In the Gym with Jim- National Christian Academy

Earlier this week, MDVarsity.com had an opportunity to interview National Christian Academy (NCA) Head Coach Trevor Brown. Many local prep observers regard the Eagles as the top high school team in the area – irrespective of whether they are ranked or not by the Washington Post in their Weekly Top 20.

“There’s no doubt that National Christian is the most impressive looking team that I have seen on the court this season. I really like their chances against anyone in the area,” said MDVarsity’s Mark Thomas. “They are an attacking basketball team that plays with great intensity. You almost start to feel sorry for the basket, because it just gets hammered in NCA games. They're great for highlights, but they can also score in a variety of ways. They play better defense than you would guess too. I have a feeling most teams eventually wilt under the pressure of NCA's assault.”

Coach Brown was very generous with his time and we were very pleased to give him the opportunity to give us a detailed analysis of his outstanding team and personnel; his philosophy on player/student development; and a chance to refute some of misinformation and false allegations that invariably get leveled against successful private school programs like NCA.

Coach Brown also informed us that, beginning with the 2004-2005 academic year, NCA will begin fielding two teams: a varsity team and a fifth year/post grad team. Trevor indicated that he will only coach one of the two teams- the varsity team.

The Eagle’s claim to status as the area’s top team is based on a 15-0 record against a very tough schedule.

“We’ve beaten Laurinburg Institute, Marriott Charter School, Notre Dame, Southern Maryland Christian and we’ve beaten Life Center Academy (a New Jersey power) two times. We are averaging 92.3 points a game and are only allowing 63 points a game. We’ve been over 100 points six times already, with five more games over 90 points,” said Brown.

The Eagles have four seniors on the 10 man roster.

“We have four seniors, three of them have already signed for Division I college scholarships and the other kid will probably go to an academically-oriented D-II or D-III college,” Coach Brown told MDVarsity.com.

NCA’s most publicized senior is the multi-talented 6’1” point guard Abdulai Jalloh. Jalloh committed early to St. Joseph’s and might be the Hawk’s successor at the point guard position with All-American Jameer Nelson heading off to the NBA.

“Abdulai is a great player, he can score from anywhere on the floor but he also makes the players around him better. He is a winner. He is a great fit with St. Joe’s where they let the guards really play,” said Brown. “Abdulai is very strong, about 185 pounds, and he is very athletic and competitive.” Jalloh attended Archbishop Carroll and Bishop McNamara before attending NCA.

6’7” 190 pound Derron Washington is one of the most explosive and exciting players in the area. “Derron is a tremendous player, he is a good shooter but also a slasher and a great finisher. He rebounds, plays defense, he is very versatile. Deron is from Wisconsin. He signed early with Virginia Tech and he is (academically) qualified already. Derron really blew up over the summer, he went to the NBA Camp in Richmond and the ABCD Camp in New Jersey. He was voted Top 25-Top 30 at both camps.”

Washington is from DePere, Wisconson and right there with Rudy Gay and James Gist as the most spectacular finishers in the area. His father is Lionel Washington, a former NFL defensive back and an assistant coach with the Green Bay Packers. Derron looks like he could be a football star at WR if he wanted to. He has good foot speed and can elevate with the best of them.

Chris Matthews, a 6’4” 185 pound wing guard, signed early with James Madison University. “Chris is a big-time jump shooter, he has NBA range. I think his best basketball is ahead of him. If he keeps working, he can be a really god all around player. He’s a local kid who has been with us for three years, he came to us from Parkdale HS.”

Brown’s fourth senior is 6’3” guard Brian Inge. “Brian is a good shooter and a solid, smart player. He might not go D-I, but he is getting looks from some good academic D-II and D-II schools.”

NCA’s most publicized underclassmen is 6’8” sophomore combo forward Kevin Durant. Many prep experts project Durant as the best sophomore prospect in the area, but his reputation has already gone nationwide as well.

“I’m getting contacted by top schools from all over the country about Kevin, Louisville, Florida, Michigan, Miami, a lot of big colleges are already on him,” said Brown.

“Kevin is about 185 pounds right now. He has size 20 shoes and we think he’s going to reach about 6’ 11”. He has great perimeter skills, but he is also a great dunker and shot blocker. We’ll play him on the perimeter some because he has great wing skills, but we are also teaching him all of the post skills he’ll need. There is no question he is going to be a great player,” said the NCA head coach.

Durant is averaging 20 points and 9 rebounds a game this year as a sophomore.

Colleges are also starting to lineup for 6’3” junior combo guard Jessie Sapp. Sapp is from New York City and Brown told us that this is his first full season of high school basketball competition.

“Jessie is more a combo than a pure point or wing. He has a lot of court savvy. He shoots it pretty well and he is a good athlete. I think he is a Big East type of player, athletic and tough. Even though he isn’t a pure point, he can run the show. He had 11 assists in one game for us. We are hearing from a lot of schools on him.”

Chris Cole is a 6’ reclassified junior in his third year at NCS. He attended Montrose Christian as a freshman. “In terms of being a ‘pure point guard’, Chris might be the most pure point guard we have. He is a great kid. He’s worked hard on his conditioning and real hard in the classroom, he is an Honor Roll student. He’s averaging about 6 points and 5 assists a game this year. Next year, when we have a team for fifth year players, Chris will play on that team,” said Brown.

NCA gets frontline help off the bench from 6’5” 215 pound junior Neal Pitt. “Neal has been with us since ninth grade. He can play either forward position. He’s a good, solid player. He is getting some D-I looks already from schools like George Mason, James Madison, and Youngstown State.”

Demetrius Landry, a 6’1” junior, and 5’7” sophomore Jaron Ferrell provide additional backcourt depth.

Trevor Brown is in his fourth year as the Head Coach at the Fort Washington, Maryland, private school. He had a 69-24 record coming into this year. Many remember the team’s landmark win in the then Beltway League over a good Montrose Christian team in the league tournament championship game. That NCA team was led by phenom Jonathan Hargett and that seemed to cement NCA as a program that had arrived. While you can somewhat categorize NCA and Montrose together, it would be safe to say that they play with contrasting styles. That is what made part of that memorable match-up so interesting.

Just as Coach Brown is proud to have sent twelve NCA players to D-I colleges, he is equally proud that a number of his less heralded players have continued on to college by accepting D-II and D-III opportunities. “For a lot of kids, playing at a big college is not an option. For those kids, the important thing is to still get a college education,” said Brown.

To those detractors that want to suggest that Coach Brown is running a “Basketball Factory” at NCA, Trevor is quick to set the record straight on a couple of scores: he has only had one D-I recruit who failed to be a full academic qualifier under the NCAA eligibility guidelines – and THAT player has subsequently qualified for admission to San Diego State; NCA does NOT have any “fifth year players” on his team this year; and NCA players ARE held to the same academic standards and the same Christian code of behavior as other students at NCA.

When we asked Coach Brown about the status of a player who was listed on the NCA roster, but who is not on this year’s team, he replied, matter-of-factly, “He (the absent player in question) didn’t do what he needed to do academically, so he’s gone.”

“We take the academics very seriously here,” said Coach Brown. “I remember when (a former NCA player) transferred in here, everybody said, ‘that kid won’t be able to get (academically) qualified for college!’ But, I’ll tell you what, he was here one year, and we got him to do the things academically that other schools wouldn’t or couldn’t get him to do. And he’s playing D-I now, right? We got him to qualify!”

It was apparently the question as to whether NCA has any “fifth year” players or not that accounted for the Eagles not appearing in the Washington Post Top 20 Rankings this year. Coach Brown told us that the matter has apparently now been clarified to the Post’s satisfaction (just this week, in fact) and NCA may start being ranked in the Post weekly ratings very soon.

According to Coach Brown, being ranked isn’t that important to him personally – but he doesn’t want NCA to be excluded unjustly and, for the sake of the NCA players and fans, he would like to see the team get the recognition it deserves.

“Look, I don’t care about rankings, usually these type of rankings are not very accurate anyhow. But, I don’t think we should be left out of the ratings if the reason for leaving us out is just not correct. For the player’s sake, I think we should be rated. That is one reason why we are going to two teams next year, then we don’t have to worry about the “fifth year” talk. That way we can get rated in the Post and the USA Today and what not and all that “fifth year” stuff is out of the way. Frankly, I don’t put much stock in rankings, there are some teams ranked in the Top 5 or 10 that couldn’t possibly play with us. I know a lot of these kids on these teams, so even if we haven’t played them, I got a pretty good idea of how good these teams are.”

Trevor Brown clearly has built a very strong program at NCA. Great programs attract great talent and scarcely a week has gone by this season that we haven’t heard about young players who are looking to matriculate at NCA.

That the program has come this far in just four years is even more amazing when one considers that Brown did not come to NCA with a blueprint for a basketball dynasty in his hand. “When I got into this (high school coaching at NCA), I didn’t rally have any expectations. I had been coaching AAU with DC Assault, I wasn’t realty planning on getting into coaching at this level. I just wanted to help the kids. I was seeing too many kids at too many schools who weren’t really getting their education, not getting guidance. I was seeing kids getting passed over at some schools, getting recruited over at high schools. Good players and good kids who weren’t getting developed as players and students. I thought we could be pretty good here, but I never thought we’d be a national program like we have become.”