Last Saturday NC State 2016 Power Forward target Bam Adebayo revealed that he would be transferring from Northside High School (Pinetown, NC) to High Point Christian Academy (High Point, NC). Last night I caught up with HPCA’s basketball coach Brandon Clifford and got his take on what the addition of Bam means for their program.
“I think we go from being a very good high school team, to having a chance to compete at the national level. We were very talented before. He adds to our already talented team, and gives us a dimension I don’t think any other team in the country has: a big guy with the motor he plays with,” said Clifford. “To have a national player of the year candidate walk into your gym definitely makes your job a little bit more exciting as a coach. Obviously we’re excited. It puts us in a much bigger spotlight. We’re just excited about having him.”
Clifford said that the process began early in the Spring when Adebayo reached out to HPCA. The past couple of months have been a lot of getting to know one another, including Clifford watching Bam play 20-25 times over the summer.
“They contacted the school back in the early spring. He’s very close with Boston College commit Ty Graves, who had already decided to come to our school,” said Clifford. “From that point on it was really relationship building. It’s been a long process of him getting to know us, and us getting to know him. He was kind of always a part of the big picture for us. When he finally decided to come…it changes your program.”
High Point Christian Academy has had quite a few Division 1 basketball players suit up for them the past couple of years, but they’ve never had a player like Adebayo.
“We’ve probably had 9-10 Division 1 players at our school over the last 4-5 years, but we’ve never had a guy like that, an elite level guy drawing the type of attention he is. It’s exciting. I played college basketball. I went through the recruiting process. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of pressure on a kid. My job as his coach is to help him deal with it as best as I can.”
The addition of a player of Adebayo’s caliber literally is a game changer for a high school basketball program. Clifford said college coaches have already been calling to introduce themselves and let him know that they would be dropping by in the future. Eyes all around the nation will be on HPCA. With that being said, Clifford maintains that he is Bam’s coach, not his publicist.
“We’re not going to be starstruck by it. We’re excited about it, but at the same time we have a job to do. My job is to be Bam’s high school basketball coach, not his fan,” said Clifford. “The hoopla that comes with it is awesome. It’s a good thing for our school, but I’m just excited about the basketball part, with him being a part of our program.”
