More accolades pour in for Nighthawks
White, Hill named All-Americans
Two basketball players from the National Park College Nighthawks were named All-Americans Wednesday.
Forward Nakavieon White was named a first-team All-American and guard Ja’Bryant Hill was named a second-team All-American. The talented duo helped lead NPC to its first-ever national championship this season.
White was a third-team honoree last year and came back this year and made his mark. He became the school’s all-time leading scorer with 954 career points. He also leads the program in rebounds, assists, and blocks.
This season, he averaged 17.4 points, 8.1 rebounds, 6.2 assists, and 1.8 blocks per game, which all led the team. Along with being named an All-American, he was named Region 2 MVP for the second year and made the National Tournament All-Tournament team.
“He does pretty much everything,” Hill said. “Any stat that you can think of, he’s under it. That’s the best way to put it, like Lebron. That’s what we call him.”
Hill came back this year and had a great year as well. This year he averaged 17.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.6 steals.
He set the program records with 50 points in a game and 10 steals in a game. Hill was also a member of the All-Region 2 team and won the Jack Cistriano Best Small Man Award at the national tournament.
“He’s a true point guard,” White said. “He led us at times, he scored 50 points. He’s a great point guard, great team player. I love playing with him.”
Both White and Hill had great seasons and helped lead the Nighthawks to the title. They were both honored to be named All-Americans for their skills on the court. Head coach Dillon Hargrove reacted to his players being named among the best in the country.
“The guy’s just been a pillar in this program the last two years,” Hargrove said of White. “His growth has just been awesome. If you just knew his story, and knew where he’s at now, it’s just really awesome to see. He has brought our program to the next level. He will go down as one of the all-time greats at National Park College.”
Hargrove continued and talked about Hill’s impact on the program.
“He’s been the heart of our team the last two years,” Hargrove said. “He has shown consistently that he is a winner, that he wants to win the basketball game, and he’s not an individual. He’s a team guy. Him being named 2nd team All-American was awesome, and he deserved it, 100% deserved it.”
Hargrove spoke about the lasting impact that White and Hill will have on the program as well.
“They’ll go down as two of the greatest players to ever play at National Park College with their stats individually, but as well as they go 31-1,” Hargrove said. “As starters on the team, I think they are 47-3 for their career here. So they’ll go down as two of the all-time greats to ever play at National Park College.”
Both players had memorable and successful years that will stay with them forever. They spoke about what they will take from this year into the rest of their lives.
“I would say just the broth
erhood we built,” White said. “The team chemistry, and I got to know a lot of these players and I call some of them my brothers now. I really like how I built that and I plan to keep in touch with them forever.”
“I’d have to say that it takes a village to achieve success in anything,” Hill said. “We accomplished that this year and we showed that it took everybody in the community, not only on the team, but everybody in the city of Hot Springs to do this. It takes a village.”
As both players are done with their Nighthawk careers, Hargrove had a message for them both regarding their impact on him, the program, and where they will be going in life.
“I love both of them,” he said. “They’re my dudes right here. I’m going to miss them. They’re going to be moving on. I’m not going to get emotional right now. We’re going to wait for later because they aren’t gone yet. They’re both going to graduate and have great careers moving on from National Park.
“Super proud of both of them. Super proud of all their teammates. Wish Pat (Punch) was here as well. Proud of him. I mean really, family. It all comes down to relationships; coaches, players, all that. Community support was awesome. We really appreciate that and the relationship they had with us. We’ll have all new guys in here next year and we’ll try to do it again. With these two guys, we’re still appreciative of them and it’s going to be tough to get a group like this again.”