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Jun 14, 2025 By Jonathan Guth 3 min read

There is no doubt Notorious Grooms made an impact as a four-year starter on Uniontown’s boys basketball program.

Grooms helped lead the Red Raiders to a state and WPIAL semifinal game and scored 1,684 points in his high school career under the direction of Rob Kezmarsky.

Grooms is the second-leading scorer in the history of the Uniontown boys basketball program.

Most of Grooms’ athletic attention has been for his basketball prowess, but he also showed his skill as a football player.

Grooms graduated from Uniontown on June 4, and made his decision to continue his academic and athletic careers at Lake Erie College three days later.

Lake Erie College is a Division II school located in Painesville, Ohio, a northeast suburb of Cleveland.

Grooms hopes to play basketball and football for the Storm.

“I plan on doing both sports, but I might not be able to do football this year,” Grooms said. “They play in a good conference and I believe the opportunity is there to do something good.”

Grooms has been playing sports all his life, but the chance to compete at the next level is something he doesn’t take for granted. He discovered Lake Erie College after participating in a camp.

“I went up for a camp and really enjoyed it there,” Grooms said. “It is a dream-come true for me to play at the next level. I worked really hard to improve my game over the years, but there are always those moments where you feel like you don’t deserve to be somewhere, but God puts you in a place for a reason.”

Lake Erie plays in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). The Storm were 19-10 in men’s basketball last season, including a 12-8 mark in G-MAC play. Lake Erie was 2-9 in football.

Jake Perrin, who is an assistant coach on the basketball team for the Storm was one of the recruiters that helped bring Grooms to Lake Erie.

Grooms, who was a member of the National Honor Society at Uniontown, plans on studying business and sports management. He had offers from numerous Division III schools, was also in discussion with PennWest California, but is content with his decision.

If Grooms had chosen to play for the Vulcans, he would have been with Red Raider teammate Calvin Winfrey III, who is his biological cousin, but the two share a bond like brothers.

“I am really happy for Calvin,” said Grooms. “It will be different not playing with him, but we have to move on with our lives. We don’t have Cal on our schedule, but you never know what may happen down the road. My parents are also really happy. It’s not that long of a trip, so I hope they can make it to some games.”