This one’s for you, coach
Prince Tech grad Stewart honors May’s memory with a breakout season
NEW HAVEN — Last March, on a Friday evening, the news spread quickly among Hartford’s basketball community and it hit Kazell Stewart hard.
As he was contemplating his freshman season at Southern Connecticut State, Stewart learned Kendall May, his coach, confidant, mentor at Prince Tech, had died in a hit-and-run accident.
“They were very close,” SCSU coach Scott Burrell said. “I was at the Final Four when it happened, and I made sure to reach out to him, make sure (assistant coach) Mark Fogel was back here to talk to him, make sure he was alright.”
This March, as Stewart, after a breakout sophomore season, and the Owls head to the NCAA Division II Tournament, Kendall May is very much on his mind.
“He’s always in the back of my mind every day,” Stewart said. “Whether it’s playing basketball, shooting hoops. I have him tatooed on my arm, so I think about him every day. Me being in this position right now, definitely brings a lot of high emotions. This is my way of honoring his legacy.”
Stewart, 6 feet 5, from East Hartford, started only one game as a freshman, averaged 18 minutes, 7.3 points, 3.8 rebounds off the bench. This year, he became a starter and everything just about doubled, 27.6 minutes, 13.7 points, 6.7 rebounds — and he led his conference with 51 blocks. Southern reached the final of the Northeast-10 Tournament, and despite losing to Southern New Hampshire, received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament, the school’s first appearance since 2017.
“Everything he’s done has helped our team to be successful this year,” Burrell said. “He’s not great at one thing, he’s very good at everything.”
The Owls (22-10) will play will play at top seed Saint Michael’s in Colchester, Vt., on Saturday at 5 p.m. Another state school, Waterbury’s Post University (20-9) will be there as well, playing St. Thomas Aquinas at 2:30 p.m.
“It’s a difficult task, but I think we’re up for it,” said Burrell, the
Uconn great and longtime NBA veteran. “We played (Saint Michael’s) twice, we didn’t have success, but we know what it takes to win. I tell them, the regular season was tough, the conference tournament is tougher, the NCAA Tournament is even tougher.”
Stewart was twice an all-state player at Prince Tech, helped win four conference titles and played on its 23-0 team. May, just 56, had been coaching there since 1998. He was a pedestrian on Main Street in Hartford when he was struck and killed by a car last March 31.
May was instrumental in guiding Stewart toward college. He had learned a trade, plumbing and heating at Prince Tech, and now is studying sports management at SCSU.
“He is the reason I’ve made a lot of the decisions I did for school and thought about a lot of things I was doing,” Stewart said. “I thought of him as more than just a coach. He was like my uncle or like my godfather. I was with him every day outside of school, during the summer. Late nights, we were on the phone talking about a lot of things, helping me get better, focusing on the classroom. I had a lot of long talks, long cries, a lot of heartfelt moments with him.”
As the Owls prepare for their postseason, Stewart imagines the advice May might have for him, or the way he’d offer encouragement.
“The guy was funny, man,” Stewart said. “To this day, I laugh about the things he said. Right now, he’d be laughing, smiling, telling me to knock down as many free throws as I could, and on top of that he’d be on my back, which is something I need at the end of the day, being somebody who is going to always take care of me and keep my head up, because basketball is a mental challenge.”
Stewart scored 26 points
in the second game of the season, a win at Bridgeport, and hit 20 or more points five subsequent times, including a 21-point performance in Southern’s victory at St. Anselm in the NE-10 semifinals, which may have been the game that put the Owls in the bracket.
“We know he’s athletic, so we go to him. He knows how to cut. So he’s had a big impact,” forward Cherif Diarra said.
“Kazell’s been huge for us,” said captain Sean James, from West Hartford. “He’s a guy who may or may not make those outside shots a lot of people look for, but he’s flying down the court, he’s blocking a shot and then coming down and taking off from right underneath the free throw line and dunking the ball, hyping the crowd up. He does a lot of stuff for us that, really, no one else on the team can do.”
Josh Mcgettigan, from Southbury, a 6-7 grad transfer Saint Rose, leads the Owls with 17.8 points per game. Another transfer, Marty Silvera, who was part of St. Peter’s run in the Division I tournament, is averaging 14.5, including 51 points in the two conference tournament games, and has been regaling teammates with tales of the Peacocks’ magical March. The Owls won 11 of their first 13 games, and 10 of 12 to reach the conference final.