WORTON — It’s a whole new ballgame when comparing high school basketball to anything that comes before it.
That’s a truth that Melvin “MJ” Freeman learned many years ago on the very same hardwood where he is now coaching, and that’s a truth he is trying to get his Kent County High School junior varsity players to embrace.
“We’re fighting the middle school mentality. … It’s an uphill battle,” Freeman, a 1998 KCHS graduate, said in a telephone interview last week.
“They want to do things their way,” he said of a team that as a whole has very little high school experience.
Junior guard Gabe Parr, sophomore guard Xavier Johnson and sophomore guard/forward Lamine Diagne are the only returnees.
Some of the others on the 12-man roster have middle school or rec league experience, but there are at least two others who are playing organized basketball of any kind for the first time.
“High school ball is a whole new game,” Freeman said matter-of-factly.
So what do you?
“We have to take our time to retrain their mind,” said Freeman, who played basketball for three years at KCHS.
The “we” is the coaching staff that includes Freeman’s son JayShaun [Class of 2020], who was a 1,000-point career scorer at Kent County High School and a Junior College All-American at Chesapeake College.
“We have to stay the course. Our philosophy is ‘We want to coach basketball. We don’t want to deal with outside distractions,'” MJ Freeman said.
“As far as the coaching staff, we’ve got to break everything down. Our main focus is getting back to basics,” he said.
KCHS is 2-4, with wins over Washington in the season opener, 54-48, on Dec. 8 and North Dorchester, 25-23, in a holiday tournament on Dec. 20 at Queen Anne’s.
Two of Kent County’s losses are to border rival QA, 49-44, on Dec. 11 in what Freeman described as “a dogfight for most of the game” and a 30-point rout in game one of the holiday tournament on Dec. 19.
“We just seemed off-balance and came out not in focus,” Freeman said of the tournament loss at Queen Anne’s.
That got him to thinking about “shaking it up” for the next game.
With Parr out of town and the other four starters on the bench, Freeman sent out reserves Addison Gabriel, Wayne Brown, Lamine Diagne, Finn Dierker and Micah Henry for the tip-off against North Dorchester.
Brown and Isaiah Medicus each scored five points to lead the way in the first half, and the Trojans played much better than they had the day before, according to Freeman.
Kent County would go on to rally for the 25-23 win behind five second-half points and a strong overall effort from Ki’Tray Jackson.
The tournament format was two halves with a running clock.
KCHS resumes play Tuesday, Jan. 6 at Colonel Richardson.
The players are listed here alphabetically: freshman guard Wayne Brown; 6-foot-4 freshman center Thomas Cunningham; sophomore guard/forward Lamine Diagne; 6-foot-2 freshman center Finn Dierker; freshman forward Alijah Floyd; freshman guard Addison Gabriel; junior guard Micah Handy, a transfer from Elkton High School; freshman guard Ki’Tray Jackson; sophomore guard Xavier Johnson; freshman guard Isaiah Medicus; junior guard Gabe Parr; and freshman guard/forward Paul Roberts.
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This is Melvin “MJ” Freeman’s first year coaching basketball at alma mater Kent County.
He spent the last seven years as a member of the staff at Queen Anne’s — four years with the junior varsity and three years with the varsity.
“It feels great to come home,” he said. “Ever since I started coaching I’ve wanted to coach at Kent County.”
Freeman was a triple-threat athlete at KCHS, lettering in football, basketball and track and field.
His day job is as a security guard at the hospital in Chestertown.
