He was heavily recruited, and after receiving numerous scholarship offers, Perry signed with Miami University due to its team culture and its proximity to home.

Then you listen to Lakota East Coach Clint Adkins talk about his standout player and you gain a greater appreciation of what Perry brings to the Thunderhawks' program.

“He’s a high character young man,” said Adkins, in his 11th season as Lakota East head coach. “Seeing his growth as a basketball player has been cool, but seeing his growth as a human being is cooler. He really is a special kid off the court.”

Adkins called Perry a rare student/athlete because of the way he leads the team and serves as a role model for the younger players, traits that don’t show up in the boxscore.

“Your best teams are when your best player is your hardest worker and your best leader,” he said. “That’s why he’s so rare. He holds the young guys accountable. When Trey talks, they listen.”

While his statistics are impressive, Perry and his coach said wins trump numbers. The Thunderhawks are 11-5 overall, 8-3 in the GMC. On Tuesday night, Lakota East beat Hamilton, 59-45, and Perry scored 23 points and dished out seven assists.

“Trey is about winning games and that speaks to his character,” Adkins said. “He is a team-focused guy first. That’s part of our culture. We talk about doing things the ‘East’ way. The ‘S’ in East is synonymous with selflessness. That’s what we try to get our kids to embody and he has bought into that.“

Perry was asked whether he’d rather score 40 points in a game and lose or score fewer points and win.

He never hesitated.

“If you’re winning, you are going to do what your team needs,” he said. “Wins matter to me right now. I just want to win and wins put our team on the map, our program on the map.”

Throughout his AAU career, college coaches filed the stands scouting him, his teammates and opponents. The recruiting process was a learning experience, he said.

During all the phone calls from college coaches, Perry said they made “open promises” that he eventually believed couldn’t be true.

At first, Perry wanted to take his basketball skills to an out-of-state college that offered different weather, different atmosphere, he said.

Then he found a home at Oxford that reminded him of the culture at Lakota East.

“It feels like family,” he said about the Redhawks’ program. “I made the best choice possible. I chose the best fit where I can get better as a player and win at the college level.”

The RedHawks are 15-5 overall, 7-1 in the Mid-American Conference.

Perry said he also is looking forward to his family — father Harry, mother Jillian and sister Gianna, a three-sport athlete at Lakota East — and his high school coaches and friends watching him play at Miami.

Get involved

The Journal-News will profile a local high school athlete on Fridays. If you have a suggestion, please forward the athlete’s name and high school to Rick McCrabb at rmccrabb1@gmail.com.