Mikayla Boykin was in middle schl, already an emerging basketball star in Clinton, North Carolina, when a college coach came to watch her in open gym.Playing one-on-one against her brother Michael, who is 13 months older, Mikayla refused to back down. The game got so physical that the two youngsters nearly came to blows.I was thinking, This is not gd for my family, said mom Nicole Boykin. My husband called the college coach to apologize. But [the coach] said, I loved it! [The coaches] loved her competitiveness.Michael Boykin is now a 6-ft-1 freshman guard at Division II Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina.Mikayla, a 5-9 senior combo guard at Clinton High, is rated much higher and has a scholarship to Duke. Despite missing the past two high schl seasons due to knee injuries, shes the No. 20 prospect in the espnW HpGurlz Top 100 for the 2017 class.As a freshman, Boykin showed what she could do, averaging 26.6 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 4.2 assists for a 24-4 team. She was the player of the year in Sampson County and made second-team all-state.In my 16 years of coaching, shes by far the best player Ive ever coached, Clinton coach Chris Owens said. Shes the type of leader who makes teammates better.Boykin, healthy once again after enjoying a successful AAU season this past summer with the Carolina Flames, seems poised to have a big senior year.When she first got back from injury and was only at 70 percent, she was still the most explosive player in the gym, Flames coach Arne Morris said. Thats how talented she is.Cheerleader for a dayThe Boykin parents -- Tim and Nicole -- had it all figured out after the birth of their first two children.Tim, a former high schl ftball and basketball standout, was going to pal around with their eldest child, Michael, and take him to the gym. Nicole was going to put Mikayla in cheerleading and, once she got older, they would get their nails done and take shopping trips to the mall.There was just one problem: Mikayla was having none of that.Mikaylas brief cheerleading career started at age 4 at a ftball game ... and ended a couple hours later.She sat on the flr and folded her arms, Nicole said. She didnt do even one cheer.At halftime, Nicole approached her daughter to find out if Mikayla knew the cheers. As it turns out, Mikaylas ability to memorize cheers was not the problem at all.Here was the issue: I always did stuff with my brother, Mikayla said. It felt awkward not to be on the ftball field with him.After Mikaylas protest, the Boykins got the message. Her cheerleading career ended abruptly, and she signed up the next day to play basketball at her local recreational league.Mikayla and Michael immediately became a dynamic one-two punch on the basketball court. In many games in their early years, they would score all of their teams points.By the time Mikayla was in seventh grade, she had become a big deal in recruiting, according to her father. At a middle schl game, Mikayla had a 33-point fourth quarter while Duke and North Carolina coaches sat in the stands.And by the summer of her eighth-grade year, Mikayla had committed to Duke.Morris, her AAU coach, was concerned she was making her big decision t early.I said, Are you sure? Thats when I saw how mature she was, Morris said. She broke it down for me. She was thinking of what kind of job she could get after basketball. She was thinking of the connections she could make at Duke.Mikayla is from a small town. Its one of those places thats tough to make it out of, but she recognized the value of a Duke degree.Tim Boykin said academics have long been a priority for Mikayla, who has a 4.0 weighted GPA and wants to major in business administration. She wants to own a company with her brother, who is also majoring in business.There is nobody that we know personally who has come from Clinton and gone to schl at Duke, said Tim, emphasizing how special this is for his daughter.She is lking at college like a trade-off: Im going to trade you my basketball skills, and [Duke] is going to teach me what I want to learn. Stronger and better?Mikayla likes to rap and often comes up with lyrics along with her dad. How gd a rapper she is depends on who you ask. Teammate Ashlyn Williams said Mikayla often tries to trick her by telling her she created a rap that actually already belongs to an artist such as Drake or Meek Mill.With basketball, however, there is no denying Boykins talents. Williams said she first met Boykin five years ago at an open gym. Williams had already heard about Boykins skills -- Clinton is a small town of about 9,000 after all -- but she hadnt seen her play.When Williams walked into the gym, it didnt take her long to find Boykin.She was shting 3-pointers in warm-ups and barely missing, Williams said. It was pretty obvious who she was.I introduced myself, and she said, Im Mikayla. I said, Yeah, I kind of figured. But as gifted as Boykin is, she has had to deal with considerable adversity. In the summer after her freshman year, she went up for a layup, and her left knee buckled during an AAU tournament in Tennessee.I blacked out, Boykin said. There were 20 seconds that I still dont remember. I dont remember my mom coming over.When I actually got myself together, I just saw the Duke coaches staring at me from across the court. They lked calm, like they knew I would be OK.Boykin wasnt so sure.For the first month after ACL and MCL surgery, she was depressed, according to her mother. But after that, she got on track and made it back for the 2015 AAU circuit. Thats when she was reinjured when she bumped knees with an opponent in a Virginia tournament, causing her to miss her junior season.Now Boykin is back, and she claims her left leg is even stronger than her right. Shes hoping to lead Clinton to its first state title since 1990.However, she and her teammates now have a new issue to deal with -- Hurricane Matthew, which tore through North Carolina, ripping through the rf of the Clinton gym. The court was flded, and Clinton likely wont be able to use its home gym this season.Boykin, who works a part-time job at a local park, donated money to a fund that helps victims of the hurricane.It hurt me to lk around and see a lot of people flded in, Boykin said. I wanted to help with the cause. lwholesale.com/" target="_blank">Authentic Vans Old Skl . The next step is a better finish. 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He finished a disappointing campaign just 14-13 with a career-worst 4. With New York Giants linebacker J.T. Thomas lost for the season with torn ligaments in his left knee, kicker Josh Brown is taking his roster spot after being reinstated following a one-week suspension stemming from a domestic violence arrest last year.The charges against Brown eventually were dropped, and the Giants said they were aware of the incident when they re-signed Brown to a two-year, $4 million deal in April.Thomas was placed on injured reserve after hurting his knee on a kickoff return to end the first half of the Giants 20-19 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.He had missed most of the summer with a hamstring injury, and he tk a pay cut last week as the Giants finalized their roster prior to the start of the season.The Giants now have two kickers on their roster, and Randy Bullock missed an extra point on Sunday and didnt attempt a field goal.Josh will be the kicker this week, head coach Ben McAd said.The Giants will play the New Orleans Saints on Sunday in their home opener. Bullocks spot on the roster appears tenuous, at best, with tw kickers on the roster.ddddddddddddThat could change shortly, McAd said.The Giants are lking at other options, possibly at linebacker. McAd gave his traditional never say never line when asked about a potential return for linebacker Jasper Brinkley, who was surprisingly cut early last week after the team guaranteed him $1.7 million this offseason. Brinkley remains unsigned.Starting middle linebacker Kelvin Sheppard was mostly invisible on Sunday. He had two tackles despite playing 59 snaps, and he was shaky in pass coverage. The Giants have six linebackers on the active roster. Rkie Ishaq Williams is available to be elevated from the practice squad if they so chse.But the Giants have options. Thomas was playing exclusively on special teams, and rkie B.J. Gdson was inactive for the opener. Their current roster construction leaves open the possibility of adding an offensive lineman, fullback or blocking tight end. ' ' '