By Kyle LoJacono
Wesley Chapel’s Erik Thomas has already proven he can score like no other boys basketball player in the program’s 13-year history, but the senior forward is far from just a scoring machine.
The 6-foot-5, 205-pound Thomas is also the Wildcats’ (13-3) all-time rebounding leader, and he extended his career mark with a program-record 32 during a 65-48 home victory over district rival Ridgewood Dec. 21, breaking his own mark of 26 set Nov. 28 against the Rams.
“I was extremely happy because I didn’t expect to beat it,” said Thomas, who also scored 35 in the contest. “I just went out there and played my game, and it turned out I got 32 rebounds. … It’s pretty cool to be able to beat my own record. I want to set it high to give someone else a big challenge if they ever want to beat it.”
Thomas is pulling down 18.4 rebounds per game this season, 4.3 more than a year ago.
“I’ve just had that mindset of being aggressive when it comes to crashing the boards,” Thomas said. “I just do my part when it comes to that; just do my job.”
Thomas burst onto the scene as a freshman when he averaged 6.9 points and 4.2 rebounds. Since then he has totaled 1,706 points, 1,023 rebounds, 302 assists, 187 steals and 136 blocks.
Wesley Chapel has also gone 63-36 since Thomas joined the squad, but both the forward and the Wildcats have yet to win a district title together.
In fact, the program is looking for its first district championship since 2003, falling the last two years in the league finals. Thomas is hoping to change that during the 5A-8 tournament, which Wesley Chapel hosts Feb. 8 and 9.
“Honestly, records are great, but I just want to go as far as we can this year,” Thomas said. “Whatever we can do to win more games and keep the season going is what we all want. … We really want that district title. We thought we would have had it last year, but Hudson got us in the finals. We want to get to regionals, and we’ve all got that mindset of coming out strong in the first quarter and playing hard until the end of the game.”
Thomas and the Wildcats play at Hudson Jan. 8 at 7:30 p.m.
