Word Of God Academy Making Name For Itself On Hardwood

After a tumultuous two month period in which the school resided on the NCAA's list of schools from which it would not accept transcripts, Word Of God Academy is back making headlined for their actions on the court.

Posted 10:30 p.m. Jan 16, 2008 — Updated 1:56 a.m. Jan 17, 2008

Raleigh's Word of God Academy is making a name for itself on the basketball court. The Holy Rams are undefeated and nationally ranked this season after winning the GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational Tournament this past December.

"Word of God has always had good a really good basketball program," head coach Levi Beckwith says. "I think right now, with the addition of the players we have, I think we're just going to a different level."

But a year ago, Word of God made national headlines for a much different reason - the NCAA put them on a list of schools from which it would not accept transcripts.

Citing a paperwork issue, Word of God challenged the NCAA's ruling, and two months after their initial decision, the NCAA removed Word of God from their list of banned schools.

"We circulated letters to all of our associated schools, and people that we're affiliated with statewide, locally also, and let them know we've been cleared completely," says school founder Frank Summerfield." We had a three-day site visit from the NCAA. They were with us three days, and found everything to be sound."

So now, Word of God is back to making headlines on the court.

Their not so secret weapons are two division-one caliber recruits, junior point guard John Wall, currently out with an injured hand, and sophomore forward CJ Leslie.

Wall's recruiting options are still wide open, but Leslie has already committed to his longtime favorite NC State.

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