Erik Thomas keeps up family tradition
By Kyle LoJacono
Wesley Chapel High junior Erik Thomas learned from a young age his passion is basketball, and it’s a good thing considering the family he was born into.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound forward is younger brother of Sthefany Thomas, who scored a Pasco County girls record 2,563 points while playing at Wesley Chapel. He is also the son of James Thomas, who played forward for two seasons for the Atlanta Hawks.
“Basketball means the world to my family,” Erik said. “My dad played in the NBA and later in Europe and Argentina, and then my sister was a superstar here. Basketball is basically in my blood. As soon as I came into this life I’ve loved basketball.”
Erik can even attribute being born to basketball. James moved to Argentina in order to continue playing professionally. It was in the South American country where he met his wife and Erik’s mother, Fabiana.
“She played basketball and she went to a basketball class that he was teaching,” Erik said. “That’s how they met.”
Erik said his first memory with basketball was at age 3 when he participated in one of his dad’s classes. The family moved to Wesley Chapel when he was 6, where his passion for the game only grew.
“I was always the tallest kid in my class, so I played down low when I was young,” Erik said. “Then in middle school I played point guard.”
It was when Erik was in middle school that Sthefany started to shine on the Wildcats court. The Clemson University graduate plays shooting guard, and Erik said he tried to model his game after the way she played on the perimeter.

“I was at every one of her games,” Erik said. “Everything she did I looked up to her.”
Then Erik started growing to the point where playing guard was basically out of the question.
“I hit my growth spurt in eighth grade,” Erik said. “I actually grew really fast and when it first happened it was really hard to run up and down the court. When I got to Wesley Chapel High School coach (Doug) Greseth got me in shape to play down low, and he also got me bigger and stronger.”
His newly found height forced him to incorporate more of his father’s style of power play in the post into his own game.
Greseth said his ability to play inside and outside makes him a matchup problem for any defender.
“The sky is the limit for him,” Greseth said. He then added, “The one good thing about him is most people think because he’s big, he doesn’t have good hands. He has really good hands. He can catch the ball and pass the ball. He’s got all the tools that a lot of big guys just don’t have. We give him a little bit of freedom on the perimeter, but he’s really hard to handle on the inside.”
Last season Erik put up 15.2 points per game while adding 220 rebounds, 75 assists, 52 steals and 21 blocks.
“He’s a big factor for us,” said senior guard Julian Vann. “He helps us down in the post and gets us on the scoreboard. Hopefully we can feed him the ball more this year and let him show off his size and strength.”
Erik’s efforts made him the All-Laker/All-Lutz News Boys Basketball Player of the Year last season, but he is not satisfied with his game.
“Right now my strength is getting to the basket and drawing contact fouls,” Erik said. “The thing I’m working on getting better at is driving with my left hand and shooting with defense on me. I’ve been spending a lot of time with those two during the offseason.”
Erik said he would like to play basketball at a Division I college, and if a career in the NBA happens it “would be a dream come true.”
Erik and the Wildcats play at Fivay on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
—All stats as recorded to Maxpreps.com by coaches.
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