Kyle Foster (Photo: WAWG)
HAMPTON, Va. – Two years ago as a freshman trying out for the varsity basketball team at Bethel (Hampton, Va.), Kyle Foster had the same dream as every other player gunning it down the hardwood doing Figure-8 drills trying to leave a lasting impression in hopes of making the Bruins’ roster.
“I wanted to get a D-I offer,” said Foster, who scored a game-high 20 points in WAWG-BWSL’s (Va.) 68-48 win against the NH Ballers (N.H.) Friday night at the Southern Jam Fest. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t know if that was realistic, though.”
It didn’t help his confidence when he ended up getting cut, and any confidence that lingered after that massive rejection left for good when he got cut again the following year.
“I knew I could play, but when you get cut you do question yourself,” Foster said. “I didn’t really think about that D-I offer anymore. I just felt like I was going through setback after setback.”
Despite the disappearance of his confidence, Foster’s reputation as a three-point marksman floated around the basketball circles in Hampton Roads and eventually found its way to WAWG coach Stefan Welsh, who just happened to be looking for a shooter to complete his AAU team.
“People were telling me that he could really shoot and they showed me video of him making this fadeaway three-pointer to win a summer league game while falling out of bounds,” Welsh said. “I saw that and said, ‘Tell him he’s on the team.”
The transition wasn’t smooth initially; Foster readily admits that he was unsure of whether he belonged after consecutive failings at the varsity level.
“I was struggling at first and one day Coach Welsh just came up to me and said, ‘You’re the best shooter in the state; you need to start acting like it,’ ” Foster recalled. “That just did something in me. It changed everything.”
Welsh is a legend in Hampton Roads; he led Woodside (Newport News, Va.) to back-to-back state titles in 2004 and 2005 and went on to star at Arkansas.
“He had a gift that he was wasting because of lack of confidence,” Welsh said. “I told him if he didn’t start shooting I was gonna take him out. I didn’t care where he shot it from; as long as his feet were set, he could let it fly. It just started to click for him.”
Foster, who grew from 5-foot-8 to 6-foot-3 over the last year, went on to average 20 points per game through the first few tournaments for WAWG and subsequently picked up offers from Howard, Maryland-Eastern Shore and College of Charleston.
After his stellar season on the summer circuit, Foster not only made Bethel’s team, he led the Bruins in scoring, averaging 15 points per game and leading the Peninsula District in three-pointers made.
He committed to Howard in April.
“Honestly, the whole situation just taught me to believe in myself more,” Foster said. “I got cut not once, but twice, and I never thought I could turn it around and still fulfil my dream of playing D-I. But Coach Welsh helped me build my confidence and it showed me what I’m capable of if I just do what I know I can do. It was the best lesson I’ve ever learned.”
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