Showcasing talent: Northeast Elementary 8th grader to play in Fab 40 basketball all-star game

Published 1:34 am Friday, January 17, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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YEATESVILLE, N.C. — Za’Kari Woods exhibits all the things you’d expect from a talented basketball player.

He can shoot from all over the half-court circle. He can already dunk and displays dominant talent under the glass with rebounding, putbacks and defending. At 6-foot-3, he’s also got the look and continues to grow and develop.

He’s also just an eighth grader at Northeast Elementary School. The Belhaven teen will take all that talent and potential to the Fab 40, a showcase event that will be held at Living Water Christian School in Jacksonville on Feb. 15. Teenage boys from all over the state, including Eastern North Carolina, will play in the game.

“It’s a blessing because not many kids get to, like, do this,” Woods said. “You’ve got to keep working and keep pushing because this is just the starting point, so you got to keep working, keep pushing, do what you do.

“When I first heard about it, I was surprised, but, like, I was, like, I’ve just got to go there and work, showcase my talent, and come back and take what I learned from that and keep working.”

Tony Peele, a star himself at Northside High School, is the first-year coach at Northeast. He’s seen Woods from recreation ball in Belhaven to now and has been impressed with his growth.

“Where he comes from and how hard he works and his work ethic, how smart of a kid he is and how humble he is,” Peele said about Woods. “The coach (for the Fab 40) loved him and the game that he watched. (Woods) had a very good game and that right there took the cake.”

The process of going from a potential player to being chosen for the showcase happened fast. Since then, he’s continued training and practicing. Peele said he’s worked with Woods away from Northeast practices, too.

The Cougars are having a good season but had a tough loss to a very talented Chocowinity Middle School team last week. Woods unofficially had 10 points and seven rebounds in a 31-23 loss.

“We need to keep working, keep pushing, and create a different mindset, but we lost this game, but we gotta keep our head up from that and keep working and keep pushing,” Woods said.

He stays busy with sports and schoolwork and is also a talented baseball player when not playing basketball. One of his coaches, Cade Smith, said his success in both sports has helped make Woods a better overall athlete. Smith said he can throw in and around 70 mph as a pitcher. At first base, he catches everything thrown at him and he can hit, too.

“But all in all, the big thing is, he’s just got pure athleticism,” Smith said. “Get the right coach to tap into that and it will unleash. There’s no telling what we’re going to get out of him.”

Shatira Daniels, Woods’ mother, and Tarik Daniels, his dad, are definitely proud, too. And Woods has had a whirlwind last couple of months. He was one of five teen boys from Belhaven who got to go to Miami and see Belhaven native Bam Adebayo play for the Miami Heat back in December.

“We just love seeing his progress and his growth as a player, as a student-athlete, and even as a student,” said Tarik Daniels. “His grades have gotten better over the years, and just the level of focus that he has to want to make it and the determination, that’s what I enjoy as a father. And I hope that he keeps that and keeps working.”

Woods said meeting Adebayo and learning he would play in the showcase just pushes his love of basketball deeper.

“Yeah, I love basketball, I love the game,” Woods said. “I want to keep playing it, and I just want to go as far as I can, like up into the pros.

“I think (the showcase), it’s going to encourage me to be better because I’m playing better people at the showcase. So I’m just going to go as far as that and keep going.”

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