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January 13, 2008
Far From Home, but Almost There
By ZACHARY BRAZILLER
At 6 feet 9 inches and 260 pounds, with a soft touch around the basket and from the perimeter, Samardo Samuels stands out on a basketball court.
He is the leader of St. Benedict’s Prep of Newark, the nation’s top-ranked high school boys’ basketball team by USA Today.
The Gray Bees will meet 12th-ranked Rice of Harlem on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in the Super Six Invitational, which also features No. 5 St. Patrick of Elizabeth, N.J., against No. 8 St. Raymond’s of the Bronx and Paterson Catholic of New Jersey versus Mount Vernon of New York.
Samuels, who has signed a letter of intent to attend Louisville in the fall, is rated the No. 1 center in the class of 2008 by recruiting services like rivals.com and The Hoop Scoop. In a nationally televised game Dec. 13, the Gray Bees (13-1) defeated Oak Hill Academy of Virginia, which was ranked No. 1. St. Benedict’s then won two holiday tournaments: the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla., and the Bojangles Shootout in North Carolina, where Samuels was named the most valuable player.
The Gray Bees sustained their loss last Monday at home against Academy of New Church, an unranked team from Pennsylvania.
Samuels’s rise to elite status began in July 2004 at a camp in his native Jamaica run by Jamaica Basketball Development, an organization based in Irvington, N.J., that provides scholarships for talented players to attend high schools in the United States. The group’s vice president, Stephen Johnston, once played on the Jamaican national team.
Samuels did not think twice when Johnston offered him the opportunity to play basketball in the United States.
“As soon as he said it, I wanted to come,” Samuels said.
It took a little longer to persuade his mother, Jacqueline. She agreed, but only if Johnston would become her son’s legal guardian.
Samuels’s father, Rohan, the owner of a taxi service, endorsed the decision.
Samuels recalled that his father said: “Go make me proud. Go over there and work hard.”
He initially enrolled at Our Savior New American, a prep school in Centereach, N.Y.
The transition was tough for Samuels, who was living in a new country and receiving little playing time.
But twice during his freshman season, Samuels outplayed the Gray Bees’ three-man Division I-bound rotation at center consisting of Dwight Burke (Marquette), Frank Tchuisi (Villanova) and Ismaila Traore (St. Peter’s).
“The fact that he was able to do that with limited experience was telling,” St. Benedict’s Coach Danny Hurley said. It was also instrumental in Samuels’s enrolling at St. Benedict’s the next year.
As a senior, Samuels is averaging 21 points and 8 rebounds a game. He is a force inside, able to pass out of double teams or evade them for dunks.
Last summer he added another dimension to his game: a 3-point shot. He is shooting better than 60 percent from beyond the arc. The year before, he improved his ball-handling skills and developed a midrange jump shot.
“I hate sitting down,” he said.
Scott Butterworth, an assistant who is Samuels’s house parent at the school, added, “If the dishes needs to be done or the garbage taken out, he’s one of the first guys to do it.”
Much of the credit goes to Johnston and Karriem Memminger, Samuels’s basketball mentor. They work together, making decisions while letting Samuels concentrate on basketball and his education.
Samuels will be the fourth player from Jamaica Basketball Development to play Division I basketball. The number of participants in the July camp has increased, to 140 from 60 four years ago, and 45 have enrolled in high schools or colleges in the United States.
“Every kid in our camp wants to be the next Samardo Samuels,” Johnston said.
Samuels returns home every summer, catching up with friends and family.
His parents have not seen him play high school basketball in person, but they have watched a handful of games on television, including the upset of Oak Hill.
“When I sit and watch the television, I always have a big smile,” Jacqueline Samuels said. “I say, ‘That is my son.’ I always make a lot of noise.”
Samuels’s future seems bright. He is set to play in nationally televised Big East games, receive a free college education and can look forward to a possible professional career.
At times, he looks back at what might have been if he had never left Jamaica.
“That,” he said, “makes me want to take advantage of my opportunity even more.”
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Far From Home, but Almost There
By ZACHARY BRAZILLER
At 6 feet 9 inches and 260 pounds, with a soft touch around the basket and from the perimeter, Samardo Samuels stands out on a basketball court.
He is the leader of St. Benedict’s Prep of Newark, the nation’s top-ranked high school boys’ basketball team by USA Today.
The Gray Bees will meet 12th-ranked Rice of Harlem on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in the Super Six Invitational, which also features No. 5 St. Patrick of Elizabeth, N.J., against No. 8 St. Raymond’s of the Bronx and Paterson Catholic of New Jersey versus Mount Vernon of New York.
Samuels, who has signed a letter of intent to attend Louisville in the fall, is rated the No. 1 center in the class of 2008 by recruiting services like rivals.com and The Hoop Scoop. In a nationally televised game Dec. 13, the Gray Bees (13-1) defeated Oak Hill Academy of Virginia, which was ranked No. 1. St. Benedict’s then won two holiday tournaments: the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla., and the Bojangles Shootout in North Carolina, where Samuels was named the most valuable player.
The Gray Bees sustained their loss last Monday at home against Academy of New Church, an unranked team from Pennsylvania.
Samuels’s rise to elite status began in July 2004 at a camp in his native Jamaica run by Jamaica Basketball Development, an organization based in Irvington, N.J., that provides scholarships for talented players to attend high schools in the United States. The group’s vice president, Stephen Johnston, once played on the Jamaican national team.
Samuels did not think twice when Johnston offered him the opportunity to play basketball in the United States.
“As soon as he said it, I wanted to come,” Samuels said.
It took a little longer to persuade his mother, Jacqueline. She agreed, but only if Johnston would become her son’s legal guardian.
Samuels’s father, Rohan, the owner of a taxi service, endorsed the decision.
Samuels recalled that his father said: “Go make me proud. Go over there and work hard.”
He initially enrolled at Our Savior New American, a prep school in Centereach, N.Y.
The transition was tough for Samuels, who was living in a new country and receiving little playing time.
But twice during his freshman season, Samuels outplayed the Gray Bees’ three-man Division I-bound rotation at center consisting of Dwight Burke (Marquette), Frank Tchuisi (Villanova) and Ismaila Traore (St. Peter’s).
“The fact that he was able to do that with limited experience was telling,” St. Benedict’s Coach Danny Hurley said. It was also instrumental in Samuels’s enrolling at St. Benedict’s the next year.
As a senior, Samuels is averaging 21 points and 8 rebounds a game. He is a force inside, able to pass out of double teams or evade them for dunks.
Last summer he added another dimension to his game: a 3-point shot. He is shooting better than 60 percent from beyond the arc. The year before, he improved his ball-handling skills and developed a midrange jump shot.
“I hate sitting down,” he said.
Scott Butterworth, an assistant who is Samuels’s house parent at the school, added, “If the dishes needs to be done or the garbage taken out, he’s one of the first guys to do it.”
Much of the credit goes to Johnston and Karriem Memminger, Samuels’s basketball mentor. They work together, making decisions while letting Samuels concentrate on basketball and his education.
Samuels will be the fourth player from Jamaica Basketball Development to play Division I basketball. The number of participants in the July camp has increased, to 140 from 60 four years ago, and 45 have enrolled in high schools or colleges in the United States.
“Every kid in our camp wants to be the next Samardo Samuels,” Johnston said.
Samuels returns home every summer, catching up with friends and family.
His parents have not seen him play high school basketball in person, but they have watched a handful of games on television, including the upset of Oak Hill.
“When I sit and watch the television, I always have a big smile,” Jacqueline Samuels said. “I say, ‘That is my son.’ I always make a lot of noise.”
Samuels’s future seems bright. He is set to play in nationally televised Big East games, receive a free college education and can look forward to a possible professional career.
At times, he looks back at what might have been if he had never left Jamaica.
“That,” he said, “makes me want to take advantage of my opportunity even more.”
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company