Hawks' Abdul Ado dunks
photo by Dennis Norwood/File
The Hamilton Heights Hawks, led by five players with Division I basketball scholarship offers, announced their 2015-16 schedule that includes games against national powers Oak Hill Academy, from Mouth of Wilson, Va., Huntington Prep, out of West Virginia and Whitney Young from Chicago.
The Hawks will also host their own two-day round robin event – the Hawks Havoc – at Chattanooga State on Nov. 20-21, and that will serve as season-opening games.
Other teams in the event are The Rock, Gainesville, Fla., Birmingham’s Central Park Academy and Wesley Christian, from Allen, Ky.
Hamilton Heights has appearances scheduled in nine other high-level tournaments, highlighted by the Penny Hardaway Classic in Memphis and City of Palms tournament in Fort Myers, Fla.
“This is definitely the toughest schedule we’ve ever had,” Hawks coach Zach Ferrell said Thursday. “We have tournaments on the schedule we wanted to be considered for and want to compete in this season. I’m very happy with our schedule and excited about the upcoming season.”
The other tournaments are the Lighthouse (Miss.) Thanksgiving Classic, Nissan Classic in London, Ky., North/South Classic (Oak Hill will be there as well) in Bristol, Va., Music City Classic in Nashville, Huntington Prep Classic in West Va., and the Coke Zero Classic at McCallie School.
In the McCallie round robin, the Hawks will play Chattanooga Central on Feb. 5 and Oak Hill the following night. Hamilton Heights also has a regular-season game against Central on Jan. 23, this one at Chattanooga State as well.
Hamilton Heights traveled to Oak Hill Academy, located in Mouth of Wilson, Va., last February and lost, 88-55, to the Warriors. Oak Hill went 47-1 last season, losing to Montverde (Fla.) Academy in the national championship game at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The Ferrell-coached Hawks have a “Meet the Hawks” night on Oct. 15, play in the CHoops JuCo Jam in Atlanta on Oct. 17, which is like a high school play day and expected to draw 100-plus college coaches.
Ferrell, entering his third year with the Hawks, said the excitement about the coming season hit home during the NCAA’s three-week contact period when college coaches made an impressive string of visits to the team’s small gymnasium.
“It was awesome,” Ferrell said. “We definitely feel privileged to host all those coaches and take it as a great responsibility to be able to put our guys in front of them. To have a gym full of coaches means to us that there is a lot of free education out there for them and that’s exciting.
“We’re blessed to have the honor and privilege to see those coaches and hope to have many more years like this.”
Hamilton Heights returns four starters, the most prominent being 6-foot-10-inch center Abdulhakim Ado, who has college offers from Louisville, Arizona State, Vanderbilt, Oregon, UNLV, Iowa State, Auburn, Mississippi State, LSU, Tennessee, Penn State, Georgia and Memphis.
Also back at 6-6 senior Ezekiel Balogun, who recently has been offered by The Citadel and North Georgia; 6-8 junior Silas Adheke. He received an offer from Middle Tennessee State University earlier in the week.
The roster also includes four other returning players – C.J. Massengill, Charnchai Chantha, Darryle Pitts and Mohammed Abubakar.
Hamilton Heights’ roster has been bolstered by the addition of three Canadian players that include 6-5 guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, recently listed as the No. 1 Canadian prospect by North Pole Hoops. Alexander-Walker has offers from Auburn, Baylor, Southern Cal, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Miami, Providence, UNLV, Cincinnati, New Mexico State, Vermont and St. Bonaventure.
Shai Alexander, also 6-5, holds offers from MTSU, St. Bonaventure, American and Binghamton, while 6-5 Therron Shelton-Szmidt can already pick between Duquesne, St. Bonaventure and Binghamton.
“Those three guys have been incredible,” Ferrell said. “They’re selfless; they come every day to work and they’re hard-working guys. It’s an absolute joy for have them in our program. I think they’ve all got bright futures ahead of them.”
The Hawks have also has a European flavor to the team with 6-5 Daniel Kalezic and 6-6 Vlad Chiriac. Kalezic is a member of the Montenegro Under-18 National team and Chiriac has played with the Romanian Under-18 National squad.
Hamilton Heights has, of course, had many European players before and the one constant is the language barrier.
“That can be the biggest adjustment for them,” Ferrell said. “They’re trying to learn as best they can, but leaving your country, family and home is never an easy task.”
The school’s headmaster, Duke Stone, started the Hawks’ basketball program and feels the excitement of the approaching season with the same enthusiasm as the Hawks’ players.
“Our players recognize that something special is going on at Hamilton Heights,” Stone said. “They know we’re playing a national schedule, we will be in the limelight a lot this year and they have to be ready for that.”
One of Ferrell’s biggest challenges is bringing together all the different personalities, especially from the new additions.
In his time with the Hawks, this is the biggest influx of new faces to the team.
“Team cohesion and chemistry is very important,” he said. “We went on an early-season retreat with everybody and the kids are very unselfish. The older guys are doing a great job including the new guys.”
Coach Keisha Hunt’s Lady Hawks also have five players with Division I scholarship offers.
Six-foot-1 sophomore guard Elizabeth Balogun and 6-1 Jazmine Massengill each have received offers from Western Kentucky and Louisiana Tech, and Massengill also has one from Auburn.
Six-foot-1 post Juliet Esadah is considering an East Carolina offer and 5-8 wing Amber Hunt has one from East Carolina.
Also back for the Lady Hawks are 6-2 post senior Mariya Baardeeva and 5-6 senior point guard Teodora Todorova.
Two transfer student-athletes are on the roster as well. Akia Harris, who switched from Girls Preparatory School, has verbally committed to Tennessee Tech and Jamee Ward enrolled after having played at Brainerd.
Sonya Besedina, a 6-1 junior who played with the Russian National team, and picked up 6-4 eighth-grader Jessica Jitoboh.
The Lady Hawks have several prestigious tournaments on their schedule that include the Title IX tournament in Washington, D.C., and the Potter’s House Invitational in Jacksonville, Fla. They will also play in the Bradley Central Thanksgiving and Lancaster Christian Christmas tournaments, plus the She Got Game National tournament in Murfreesboro.
The Hawks and Lady Hawks, as usual, will play in the NACA national tournament at Fort Bluff, just north of Dayton, Tenn., in late February.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)