2024 prospect Rakease Passmore talks growing up in Florida and picking up offers
ASHEVILLE, NC - I have been covering high school basketball for close to 14 years around the Southeast and some nationally. For Western North Carolina and the Asheville area, I have not seen a true freshman impact the game and dominate the competition the way that Rakease Passmore did this past season at AC Reynolds High School since Erwin High School standout Rashad McCants twenty-three years ago back in 1998.
Sure, there have been some really fine prospects out of the area even recently including Caleb Mills and Jordan Shepherd but neither of those two players impacted the game the way Passmore did as a freshman. Passmore already holds two offers. Murray State and Western Carolina. Mills didn't pick ups his first offer until his sophomore season summer going into his junior year. "It's a blessing to get two offers as a freshman in high school especially coming from Palatka, Florida. It's hard to get shine, so I'm just blessed with all I have right now."
Passmore is originally from Palatka, Florida. If you don't know much about the town in the northern part of Florida here are some key numbers. The median-income for Palatka is $23,000 which is half of the median income average for the state of Florida. Palatka also has one of the highest crime rates in the country. It's a tough town to grow up in and it's surrounded by some bigger metropolitan areas such as Jacksonville, Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach. "In Palatka it's rough, the schools there are not good, it's a lot of good players that played there but didn't go nowhere because it's hard to stay out of trouble and there are very few people that know about Palatka.
So when Passmore had the chance to stay in Asheville and keep playing basketball he jumped at the chance. He is playing travel basketball with NLPB and his guardian is NLPB Director Jon Mobley, who he lives with.
The 6-foot-4 prospect looks like he could be a wing at the college level. He has elite Florida athleticism (a different breed, me and Justin Young rave about) , attacks the rim, can get past defenders with his quick first-step and handle, he grabs rebounds with ferocity, Passmore is a good passer and he seems to be a really good teammate. The future is bright for the kid from The Sunshine State.
