Young Africentric blocks out noise
Will McKinney was 35 years old and in his third season as a high school basketball coach when he led the Africentric girls onto the court for their first state tournament.
It could have been daunting because of the bright lights and 18,000plus seats inside Value City Arena.
McKinney, though, had valuable inside information in that his sister-in-law, Mimi Haynes, was a starting guard for Hartley when it won the Division II championship in 2000.
He also talked to mentors Reggie Lee and Jaybee Bethea. Lee won a Division I girls title with Brookhaven in 1996 and reached a state semifinal in 2003. Bethea got McKinney into summer league coaching.
“That was an exciting time and I also was lucky to have a great staff,” McKinney said. “I was fortunate.”
The Nubians won the championship in 2007 and did it again in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2016. There have been runnerup finishes in 2008 and 2013.
So who has McKinney leaned on to work on the players’ psyches as the Nubians (26-3) prepare for a Division III semifinal against Ottawa-Glandorf (25-2) at 8 p.m. Thursday? There are seven freshmen and three sophomores on the roster.
“A lot of our former players wander into practice,” he said. “I’m expecting Raven Ferguson to pop in and talk to them. I tell the players to have fun with this. You have to avoid getting anxious.”
Coaches worry about parents, siblings, relatives, friends and fans wrapping their arms around the players too much in the days before the tournament. As usual, McKinney will check the team into a local hotel for privacy.
Lee, who is an assistant, said the team must not waver from its weekly routine.
“There are so many distractions during the course of the week that you make sure that you get done what needs to get done,” Lee said. “The first time we went to the state tournament somebody wanted to take the girls (to a function) and I said, no, there would be none of that.”
All-Ohio point guard Jordan Horston recalled how the veteran players pulled her through as a freshman during the 2016 championship season.
“I give it up to our seniors because they always had my back,” Horston said. “There was a lot of pressure on me to play well. They told me going into the tournament that I wasn’t a freshman anymore. They told me that mistakes would happen and to just play through them. We had to get the job done.”
Guard Nyam Thornton was in the same spot last season as a freshman when Africentric lost to eventual champion Gates Mills Gilmour Academy in the semifinals. She played 25 minutes.
“I had a lot of adrenaline going, but I knew what to expect because the entire team got me through it,” Thornton said. “I’ve told the freshmen to just keep your heads, that there will be a big crowd and the other team will have more fans. I’ve told them to prepare for the game mentally. You can’t lose your focus.”