Amira Avery-Cheeks is one point away from becoming the all-time leading scorer at Tacony Academy Charter. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Amira Avery-Cheeks knows how to make things happen on the basketball court.
She’s just as good in the kitchen.
Avery-Cheeks is a senior guard on the Tacony Academy Charter girls basketball team, and when she’s not filling up scoreboards, she is filling up bellies with her gourmet dishes. While her specialty is any kind of chicken, she’s pretty good at making anything.
“I think I make very good chicken,” said Avery-Cheeks, who lives down the block from her school. “I work at Burger King, but I’ve taken some time off because of basketball, but I love cooking. I really want to get into it. I’m going to (Walnut Hill Culinary School) after I graduate.
“I’ve always liked cooking. I’ll cook at home a lot and I love working in the kitchen. I want to be a chef.”
Right now, she has the perfect ingredients for being a top basketball player in the school and she’s on the verge of making history.
Tacony Charter is headed to the Class 2A state playoffs, and she is going into the game with 1,012 career points. That’s the same number as Michaela Fletcher, the school’s all-time leading scorer who graduated last year. With one point in the playoff game, Avery-Cheeks will become the school’s new all-time leading scorer.
It’s a pretty big accomplishment for the senior guard, not only because she loves the school so much and is happy to leave her mark, but because she was teammates with Fletcher for three years and has learned a lot from her predecessor.
“I really didn’t think I would do it, I didn’t believe it until the last few games when I was so close,” said Avery-Cheeks, who plays shooting guard and sometimes point guard and has knocked down 15 three-pointers on the season. “It means a lot to me because I never thought I would do it. I know how good Michaela was. I learned a lot from playing with her.
“It’s been great. This year, I’m taking more shots because we’re a young team and I’m trying to help us win. But I also play point guard a lot. I love having the ball in my hand. That means I get to pass the ball to other girls and get them involved. We’re all getting better, playing as a team.”
It’s been a year of ups and downs for Avery-Cheeks and her teammates. So far, they’re 11-11 on the year, but they play most of their games against bigger schools. It also didn’t help that the bulk of the team is underclassmen, so it took some time for the team to get used to playing with each other.
But now that the state playoffs are here, Avery-Cheeks and her teammates are ready to roll.
“This year has been great,” Avery-Cheeks said. “I think the best part about it for me is breaking the school record because I’ve been to the playoffs before, but it’s such an honor to leave with a record here because I like the team and the school so much.
“But the playoffs are great, too. I’m really happy we’re there. I want to win. It’s good for me because I want to keep playing, but it’s good for the younger girls, too. They’re getting to play more games. That’s how you get better.”
Now that her career is winding down, Avery-Cheeks is starting to look back on her career and she couldn’t be happier with the way it progressed.
Obviously, being the all-time leading scorer is a huge accomplishment, but that’s not the biggest thing Avery-Cheeks is taking away from her days at Tacony Charter. She’s far more happy about the relationships she made while playing for the Lions.
“It’s going to be hard not seeing a lot of these people,” Avery-Cheeks said. “We’re all good friends. I’ll miss a lot of things about high school, but I think the biggest thing I’ll miss is all my friends. I’ve known some of the people here for years. I love it here.”
While she heads into Walnut Hill Culinary School, she’ll certainly make new friends and just like she did at Tacony Charter, she’ll make her own mark. But one thing she won’t be doing is playing basketball. The school doesn’t have a program, so when her Tacony Charter career is over, it will mark the end of her scholastic basketball days.
She could play in local leagues, but she knows she’ll miss it.
“It was tough, but I really want to be a chef,” she said. “My goal is to open my own restaurant. It won’t be a specialty restaurant, we’ll have everything. I want to have something for everyone. But I’ll miss basketball.”
And while her basketball career is nearly complete, she plans on trying something new before she graduates.
“I’m going to play softball, I’ve never done it before, but I want to give it a try,” Avery-Cheeks said. “I don’t know what position. I don’t know much about the sport, but it looks fun and I want to try it. I want to keep playing and have fun.”
