Bixby’s Shon Lewis

By Bryce McKinnis

Shon Lewis, a Bixby High School senior basketball player, has taken pride in playing great defense since the first time he picked up the rock.

“I believe that winning basketball starts with great defense,” said Lewis, also the Spartans’ top returning scorer.

“[Lewis is a] lightning quick and strong guard,” Bixby head coach Lance Kight. “Took the job of guarding everyone’s best player last season, one of the top defenders in Tulsa.”

Lewis’s basketball journey began from a young age. He recently received an offer from McPherson College and has dreams to play at the collegiate level.

“I started playing basketball when I was pretty young, probably like around 5-6, and my dad introduced me to basketball because he was big on sports,” Lewis said.

Dedicating himself to the game of basketball has provided some of Lewis’s greatest challenges but also some of his greatest triumphs. The game has taught Lewis one thing above all others: “Not everything is going to go my way, and how I respond to these things is what is going to help me grow as a person and player,” Lewis said.

Naturally, when Lewis had to move schools, new challenges presented themselves, but there was basketball to steer him through adversity.

“My sophomore year, I moved to Bixby from Oklahoma City, so I didn’t know the coaches or players,” Lewis said. “We had multiple players with college-level talent including having a D1 player [Parker Friedrichsen]. I didn’t get to play as much but worked during the season increasing my minutes.”

Lewis toiled in empty gyms and continually improved his game. He became a rotation player, and before he knew it, a significant contributor. Lewis averaged 5.0 points and 3.4 assists per game as a junior. He is expecting to do even more this year.

“A couple goals that I have for senior year is to win more games than last year, improve in scoring the ball and becoming more of a leader by setting examples for my underclassmen,” Lewis said.

Lewis believed it will take “continuous hard work and consistency” for he and his Spartans teammates to achieve their goals. Thankfully, continuous hard work and consistency is exactly what he has.

“I believe we can go pretty far if we play to the best of our ability and play together as a team and play hard,” Lewis said.

Lewis plans to pursue a degree in physical therapy while playing basketball in college.