In the Almost Everybody Transfers Era, Ikeem Dickerson can still be found at William Sayre High.
Even though he now lives in Frankford, which is not exactly West Philly's neighbor. Even though he was begged to join other schools' programs.
Dickerson, now a senior, is a 6-5, 200-pound, forward/center, and he's almost always very productive in just his third season of paying strong attention to basketball.
Take yesterday, for instance. As Sayre outlasted Robert Lamberton, 90-75, in a beyond wild and woolly Public D game at Shepard RC, all the strong yet bouncy Dickerson did was workhorse his way to 33 points and 24 rebounds.
"My mom put me into basketball way back," Dickerson said. "But I was always just a kid playing a game. Doing the sport for the sport. But when I got to 10th grade, I developed a love for basketball and I've carried that through to this day.
"Hey, I'm not perfect. I have my good games and my bad games. There are still some things I'm trying to conquer. One thing I know is that I put a lot of effort into this."
Dickerson then mentioned that he subjects himself to demanding workouts directed by his cousin, Rasheen Dickerson, once a starter at Charles Audenried High (late '90s) and now a Philadelphia policeman.
Yes, the guys go one-on-one. Ikeem routinely triumphs.
"He ain't got it like he used to," he said, laughing. "But he's hanging in there."
Last summer, at the behest of a basketball buddy. Dickerson gave strong thought to transferring to a private school in Center City. Dickerson said that plan went poof! when the kid who'd been begging him, Kamani Jordan, enrolled at Imhotep Charter.
Meanwhile, due to family reasons, shortly before this school year began, he moved to the 1400 block of Church Street, in Frankford, from Hobart and Master, in West Philly.
"It's not too bad getting to school. I just take the El," he said. "I have a lot of friends at Sayre. It just made sense to stay with them."
Yesterday, two Sayre players, Hakim Williams (23 points) and James Suber, were lost to personal fouls and two others, Dickerson and Raul McIlwain, finished with four.
Dickerson's follow put the Sabers ahead for good, at 76-75, with 1:19 left and McIlwain, after intercepting an entry pass, nailed two free throws to create a three-point pad. A Lamberton trey misfired and two more foul shots finalized the score.
Anthony Fagan (17), D.J. Alexander, Rafiq Marshall (15 apiece) and Kevin Cooper (13) scored in double digits for the Blue Devils.
"We started out good," Dickerson said. "Then our heads were taken out of it, a little. They had us down [by 13] and we made a nice comeback."
Dickerson, a solid student, is unsure about his college plans.
"I just keep playing hard," he said. "Waiting for the scouts to come out."
That'd be time well spent.
