The Grind, presented by Bank of Clarendon: Lee Central's silent star Dennis looks to lead Lady Stallions to title

If you walk into the gym at Lee Central before a basketball game, Mylasia Dennis might not be the first player to stick out in the crowd.

She's quiet and, frankly, hates the attention that comes with being a star player.

"I don't like all of the attention," she says. "I'd just rather it be somebody else."

Once the referee throws the ball up for the opening tip, that all goes out the window.

Mylasia has been a beast on the court this season, leading a balanced Lee Central lineup to a 16-2 start entering Tuesday's region battle with Kingstree. The Lady Stallions are ranked No. 7 in SCHSL 3A in the latest South Carolina Coaches Association rankings, too.

Oh, and that's just one of the three sports for which she's earned all-region honors.

She may not tell you, but Mylasia does a little bit of everything at Lee Central. Now she's trying to finish the job with a title.

"At the end of the day, she's a security blanket," girls basketball coach Patrice Holmes said. "We know if we need a bucket, we can rely on Mylasia Dennis to either get an offensive rebound or putback or hit a post move or score in transition. She even hits that 15-footer every now and then. I'm proud of the work that she's put in and showing."

PICKING UP SPORTS

Growing up, Mylasia wasn't a sports junkie. She picked up basketball mostly because her older sister, Keionyah, played first. Mylasia's younger sister, Ke'Myra, started playing, too, but the LCHS senior didn't build a true passion for it until middle school.

"Growing up, I didn't really like sports a lot, but I saw my sister playing, so I wanted to play," she said.

Why did she start to love sports then?

"I started to get good at it," Mylasia said simply.

That's when she started playing volleyball, too, mostly because all of her friends did. If you look at the basketball and volleyball rosters at Lee Central in 2024, you wouldn't see many differences. Last spring, she decided to give softball a try, mostly because a lot of her friends played that sport, too.

"I had nothing to do in the springtime, so I had to do something to stay in shape," Mylasia joked. "We do everything together. We're like really family now. We're always around each other."

When Mylasia was getting ready to start high school, COVID-19 hit, bringing athletics at Lee Central to a screeching halt. For all intents and purposes, Mylasia's sophomore year was like a freshman season. It's fitting that it was literally Ke'Myra's freshman year, so they made the leap to varsity hand in hand.

"When we came back, it was like this is my first year in high school. I was a rookie on the team, so I didn't really know nobody, but then I started getting closer to a lot of people, and it just went from there," she said.

That first year was kind of a mess across the board. The volleyball team had its struggles, and the basketball team needed to get used to playing at the varsity level together. Not the ideal way to start a high school career.

"I had a rough season my 10th-grade year, but then I had to shake back," Mylasia said. "I wasn't as good as everyone else, so I wasn't playing a lot. It was hard. In the 11th grade, I came back out, played a lot harder and got a lot better."

But through these struggles, Patrice saw the core of a player with potential. The only question was if Mylasia was going to be able to unlock the player she could become.

"I remember seeing her as an eighth-grader and thinking she's a very athletic player. The following year was COVID, so we missed a year, and as a sophomore, she was still trying to find her game, trying to figure out who she is, being the middle sister and having two other talented sisters," Patrice said. "You could just see her grow as a player. I could see her take a step her junior year, that she actually started to get it. I'm just really impressed with how she's coming as a key player for us."

In 2022, things started to fall into place. The volleyball team went 13-4-1 and finished second in Region VIII-2A. The basketball team took off, starting to live up to the lofty expectations of Lee Central basketball. By the end of the season, they were region champs and ranked by the SCBCA. Ke'Myra was named the region player of the year to boot.

"Getting ranked in the state was a big confidence (booster) for us because we feel like sometimes people look over us, but we keep fighting to make sure they know our name," Mylasia said.

But that great bounce-back ended sooner than they planned. After a dominant win in the first round against Cheraw, they ran into a roadblock in Bishop England.

"That just added fuel to the fire," Mylasia said of the early exit. "We know we've got to go 10 times harder this year. We can't take our foot off nobody's neck. Everyone has to play their part, no one person, everybody."

After basketball wrapped up, Mylasia tried softball for the first time. In fact, she tried a few things for the first time.

"I started pitching three days before the first game, and we had a pretty good season," Mylasia said. "I feel like this year, I got a lot better. I feel like we can go a lot farther."

The Lady Stallions went pretty far last year, advancing to the district semifinals. For the third season in a row, Dennis was in the postseason. That streak didn't stop there.

SENIOR YEAR SUPERLATIVES

The volleyball team had its best season in program history this fall. They won their region for the first time ever with Mylasia playing a huge role right in the middle. She was a blocking machine all season, earning all-region honors after racking up 44 kill blocks to go with 65 kills, 20 aces and 10 digs.

"It was fun. Everybody showed how dedicated they were, working hard all summer, putting in the work, everybody getting better as a person," Mylasia said. "We wish we got to state, but region was pretty good."

But, like basketball the year before, the magical run ended sooner than they expected. They were swept by Chesterfield in the first round, suddenly halting an incredible year.

"It was a sad day," she said. "We never expected it to end that soon. We at least expected to get to the fourth or fifth (round). We didn't expect it to go like that."

With the timing of the year, Mylasia and the Lady Stallions didn't have much time to wallow in sadness. Basketball was already underway.

"We had to snap out of it; we knew we had another job to do now," Mylasia said. "We had to come back working hard, making sure we kept our head on straight and don't get a big head about what we did last year. Just everybody getting better each day."

Now the Lady Stallions are back in a familiar spot. They were ranked coming into the season and have the lofty expectations that come with Lee Central basketball. But Mylasia isn't worried about impressing everyone else.

"People expect a lot, but we don't come out here and do what people expect. We come out and do what's best for us," she said. "We play hard for one another and just do our best."

The Lady Stallions have a long way to go, but Patrice just wants them to keep building on what has already been an impressive year.

"Coming off the success of the volleyball team, we're making sure we ride that same wave," she said. "We preach the same practices, it's still the same coaches because the basketball staff is the volleyball staff. We kinda stay connected, and we intertwine the sports. Even during volleyball season, we talk about some basketball stuff, just have some player meetings to make sure that we're still on the same track and we still have the same common goal."

BASKETBALL IN BISHOPVILLE

Lee Central has a storied basketball history, and their current head coach was right in the middle of it.

Patrice led the Lady Stallions to an undefeated season and a state championship. That means she has more than enough street cred with her current players.

"Coach knows how it feels to make it there; she knows what it takes to make it there. She goes hard on us, but it's all out of love. She went 30-0. She played on a bigger stage than all of us."

Patrice knows her players feel the weight of the program sometimes, but they also accept that challenge.

"The first year it was kinda shocking to them," Patrice said. "They see the banners, we wear championship rings. The second year, they bought in. They want to be part of this history."

Even though they're ranked seventh in 2A, Mylasia and the Lady Stallions feel like they have something to prove.

"We're still the underdogs, so we still have to work hard," she said. "We just go hard every game and try to win."

The underclassmen also want to make sure they send the seniors off the right way.

"We talk about it almost every day," Ke'Myra said of wanting to win for the seniors. "We're determined."

FAMILY, LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY

The Lady Stallions are a tight-knit group. When most of the team plays three sports together, that bond comes pretty naturally.

"It's kinda cool to see what we can really do. Most of the (girls) are three-sport athletes, so it's good to see how quick we can come together and click off one sport and click onto another," Mylasia said. "We know each other, so we know what each person can do, our weaknesses, our strengths, who's going to do this, who's going to do that. They're the best people to be playing with."

That closeness shows in the box score, too. Lee Central has one of the most balanced lineups you'll see. Whether they're winning a defensive battle 45-40 or a blowout 60-10, the point totals are pretty similar. A few people will score about 10 points, but rarely does any one person explode for 30. The Lady Stallions don't want to be dependent on any one player for everything. Mylasia is a prime example, as she averages a solid 9.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.6 steals, though her rebounding numbers have ticked up into the double digits during the past few weeks.

"You don't want all the shine on one person because it's like a cancer weeding through the team," Mylasia said. "We don't want anyone to be jealous, so get everybody active."

Patrice said that mindset comes from her playing days at Lee Central.

"We're a very balanced team. Any one of those girls can lead us in scoring or rebounds or assists," she said. "It's always a constant reminder to them because they have coaches on the staff that have won state championships, so we're constantly on them, 'This is your goal, you're going to have to learn to fight through adversity.'"

Of course, it's extra special when Mylasia can look down the bench and see her sister there.

"It was great, hearing both of our names being called out; there's nothing better," Mylasia said. "Seeing our parents proud, it's great."

Ke'Myra loves having someone to bounce thoughts off after a wild game.

"We'll go home and talk about how the game went together, what went wrong and what was good," she said. "It's a lot of fun. She doesn't really show how happy she is about certain stuff, but I do."

Patrice loves seeing the way the sisters play together.

"When they're on the floor, they look for one another," Patrice said. "I know that she was happy last year that her sister won player of the year, and Mylasia has a great chance of being player of the year this year. It would be great to have sisters win back-to-back players of the year."

HANGING IT UP

When the softball season ends, so will Mylasia's athletic career. While she's grown to love all three sports, her truest passion lies elsewhere.

"This is my last year," she said. "When I go to college, I want to focus on my academics and study biology and go to medical school to become a doctor."

Mylasia specifically wants to become a pediatric surgeon.

"I like helping kids. I don't want to see kids sick," she said. "If I can study, be the best I can be and help a lot of kids, save a lot of kids, that's what I want to do."