Trenton wins opener after celebrating two former coaches
TRENTON » Darryl Young thanked the home crowd for attending, then got choked up and struggled to articulate words.
That was how much Micah Brooks and Nana Manful, two former Trenton boys basketball assistants who passed away this year, meant to Young and everyone involved with the program.
The Tornadoes paid tribute to Brooks and Manful in a pregame ceremony before coasting to a 7147 win in their season opener Friday night against West WindsorPlainsboro North.
Brooks succumbed to a longterm illness in November. He meant everything to Young as his older cousin whom Young described as big and boisterous.
“It’s tough. Every practice that’s a voice,” said Young, now in his seventh year as Trenton’s head coach. “He was a very vocal guy, so it’s a voice that we’re just so used to hearing. I could pretty much hear him talking to me tonight. Coach always talked … and it’s just tough because the kids, everybody loved him.”
Brooks did wonders for the Trenton community. He helped improve the high school’s feeder system by running a camp for kids in the summer and the fall, which was huge because Trenton doesn’t have any consistent form of elementary school and middle school basketball.
Despite health issues, Brooks never wavered on his commitment to the kids.
“That’s where we’re going to miss Coach Brooks the most,” Young said. “He took that bull by the horns and he ran with it, man. No matter whether it was two kids out there, three kids out there, he was in Cadwalader Park every single day in the summer. 100 degrees, 110 degrees, he’s out there.”
Manful was Trenton’s freshman basketball coach and football offensive line coach before passing away in August. The school
board is set to approve another freshman coach on Monday. But like Brooks, Manful’s absence has been felt throughout the program.
“We feel it, especially in practice,” junior point Antwan Bridgett said. “(Brooks) was the loudest one on the sideline, giving us the energy, motivating us. The freshman coach, he had an energy. He had been here for a long time. He was a football coach, so it really gave some of my teammates tears in their eyes.”
Playing with their hearts on their sleeves, the Tornadoes took care of business against a WW-P North team that is rebuilding under a new coach after opting out of last season.
Trenton expects to be a contender atop the CVC and in the state playoffs this winter. But Young cautions that his team still needs to build depth. Bridgett and junior Davantay Hutson are among the best players in the conference, but essentially no one else has significant varsity experience.
“I really feel we can get there. It’s going to take some work because we need more than just Davontay and Antwan,” Young said. “That supporting cast has got to really step it up, and pretty much every night Antwan and Davontay have got to play above their head … but I think as this season goes on, the kids are going to get a lot better.”
Trenton is dealing with some injuries and didn’t have 6-foot-3 forward Chris Wilson, its best interior player, in Friday’s game. So that contributed to some struggles in the paint, despite the fact that the Tornadoes took control early by hitting outside shots.
“It was messy, it wasn’t consistent tonight at all,” Young said. “I think the kids noticed early that we overmatched them, and to me, in my opinion, we were going for self too much instead of playing within our system — and everybody eats when you do that.”
Bridgett poured in a career-high 29 points. Hutson added 16 points and Dymir Bailey also scored double figures with 11 points.
“I’m way more confident than freshman and sophomore year,” Bridgett said. “My teammates from last year really tried to put that confidence in me.”
Trenton led by as many as 37 points before North scored the final 13 points.
The Tornadoes are challenging themselves early with a tough outof-conference schedule. They host Holy Trinity (New York) on Saturday and are set to play a holiday tournament with Medford Tech, Pennington and Solebury (Pennsylvania).
“We’re trying to show a statement,” said Bridgett, who didn’t experience the state playoffs last year because of COVID-19. “We didn’t get the chance to do it last year, so we’re trying to do it this year.”
WW-P NORTH (47)
Finkielstein 8-1-18, Rossi 2-4-9, Velury 5-0-12, Lingamallu 2-0-4, Chinnam 1-0-2, Rubbo 1-0-2. Totals — 19-5-47.
TRENTON (71)
A. Bridgett 12-2-29, Bailey 5-0-11, Hutson 8-0-16, Fields 3-0-7, Gadie 1-0-2, Blue 2-1-6.
Totals — 34-3-71.
WW-P North (0-1) 7 10 15 15 — 47 Trenton (1-0) 19 17 25 10 — 71 3-point goals: Finkielstein, Rossi, Velury 2 (WWN), A. Bridgett 3, Bailey, Fields, Blue (T).