San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
VALHALLA GUARD LEARNED HIS HOOPS FROM SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS
Zaki Monqad went up against older players at parks
When Zaki Monqad started playing basketball, he’d go to the park or the gym and inevitably there would be a group of older guys to challenge him.
Lots older. He was just 13 when his friends persuaded him to try the orange-ball sport in addition to the black and white soccer ball he was used to.
Playing soccer made sense since he and his family had come to the United States from Afghanistan when he was just 5 years old.
But once Monqad hit the hardwoods, soccer became an afterthought.
“I immediately liked the speed of the game,” said Monqad, who leads Valhalla High in practically every offensive category, including scoring (24.6 points a game), rebounding (6.8), assists (4.3) and steals (2.8). He’s a 75 percent freethrower.
Not bad for someone who is a 5-foot-10 point guard.
“It seems like every park here has a basketball court, and I always wanted to play against the best,” said Monqad, 17. “That meant I’d go against 20, 25-year-old college guys. If I was going to make the high school varsity, I had to learn how to keep up with them.
“I learned I had more speed than the others, so I used that. Yes, I’d get beat up and bruised, but I’m very competitive.”
That showed itself when at the last minute before starting the ninth grade, Monqad joined his friends going to a summer basketball camp at Valhalla.
Suddenly he was playing against high school students, not adults. Coach Keith Jackson said Monqad dominated and after starting with the junior varsity, he was called up to the varsity at the end of his freshman season.
He never really had trouble with the older players because coming from a football-team-sized family that now numbers 11, he learned how to get along.
Plus, he was highly motivated to get better at a game that he would play up to eight hours a day and never tire of it.
“He has a love of the game that reminds me of a player we had in 2019, Dominic Safarta,” said Jackson, now in his 17th year with the Norsemen. “That team (28-5) lost to San Diego High in the section finals, but that season Dominic turned the corner to where the game slowed down for him, and he was able to be looking one or two passes ahead.
“Zaki is getting there, and I always see the correlation between the two. Like Dominic, Zaki runs the show. He never finishes back in the pack in the sprints, he’s always in front. He’s the first one there to open the gym doors and the last to leave. Zaki never just goes through the motions.
“Last year we had four seniors, and he knew coming into this year he’d be the captain, the leader. We lost the first two games to start the season and he just said, ‘Hey, follow me.’ We won seven of our next eight games. He had the first triple-double (points, rebounds, assists) since I’ve been here.”
The most unique statistic, though, is his rebounding. He always seems to be in the right spot despite his relatively slight stature.
“I’m not the biggest or the strongest but playing against older guys made me learn to screen and understand the angles,” he said. “When someone shoots, I have a pretty good idea where the ball’s going and try to be there. We make up for lack of size by running more than the track team. If the game is close at the end, we can still run.”
The Norsemen started the week 14-9 and are looking to go deep into the Division III playoffs. About Afghanistan. “What I remember about Afghanistan is that it was cold,” Monqad said. “We were very fortunate. We spent a week in New York, a month in Texas and then we came here where there is a large Afghan community. I speak three languages (Farsi, Persian and English), and I’m hoping to go back for a wedding next summer to visit my cousins that I haven’t seen in 12 years.
“I had to adapt to the lifestyle here starting in kindergarten, but it wasn’t difficult. As one of the oldest of such a large family, like being the captain of the basketball team, I needed to be a good role model.”
He plans on playing at the next level, hopefully at San Diego State, even if it means walking on, but he isn’t averse to going to community college, either.
One thing is for sure: playing against more experienced athletes will be just like old times.