‘He’s a coach’s dream’
Central Kings hoops star Lance Keddy surpasses 1,000-point milestone
Lance Keddy doesn’t waste an opportunity to work on his game.
He’s in the gym every chance that he gets, hitting the same shots over and over as he strives to improve the form that recently helped him reach a rare milestone for a high school basketball player at Central Kings.
The 18-year-old attacks the rim, nails mid-range jump shots and drains crowd-pleasing threes in the face of stiff opposition.
“When we play games, he’s usually facing the other team’s top defender, so he has to overcome that because the word is out — everyone knows he’s our scorer,” said Paul Daley, Keddy’s head coach at Central Kings.
Daley has been keeping statists tracking the performances of the basketball players under his direction for the past four years. Keddy is the first player in that time period to join the aptly named 1,000Point Club by netting at least 1,000 points in his four years of playing basketball for the Cambridge-based school.
The Grade 12 winger went into a Feb. 9 home game against a Division 1 team out of Yarmouth with 999 points accrued in his time with Central Kings.
“He’s very solid fundamentally and he has a high basketball IQ,” said Daley, describing Keddy as both a standout and selfless player. “He’s got a tremendous work ethic. He works at his game.”
Keddy handedly surpassed the 1,000-point mark with a 31-point game, leading his team to an important conference 75-58 win in the process.
“It was a real team effort. The kids got together, we defended very, very well,” said Daley.
Daley believes that Keddy, the team’s captain, has what it takes to continue playing ball after high school.
“He’s a coach’s dream. The only thing he ever says to me is, ‘Yes, coach,’” he said. “He wants to be the best that he can be.”
Keddy is working through a list of suggestions from the basketball coach at the University of New Brunswick, where he hopes to jump on the opportunity to train with the team as a red shirt and compete for a spot on UNB’s roster.
“If you need him to do something, you just have to tell him and you know that he’s going to do the work,” said Daley. “I think he has all the tools to play at the AUS level.”
Keddy is a student-athlete with a solid academic record. He’s planning to study engineering at UNB.
“I like to do my best with anything I commit to,” he said.
He’s dedicated thousands of hours to working on his shooting form and finesse on the floor, and he still practices like he’s just getting started.
“I like the team aspect. I like working in part of a system to help work toward a large goal,” he said.
The Coldbrook resident hopes to help Central Kings wrap up his final year with the Gators with a championship win.
“The goal has always been a banner and that’s still my biggest goal,” he said.
Keddy said surpassing the 1,000-point mark has been a highlight of his high-school career, but his primary focus is
doing his part to help the team as a whole excel this season.
“It was definitely cool to join that club and have that be a part of my time at Central Kings,” he said.
The year-round basketball player has worked with coaches at local and provincial levels and played for the Kings Minor Basketball Association as well as school teams. He’s happy to have the chance to get back to competitive play with the Gators in a final season that has been unlike any other during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been a pretty good season,” said Keddy. “We’re off to a decent start and we’re continuing to work, continuing to get better.”