Young Flames blossomed with Mays' senior leadership

Amber Mays is a people person. As Liberty women’s basketball coach Carey Green says, Mays has never met a stranger. She reaches out to just about everyone she meets, greeting most with a bubbly smile.

Mays, Liberty’s lone senior, grew up in Pasadena, Calif., where there were plenty of people to meet. After her senior year in high school, she didn’t get any bites at basketball scholarships at the four-year college level. Only Oregon and Seton Hall showed interest after her junior year in high school, and they both fell out of the picture thanks to coaching changes at the schools before Mays’ senior year.

California junior colleges don’t offer scholarships. So Mays fled the coast, straight into the middle of nowhere — Sedalia, Mo. Population: 20,000, give or take a few, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, and home of State Fair Community College.

“Wasn’t much going on,” Mays said. “The biggest attraction was the Walmart.”

At State Fair, Mays did enough to grab the attention of Liberty assistant coach Alexis Sherard, who spotted Mays playing at a JUCO jamboree. In Mays, Sherard saw a point guard with a quick first step and a competitive drive. She was twice named a NJCAA honorable-mention All-American, and Liberty had a need for a veteran point guard.

With Allyson Fasnacht graduating after a three-year run as the starter at the point, Mays was a quick fit at the point for a veteran team last year that featured seven seniors.

“A lot of programs are prejudiced, and they don’t want to go that way,” Green said of JUCO players. “But you happen to be talking to a guy that was a junior college player myself. I think there are some huge advantages to junior colleges for special needs. And we had a special need.”

When that huge senior class moved on, Mays was left to try to gather and lead a young team, one that starts two sophomores, a junior and a freshman.

And on the floor, there’s a sense that this is Mays’ team. Certainly, Devon Brown is the leading scorer. Avery Warley is the physical, rebounding presence in the post. But take the last 10 minutes of last Sunday’s Big South Tournament championship game with Gardner-Webb, for instance. With Mays saddled with foul trouble, Liberty struggled with ball handling and ball movement and the Flames frittered away a 20-point lead in about seven minutes.

When Mays is on, Liberty plays under control, and she is both a threat to make the spectacular pass or score off the drive, depending on the defense gives her. That’s been a big key to her improvement, Warley said, noting the game has slowed down immensely for Mays this season.

“She’s definitely more patient,” Warley said. “She sees the floor a little bit better this year. She’s starting to find her game and not think so much. She had a lot of pressure last year, and you could see she thought a lot. I definitely think her game has matured. She’s just learned to make better decisions and be patient.”

Mays’ scoring is up more than a point per game from a year ago and she’s committed 10 fewer turnovers than last season and has seven more steals. She’s Liberty’s third-leading scorer heading into Saturday’s NCAA Tournament opener against Kentucky at Louisville’s Freedom Hall.

Mays’ bubbly personality is evident on the floor. She plays the game with a smile, even when things are going wrong, and that rubs off on her teammates. She said it’s all part of her leadership role.

“Whenever someone makes a turnover and puts their head down, I’m like, hey, it’s OK, look what I did two plays ago,” Mays said. “Everybody makes mistakes. You’ve just got to stay positive with them.”

Mays grew up with three sisters, which helped her become such an outgoing person. As a high-school junior, Mays struggled some with her academics, so she began working with two mentors at an off-campus tutoring facility — Wanda and Rafin Steffanson.

The mentors, along with Mays’ participation in an after-school Police Activities League (PAL), helped form Mays’ value system.

“Me and my best friend (Brittany) were two of the better players on the team, so we went to this tutoring program, and the two mentors became fond of me and Brittany,” Mays said. “They talked us through college, and where we wanted to go. They were there to just guide us. Then they started doing things they didn’t have to do. They started coming to our games and things like that. They’ve been there for me ever since my junior year.”

The Steffansons walked with Amber and her mother Patricia at Mays’ senior night ceremony March 8, a token of Mays’ appreciation of what their mentoring meant to her.

California is far behind Mays now. Her mother and sisters moved to Columbus, Ohio, and will be in attendance Saturday in Louisville. And though Mays wants to play basketball overseas after her time at Liberty is done, she’s not ready to ditch Lynchburg altogether.

A criminal justice major, she wants to return to town and attend Lynchburg’s police academy.

Said Mays: “In Pasadena, I went to the PAL. I just liked how there were officers of the law there, helping the community out. I could have done other things. But going there, I made a lot of positive decisions. So I want to do that too. I’m probably going to do something with juvenile justice, maybe working with kids. Just kind of give back to the community what it gave to me.”