Five Star Wilson High Junior Basketball Prospect Josh Leonard Coveted By Clemson & South Carolina
Wilson High School's 5-Star Junior Basketball Prospect, Josh Wilson.
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Moncks Corner—This is a lean year for the Clemson and South Carolina basketball programs to offer any 2026 girl’s or boys’ basketball players from within the state, but next year there will be a major in-state battle for the services of Wilson stand-out Josh Leonard (6-7,200).
Once again, before we go any further, we always pause to thank the fine folks at Modern Turf in Irmo and Rembert, especially Mark Grainger, for their sponsorship of this recruiting page.
Leonard was named the South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year following his junior season a year ago. Currently he is averaging 20.9 points, 11.7 rebounds, 3.1 steals, and 2.6 assists a game.
At 6-7, Leonard is a combo guard. He moves up and down a basketball court like a Gazelle on the African flat-lands. He can drain a three, or make a move to the basket and dunk over you. He is the best basketball player in South Carolina since Zion Williamson displayed his awesome wind mill dunks at the Spartanburg Day School a decade ago.
To date, Leonard, a solid five- star prospect, has 9 offers. South Carolina and Clemson and Central Florida were the first three schools to offer. He has visited the Gamecock basketball games on several occasions over the past two seasons, and he has been to Clemson as well. Both in-state schools have him at their 2027 board.
A few years ago, Dawn Staley was signing one player a year from within the state over a five- or six-year period but she has not signed anyone since she landed Joyce Edwards from Camden High three years ago.
It’s an ideal time to talk a little about the upcoming 2027 football class in the state of South Carolina.
The state of South Carolina will continue to have more than 45 players sign on with major colleges next season. The 2026 class had 48 players sign with major college football and the HSSR predicts a solid class coming in 2027 as well.
Our number one rated player is Catawba Ridge five star rated defensive back Joshua Dobson (6-1,194).
Dobson has trimmed his list down to 12 schools after getting interest from the majority of the 134 major colleges in the nation. His top 12 right now, in know order, are Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, South Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Southern Cal, Tennessee, Texas A & M and Texas Tech.
This reporter stood with an SEC college coach watching former Summerville DB/WR Jaiden Kelly-Murray when he was a freshman for the Green Wave and playing mainly defensive back at the time.
This SEC coach was from out-of-state, and he picked out Kelly-Murray fairly easily because he had come to the game to scout two wide receivers that were on opposing teams in the game. He seemed to be impressed with the way Kelly-Murray was locked down on the receiver he was looking at. In fact, it was Kelly-Murray’s defense that only allowed the receiver the recruiter had come to see to catch only one pass for the entire game.
Kelly-Murray has recently transferred to Oceanside Collegiate for his senior season. He played more as a wide receiver the past two seasons where he was just as good on the offensive side of the football. In his sophomore and junior seasons Kelly-Murray has caught 145 passes for 2,159 yards and 27 TD’s and he helped lead the Green Wave to back-to-back appearances in the Div. I AAAAA state finals, losing to Dutch Fork both years.
Kelly-Murray has offers from both Clemson and South Carolina among others.
One reason he likely opted to transfer to Oceanside Collegiate is the fact that the state’s top quarterback for next season is Aiden Manavian (6-0,185) and he has led the Sharks to back-to-back state titles the past two years. Manavian has already passed for over 8,000 yards in his career. Last season, as a junior, he completed 70 per cent of his attempts while passing for 4.027 yards and 41 touchdowns in one season.
Manavian and Kelly-Murray are a match made in heaven. They will help each other no doubt.
The remaining top 10 2027 prospects by the HSSR include Irmo defensive end Jaiden Bryant (6-3, 245), Summerville running back Jayven Williams (6-8,165, and Spartanburg running back Trenton Lynch (5-9,185).
Byrnes prospect Chanin Harris (6-1, 170) is a top 10 prospect at wide receiver and he is rated number seven over-all by the HSSR. The remaining three players in the coveted Top 10 include Sumter quarterback Frankin Richardson (6-2, 220), South Pointe DL Seth Tillman (6-3, 260) and Gaffney LB Kendarius “Peanut” Bailey (6-0, 215) is the state’s top LB from the 20027 class in South Carolina.
We will dive more into the 2027 class in South Carolina next issue.
