Sydney Gomes had high expectations for herself and the Nease girls basketball team heading into her senior season and so far early season success has been the result.
Gomes entered the season knowing that she was approaching 2,000 career points and that she would likely have a shot at it fairly early in the season.
She wound up reaching the mark on the road against rival St. Augustine Dec. 7.
“I knew it was coming, but I wasn’t too focused on it, because it has been all about growing as a team,” Gomes said.
However, her goals do not stop there, and she has now turned her attention to the possibility of setting the St. Johns County record for career points, which she is less than 200 points away from achieving.
“If you would have told me I would be in this spot a couple of years ago, I would not have believed you,” Gomes said.
Two thousand points is a lot, but Gomes gives the credit to her ability to grow as a player by learning to score in a variety of ways instead of being one-dimensional.
She is a threat to score with her jumper, driving to the lane and from the beyond the arc.
According to Gomes, she has worked on getting more of her teammates involved and as a result her assists have increased this year as well.
She is averaging 19.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 3.4 steals per game.
Although she eclipsed the 2,000-point threshold on the road, she was recognized prior to the Panthers’ home game against Menendez Dec. 13.
“It was nice to share that moment with the home fans,” Gomes said. “Everyone at Nease has been do instrumental and involved in the support of girls basketball here.”
Gomes played her freshman and sophomore basketball seasons in Staten Island, New York before moving with her family to northeast Florida and joining the Nease program last year.
“It’s been two of the best years of my life,” Gomes said. “The coaching staff has really seen the potential in me.”
She has signed to play basketball at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, which will allow her to realize a dream of playing at the next level that she has had for some time.
Gomes has had a basketball in her hand for as long as she can remember, and she has been playing competitively since third grade.
Although her senior season has started with a bang, she understands there remains a lot of work to be done, as the Panthers attempt to win a district title after coming so close a year ago.
