When he was playing small time at the Edgartown middle school, Geo Meikle helped carry his team to a victory over all five of the Island’s other middle school basketball teams.
Last week, Geo took things up a notch when he carried a U.S. national team to victory in the United World Games, an Austrian tournament featuring elite student basketball teams from more than 30 countries.
On Tuesday, Geo returned to the Island a champion, greeted by a surprise fanfare from friends and family at Martha’s Vineyard Airport.
It was on the Island that Geo’s basketball journey began, at the Boys and Girls Club, in just the second grade. In middle school, Geo played for the Edgartown School and joined up with the Island’s youth travel team, taking the state championship by storm.
Now, Geo attends Lexington Christian Academy, where he is a rising senior and plays small and power forward. This year, Lexington Christian won their NEPSAC division’s league and state championships.
This fall Geo was scouted for competition in the United World Games by Sports Athlete World U.S.A., a competitive high school and collegiate travel team. Playing in the United World Games earlier this month further cranked up the competition, and forced Geo to adapt his game to the new rules and playstyle of European basketball.
“I’d never been to Europe, and I’d never played outside of the country,” Geo told the Gazette.
“Since it’s international, we play with the FIBA rules, which are different than the US or NBA rules,” he explained.
The International Basketball Federation of “FIBA” rules loosen up the restrictions on defensive players and bring the total game time down from 48 to 40 minutes, encouraging a more physical game.
“I would say that skill-wise, the US has more skill,” Geo said. But European players pay closer attention to the fundamentals and play more physically.
For Geo’s mom, dad, and sister, who traveled with him to Austria, watching the heightened competition was as thrilling as it was stressful. Carol Meikle, Geo’s mother, has been watching him play for years, but never before like this.
“I took him to every game when he was on the Island, and I still travel up to Lexington for his games and stuff,” Ms. Meikle “But [Austria] was just a different competition. Like he said, it was more physical. We weren’t used to that physicality. Some of the calls we were like, That’s a foul! But nope.”
“But it was exciting. It’s a great feeling just to know that our son was playing, representing the USA and Martha’s Vineyard behind that,” Ms. Meikle added.
Ronald Meikle, Geo’s father, was proud of his son’s international talent.
“It was emotional,” Mr. Meikle said. “Sometimes, we got nervous. Personally, I prayed a lot silently for the entire team, our team to win.”
And win they did, taking home gold in the Games’ basketball championship.
The Meikle family said that their trip to Austria was a community effort. Local businesses, Mr. and Ms. Meikle’s hospital colleagues, as well as Geo’s summertime colleagues at the Edgartown and Oak Bluffs police departments, where he works as a community resource officer, all helped pitch in funding for the trip, they said.
“The community was behind us,” Ms. Meikle said. “We want to send a huge thank you to the community for supporting us.”
With only one year left of high school play, Geo now has his eyes on the future. What does he have in mind?
“Hopefully playing in college, a goal that I’ve had for a while,” he said. “And then after that the NBA hopefully—but just a step at a time.”
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