“He’s-A-Soph-More!” the crowd chants as Trea Keys, a 5’7” point guard, scores from the 3-point line again and again. Keys, the leading scorer in Howard County basketball, is an essential part of the varsity basketball team.

Keys was pulled up to varsity as a freshman during the 2015-2016 season.

“I’ve been playing basketball for 10 years now,” said Keys. “I’ve been playing at a pretty high level.”

Coach Wingfield, the varsity coach, recognizes Keys as an intelligent, valuable player. “Trea is a very exceptional player. He’s a hard worker, he’s very smart, and right now he’s our leading scorer on our team,” said Coach Wingfield.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Keys is averaging 18.3 points a game which puts him as the leading scorer in Howard County. During the Wilde Lake game against Oakland Mills, Keys had a career-high 34 point game which is the most points scored by any Howard County player this winter season.  

Keys’ commitment and leadership skills has helped guide the team so far this season and he hopes he will continue to help.

“This year there’s a different level of competition. The teams [in the county] are a lot better,” said Keys. “It was a little rocky in the beginning, but we’ve gotten a lot better.”

“I want to win the counties, but it’s a hard road to get there. I will keep leading the team and getting everyone else better,” said Keys.

Keys has been working hard to improve as a player. “This year I’ve been playing smarter and with more discipline and picking and choosing where I shoot,” said Keys.  

Coach Wingfield sees the hard work Keys puts in. “He’s been working extremely hard on his shooting. For someone his size, he has to shoot the ball very well and he’s been putting in a lot of time and practice outside of practice to work on his shooting,” he said.

As a sophomore, Keys has two more seasons left with the Wilde Lake Basketball program. “Over the next two years I want to improve all around in my game and just become a better player overall,” said Keys.  

“One of my hopes is that he can grow a little bit, but I don’t think I have any control over that,” Coach Wingfield said, with a smile and laugh. “I would definitely like to see his continued development.”

In order to improve Keys as a player, Coach Wingfield will continue to support and help Keys on and off the court. “As his coach, I’ll continue to give him drills and things for him to improve on his game,” he said. “I’ll continue to communicate with him to let him know the things that he needs to do to be successful,” said Coach Wingfield.  

“I’ll just continue to keep him focused, he’s a very good kid and sometimes when people have success early they sort of lose focus, so one of my jobs is to keep him on that right path to be successful for the next two years he has here,” said Coach Wingfield.

Keys has demonstrated his strengths, skill, and support which proves him to be an essential part of the basketball team.

“I think if he continues on the pace that he’s on right now that he can be the best player that has ever played here at Wilde Lake High School.” said Coach Wingfield. “He’s a very dedicated and hard-working young man.”