Dorsey Sims, a basketball coach from Memphis and a sports consultant for On the Scene Sports Inc., has spent the past 18 years showcasing high school basketball players from the Mid-South to help them obtain scholarships.
Through his program, Diamonds & Gems in the Rough, Sims gives college coaches the opportunity to see untapped talent in Memphis. Sims hosts basketball tournaments at Mid-South high schools as a platform for student-athletes to demonstrate their skills to collegiate coaches and scouting services.
“Basketball is secondary with me. Education comes first,” Sims said. “When you get through bouncing a ball, you’ve got to realize what it is that you want to do for the rest of your life.”
Sims said collegiate coaches typically select 12-15 players at the tournaments to whom they want to offer scholarships. Sims also selects players to join his traveling team, which gives them an opportunity to showcase their skills for collegiate coaches on the East Coast. Sims said he is using basketball as a tool to get as many players as possible into colleges.
“It doesn’t matter what level you play on, it’s just an opportunity to get an education,” Sims said. “I try to get these young men to understand that you pimp the basketball, don’t let it pimp you. You get out of that basketball everything that you can get out of it.”
This summer, Sims and his team traveled to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Harlem to play in tournaments at well-known outdoor arenas, such as Rucker Park in Harlem and West Fourth in Brooklyn.
While his team also includes players from Mississippi and Arkansas, Sims said he is determined to shed light on the hidden talent in Memphis, which he called “the Mecca of basketball.”
“I think Memphis has a lot of great talent, but they are under the radar, and we want to be able to expose them,” Sims said.
Sims, the recipient of the 2010 Shelby County and Memphis Achievers Award for the contributions his program has made to the Mid-South youth, ties in another focus to his goal of helping basketball players obtain scholarships. He has adopted the role of a guide for the next generation of black men in hopes of directing them towards successful lives.
“As African-American men, we’re an endangered species,” Sims said. “It only takes one incident to trigger something where we’re shot dead like dogs. Most people only expect for us to get on drugs, or be alcoholics or go to jail, and I’m trying to just do my part to steer some young men in the right direction.”
Sims has worked with a variety of notable of players from the Memphis basketball scene including Penny Hardaway, Xavier Henry and Charles Tucker. Through Diamonds & Gems in the Rough, he has mentored Memphis high school players who have gone on to play NCAA basketball.
Dominique Shellman, a former player for Jacksonville State University, credits Sims for assisting him in his efforts to get into his first college, Motlow State, and getting noticed by coaches. He recalled returning from New York with the rest of Sims’ traveling team and playing in the tournament which got him noticed.
“When we got back home from New York, we had a tournament that a lot of coaches came and watched us play in,” Shellman said. “I had three different coaches who wanted to come talk to me. When coaches asked me for a reference, I’d tell them about Coach Sims. He would have nothing but the best things to say about me.”
Sims is accepting donations to Diamonds & Gems in the Rough for future travels with his players. Those who would like to donate can contact Sims at dorseysims3@gmail.com for instructions.
Dorsey Sims III, right, stands at the corner of Highland Street and Poplar Avenue with three players from his traveling team to accept donations towards their trip to the East Coast.
