SHAWNEE STAR OPTS FOR SOUTHEAST

Derek Winans lives in Illinois, but it's not a stretch to refer to Southeast Missouri State University as his hometown basketball team.

And Winans, a senior at Shawnee High School, will be taking his considerable basketball skills to Cape Girardeau next season as a member of the Southeast squad.

Winans, who lives in nearby East Cape Girardeau, recently announced his intention to attend Southeast and play for the Indians.

Although Winans probably won't receive an athletic scholarship -- at least not for his freshman year -- he will be getting his school basically paid for because of his strong academic prowess as the valedictorian of his senior class at Shawnee with a 4.0 grade-point average.

And, although Winans will technically be a walk-on at Southeast if a scholarship does not become available, he certainly won't be your average walk-on. He has been recruited strongly by head coach Gary Garner and his staff for the past year and will definitely be a welcome addition to the Indians.

"I'm real excited about coming to SEMO," said Winans, a 6-foot-2 guard who was heavily recruited by Eastern Illinois and considered the Panthers before deciding to stay close to home. "I visited Eastern Illinois first and they had a real nice campus and their coaching staff was real nice.

" But I came over to SEMO and talked to coach Garner for about two hours and I just really like him and all the other coaches. And being so close to home, that's definitely one of the main factors because all my family and people who followed me all my high school career will be able to watch me play."

The fact the Indians advanced to the NCAA Division I Tournament for the first time ever this year and nearly upset LSU in the first round also made a major impression on Winans.

" I watched that game against LSU on TV and saw how good they did," he said. "I really like what coach Garner is doing with the program and I want to be a part of it."

Winans had an impressive career at Shawnee and he turned in a spectacular senior season for the Redskins.

During his prep career, Winans scored 2,035 points and he helped the Redskins go 48-10 the last two years while capturing back-to-back regional championships, the first regional crowns for Shawnee since the school won its only other title in 1961.

And this past season, Winans averaged 27 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals per game while shooting 41 percent from 3-point range, 55 percent from the field overall and 76 percent from the free-throw line.

Winans, who led Southern Illinois in scoring as a senior, earned first-team Class A all-state honors, was a McDonald's All-American nominee and showed off his spectacular leaping ability by winning the Class A slam-dunk contest at the state tournament.

"That was definitely a highlight of my senior season," said Winans of the slam-dunk title. "But winning regionals this year was really the big highlight. We started out 13-0, then we lost a guy to some problems and we lost three guys to injuries.

"We only had two of the original five starters still on the team playing, and then to still win regionals when nobody thought we could, that was something."

Shawnee coach Mike Hanson can't say enough about the kind of player -- and person -- Winans is. Hanson, a 1973 Shawnee graduate, has seen plenty of Redskins basketball and he has no doubt that Winans is the best player the school has produced.

"He's the best we've had," Hanson said. "He's not just a good all-around player, he's a good all-around person, a tremendous student and such a hard worker.

"He comes early, stays late, goes to camps in the summer. Whatever he thought he needed to do, he did, and he worked harder than anybody else."

As for Winans' basketball skills, Hanson said, "He has tremendous leaping ability for his size and that complements his quickness. He's tremendously quick and a great shooter, but he's a scorer more than a shooter because he can also create his shots. And he's a very tenacious defender."

Winans, who according to Hanson just might be the first Shawnee product to ever play Division I basketball, credits hard work as the main factor behind his athletic and academic success.

"I try to do the best I can in anything, especially school and sports," he said. "God has given me the talent, but hard work has gotten me to where I am now."