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OAK RIDGE -- Everything about Najet Ouardad is fast. She talks like an auctioneer and moves like a hummingbird, stopping every few seconds to say hello to somebody else.

The basketball court is where her speed is most fun to watch. She is Oak Ridge Military Academy's starting senior point guard, and she spent most of a game last week with three defenders chasing her like cats after a laser pointer.

None of them could keep up.

Once, she wriggled into the lane, faked a pass to the wing and then fired a perfect no-look under the basket. It was the kind of play highlight reels are made from, except that it bounced off her unsuspecting teammate's hands and dribbled out of bounds.

Welcome to a fascinating basketball experiment at this tiny boarding school in the northwest corner of the county. Ouardad is a Division I-caliber talent. But a winding road has led her to a school where head coach Brian Shropshire has to beg girls who have never played to come out just so they can have a team.

The Cadets have posted two winning seasons the last 30 years. They're hoping Ouardad, who's averaging almost 30 points a game, can help bring them back to respectability, if only for a season.

"It really is a blessing," Shropshire said. "These players come few and far between for us."

Ouardad grew up in France, the second youngest of seven kids born to Moroccan parents. All her siblings played basketball. Ouardad was such a natural that by age 14, she had played with the junior national team and was one of 10 players her age invited to attend INSEP, the national basketball boarding school that produced NBA star Tony Parker.

Ouardad could have stayed in Europe and started her professional career, but she wanted an education. One of her friends from France is Alex Tchangoue, Wake Forest's leading scorer who was then at Forsyth Country Day. Ouardad barely spoke English at the time but followed Tchangoue's recruiting pitch to Forsyth.

"I had always been away from home," she said, "so I was mentally prepared for anything."

Ouardad quickly made a name on the AAU circuit and as an all-conference performer at FCD. But by the spring of 2007, her original host family was leaving town and her grades had fallen below the 2.5 mark needed to stay at FCD. Her immigration status made it hard to find a place in public school, and she faced having to return to France if she couldn't find somewhere else.

Deborah Dorsett, who had gotten to know Ouardad through her daughter, Brey, who also plays at FCD, couldn't bear to see that happen. So she helped get Ouardad a spot at Oak Ridge, filled in the gaps in her tuition payment and became her host mother.

Ouardad has become like another daughter as well as a cultural ambassador, a kid who speaks six languages and observes her family's Muslim traditions but has been known to send 15,000 text messages in a month. She's also a perfect one-on-one companion for Brey, who will play at UNCG next season.

"She makes you tired," Brey said. "She's so freaking fast."

Still, it's all she can do to carry a team that's so desperate for players it finished one game earlier this season with three people on the floor. The Cadets' first win came Dec. 9 against High Point Christian, but it took two overtimes plus 15 steals and more than 50 points from Ouardad to get.

"She single-handedly keeps us in games," Shropshire said. "A lot of times, it's her-on-five. ... We ask her to be selfish. We need her to be selfish."

"As a point guard, I'm supposed to be a coach and do what the coach tells me to," Ouardad said. "But this role is way harder."

There are moments when it gets to Ouardad, when she smacks the floor after another play falls apart. But for the most part, she is the picture of composure, a good teammate who doesn't mind playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.

"If you took most girls like her and stuck them on a team like ours, they'd be mad, they'd be upset, they'd be talking trash," Shropshire said. "She's great with them. She motivates them to do better. She's like a third coach."

And she's getting more and more help. Senior Jayvonne Griffin is thriving now that she doesn't have to carry the whole load, and center Danielle Crawford is almost back to full health after an ACL injury. Plus, the learning curve for newcomers can be pretty quick.

"You always get someone who amazes you," Shropshire said, "and you get that feeling in your heart like, 'Wow.' "

"I tell them, 'You can't build a house from the top,' " Ouardad said. "It's OK to lose, we just have to learn from every loss."

Ouardad still finds ways to push herself. She routinely abuses the Cadets' boys team in practice, "and the dudes at the Y are like, 'Don't let her guard me!' " Deborah Dorsett said.

"I'm the kind of person who needs physical contact," Ouardad said. "If I don't have competition, I lose control."

The arrangement has probably salvaged Ouardad's shot at a college scholarship, but it's also given her a newfound appreciation of teamwork.

"They've been really supportive," Deborah Dorsett said. "It was just what she needed."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com