Science in the opening round of the Public League playoffs.

Wylie, who had been a Second Team All-Public selection at Southern, was shocked. He couldn’t believe that Anderson had held on to the article for all these years.

"I didn’t forget about the game, but I forgot about the newspaper," Wylie said.

Anderson’s intention was not to rehash bad memories. It was to show his former athlete how far he has come.

Shortly after that playoff game, Wylie dropped out of Southern. Lacking a diploma and dangerously aimless, he was arrested for selling crack cocaine in 1999 and received three years’ probation.

Now 26, the athlete has once again found success — and redemption — in basketball.

Wylie, of the 1900 block of South 20th Street, is a starting guard and team captain for the 17-4 Community College of Philadelphia men’s basketball team.

Last Tuesday, the Small College Coaches Association honored Wylie with the Sam Cozen Player of the Week award. The second-year athlete is averaging 22.6 points per game while shooting 67 percent from the field and 93 percent from the foul line. Add his team-best 57 steals and 64 assists — which rank second best on the squad — and Wylie is performing beyond his expectations.

"I thought I would have success, but not like I am having now," said the 5-foot-10 guard, who also is closing in on 1,000 career points.

He presented his Player of the Week plaque to his mother, Beverly Wylie, who believed in him even in the dark times.

"I saw the pain in my mother, who always inspired me to keep trying to fulfill my dream to keep playing basketball," Wylie recalled. "One of the reasons I pushed so hard to play basketball was my mom."

The father of four is making such an impact on the small college scene that some opposing coaches are glad they won’t have to see him next season, said CCP head coach Robert "Dondi" DeShields.

"He can be a coach’s dream, but also can be a coach’s nightmare," said DeShields, of the 1500 block of South Mole Street.

Returning to Southern last week, Wylie had some poignant advice for the current basketball team.

"I know you can all play ball, but you’ve got to balance the books with the basketball," said the athlete, who admitted to skipping practices and hanging on corners where he often found trouble.

In his high-school playing days, Wylie figured he was so talented, he could afford to skip the Rams’ last practice before the playoffs to watch his good friend Donnie Carr play at Roman Catholic.

It was a costly decision for both Wylie and his team. Anderson assigned Wylie to the bench for the first half of the Engineering & Science game. Southern opened the second half trailing by 20 points, but made a miraculous rally, only to lose at the buzzer.

Wylie took the loss so hard that he skipped school for more than a month. He spent more time in the hallways than he did in the classroom. A senior who still needed a full year of credits to graduate, Wylie dropped out of school and started working at Acme and doing construction jobs.

A year later, he grew tired of working and spent his days playing basketball in a Pro-Am League at Broad Street and Fairmount Avenue.

Unfortunately, he spent his nights with the wrong crowd. Wylie’s wakeup call came in the form of a drug arrest in December 1999.

Before he could move forward, he would have to correct some of his past mistakes.

Wylie wanted to play college ball. DeShields saw the guard play in the Pro-Am League, but told him he would need a high-school diploma to go any further. Taking the advice as a personal challenge, Wylie enrolled in night classes at John Bartram High.

In 2002, he finally earned his diploma.

"It felt like a great accomplishment," Wylie said. "Not only did I make myself happy, but I made my mother happy."

He enrolled at CCP in 2003 and soon started playing for the Colonials. DeShields is proud of Wylie’s progress.

"I just saw something in him," the coach said. "He has overcome some serious barriers in life."

The sophomore is becoming a good writer and maintaining a C average in the classroom, the coach added.

Wylie will have two more years of eligibility after he graduates CCP in the spring, and Lincoln, Cheyney, Eastern and Indiana University of Pennsylvania are among the colleges expressing interest.

But the player is remaining focused on his immediate goals.

"I am going to keep working hard on the court and in the classroom," said Wylie, who hasn’t missed a practice in his two years at the college. "Hopefully, I can help CCP win a state championship."

If so, it would do a lot to erase the pain of his high-school experience.

But Wylie harbors no hard feelings against Anderson for benching him that year; he now knows the coach was trying to teach him a lesson that he would take a few more years to learn.

"I look back now and thank him for it because I am a better person from it."