THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602290455
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAGERSTOWN, MD. LENGTH: Long : 255 lines
Hagerstown?
If Brett Harper heard the question once, he heard it a hundred times. It was signing day, and as the Kecoughtan High basketball star walked the halls, the questioners rushed at him like defenders in a fullcourt press.
``Everybody was like, `Where you going, Brett? Maryland? Florida?' ''
``I was like: Hagerstown.''
Hagerstown?
Hagerstown Junior College. Home of the Hagerstown Hawks, a National Junior College Athletic Association Division I member. Home of the highly successful HJC Hawk Booster Club. Home of a tough love coach who says of his program:
``This is a young man's last chance for his academic and athletic career.''
Harper is not down to his last chance, but he was definitely in need of a second chance. So was Shawn Hobson. About the time Harper was breaking the news to his friends and fans at Kecoughtan in Hampton, Hobson, a star at Granby High, was fielding the same questions.
``I was a little down,'' Hobson said. ``I felt bad about the whole idea. But I talked to my mother and my aunt, and they told me not to worry about it. It was just one more stop until I could play Division I ball.
``Now I just feel like it was meant to be. I feel like it happened for a reason.''
The reason: Hobson didn't qualify academically to play Division I basketball. Neither did Harper. Had they qualified, you probably would have seen them on television by now.
Many athletes are tripped up by standardized tests. Hobson wasn't. He scored better than the then-required 700 during his sophomore year. His grade-point average kept him from signing with a Division I team.
``I was lazy,'' Hobson said. ``My sophomore year I didn't go to school that much.
``I tried to change but it was too late. I didn't look at (basketball) as a way to go to college. I didn't know how good I would turn out to be.''
Harper said he was too distracted to do well in school. As a basketball star, he attracted a lot of hangers-on, and he let them influence him, he said.
``In high school, after hitting 30 points, I'd be there the next day, but I wouldn't really be there, because there were so many distractions. Everyone was like: `Brett! Brett!' ''
There are fewer distractions now. Harper, the Peninsula District player of the year last season, and Hobson, player of the year in South Hampton Roads, have come north to get their academic houses in order.
Neither is thrilled to be here. But they're making the most of it.
It's an adjustment most junior college athletes have to make, said Dr. Marie Nowakowski, director of counseling at Hagerstown.
``We know they'd prefer to be somewhere else,'' Nowakowski said. ``But they're here at a junior college.
``And this is a pretty good one, in terms of graduation rates.''
With a very good team. The Hagerstown Hawks average more than 110.8 points per game, best in the nation. Ten Hawk alumni are playing Division I basketball. Ten members of this year's team probably will sign with Division I teams.
The Hawks are the toast of Hagerstown, a working-class town of 36,000 located about 70 miles northwest of Washington. The town is home to some Civil War history - Antietam Creek runs under Route 40, the main road into town - as well as a Mack Truck engine plant that employs 2,000.
HJC is a big employer, too, but not in the manufacturing sector, as coach Jim Brown takes pains to point out.
``We're not a basketball factory,'' he says.
It's more like a retooling center. Players have their study skills sharpened, their senses of responsibility heightened, their attitudes ratcheted a turn or two, if needed.
At least, that's the goal. Thirty-six of the last 38 Hawks who have stayed two years have graduated. A handful of others have been dropped at the Hagerstown Greyhound station, one-way tickets in hand.
``You're not going to come here and operate by your policies, you're going to operate by ours,'' says the 58-year-old Brown. ``Most of the people in this program have a lot of maturity. We don't need 18- and 19-year-olds telling us what to do.''
Brown already has snapped a couple of his star players to attention this season. Center Mylo Brooks, who has signed with Virginia Commonwealth, was suspended because of attitude problems. Point guard Sean Colson, who is being recruited hard by Mississippi State and Cincinnati, was told by Brown that he need not return from Christmas break - unless he began running the team the way Brown wanted.
Both players have since returned.
Hobson has had his run-ins with Brown, too. Because he missed a class, Hobson didn't start a recent game against Essex Community College. Hobson was sick, but didn't notify Brown or Nowakowski, his counselor. The professor noticed Hobson wasn't there and called Brown.
Classes are small. Everyone knows who the basketball players are. That was evident the day before the Essex game, when Hobson had an elementary algebra class.
The class is more of a lab, really. Hobson walks in at 9 a.m., and begins working math problems at his regular cubicle.
There are about 20 students in the class, and each is allowed to work at his or her own pace - ``within reason'' - said Marvin Shubert, a math professor.
Shubert and two other math instructors stand at the front of the room, making themselves available to students who come forward for help. Many do. The instructors also work with students at their cubicles.
Hobson works for about 20 minutes before getting up to take a quiz that will allow him to move to the next chapter. Hobson spends another 20 minutes on the quiz and then takes it to Shubert.
The professor begins going over the quiz and spots some errors. Ten minutes later, students begin grabbing their backpacks and leaving. Shubert and Hobson remain buried in the quiz for a few more minutes, and Hobson is one of the last out the door.
Hobson explains later that he solved about half the problems correctly. He understands what he did wrong, and is confident he will do well on a re-test.
Algebra is one of two review classes - English being the other - that Hobson is taking this semester. The six credit hours earned in those classes won't count toward the 64 he needs to graduate. Nor will they count toward the 48 transferable hours he'll need to move on to a Division I school.
Nowakowski meets with each player after he enrolls to determine what academic areas need strengthening. Each semester at midterm, the team gathers after practice and sheets of paper are handed out. On the sheets are the names of the courses in which - in the opinion of his professor - a player should be doing better.
Anyone who doesn't get handed a sheet gets a round of applause. The others get a public reminder that they've got to do better.
``It's an in-your-face kind of thing,'' Nowakowski said. ``Wouldn't it be great if their high school coaches and counselors put them under the same pressure we do?''
Brown, who has been at Hagerstown 17 years and is also the athletic director, is a master at applying pressure, sometimes gently and sometimes not.
Sitting at lunch the day before the game with Essex, Brown banters with several players who circle in and out of his verbal range. His is always the last word.
``How am I looking, coach,'' Brooks says, sidling up to Brown's table.
``You were looking great until I got that report.''
``Coach, you know I'm staying on top of all my books.''
``That's not what I heard.''
Brooks doesn't start against Essex, either.
Another player, Devin Baker, comes by and tries to borrow $10. Brown tells him to work more hours at his part-time job, a ``perk'' that is available to juco athletes. Baker is spotted delivering towels at a local hotel that night.
Brown then turns his attention to Colson, the point guard who was told not to come back after Christmas. Colson, who transferred to Hagerstown from the University of Rhode Island, is so with the program now that Brown named him a team captain.
``Sean, if I'd had you two years, I'd have been so hard on you, you'd have been perfect,'' Brown says, stifling a grin.
Colson gives him a sidelong glance.
``I don't want to be perfect.''
But Brown also gives Colson advice on what to say to the Mississippi State assistant who is coming to see him play in a few days.
Old Dominion guard Duffy Samuels, who graduated from Hagerstown in 1994, says Brown's style takes some getting used to.
``When I got there I thought that coach Brown was one of the meanest coaches in the world,'' he says. ``I thought he was another Bobby Knight. Once I got to know him I saw the sensitive side.''
Brown is no Bobby Knight, although like Knight, he's built a program that is competitive annually on a national level. Hagerstown won 10 games total in the five years before Brown arrived. Heading into the game against Essex, Brown's win total stands at 399.
That number 400 will come against Essex is a foregone conclusion. Perhaps in anticipation of that milestone - but probably because admission was free - an unusually large crowd files into Hagerstown's Athletic, Recreation and Community Center to cheer on the Hawks.
Admission is gratis because the game has been bought out by the Hagerstown Suns, the local Class A baseball team. The Suns bought every ticket and made a $1,000 donation to the Hagerstown booster club.
Donations like those are crucial at the juco level, because the Hagerstown boosters do a lot more than cheer.
Every Hagerstown athletic scholarship is paid for with Booster money. The Boosters raise it, and the college administers it.
``We don't have many full scholarships,'' Brown says. ``We put together financial-aid packages.''
Athletes get as much need-based aid as they can. Most work part-time jobs, or are involved with work-study programs. The boosters make up the difference with scholarship money.
The club raises about $50,000 per year, mostly through memberships. It also has $200,000 in a foundation, and uses only the interest from that money. Individuals can join for $100. Businesses come in at annual rates ranging from $250 to $1,000.
Green-sweatered boosters are ubiquitous on game night. They sell raffle tickets. Or chances in a 50-50 drawing.
``The athletic program here and the facilities bring people here who might not otherwise set foot on this campus,'' says Dick Schukraft, Booster club coordinator.
What most come for, of course, is to see the Hawks win. Against Essex, they do not disappoint.
A Division II junior college in suburban Baltimore, Essex doesn't have the kind of community support enjoyed at Hagerstown. That's apparent before the game, when just six Essex players walk out to warm up.
Once the game starts, it's obvious that Essex has no chance against the wave of players rotated in by Hagerstown, which has more raw talent than many teams in the Colonial Athletic Association. Brown uses two five-man teams, and there's no discernable difference between them.
Hobson doesn't start, but Harper, a 6-foot-2 guard dubbed ``Baby Iverson'' by his teammates, does. Harper cans a 3-pointer to start the game and the rout is on. Hagerstown is up 40-14 after 10 minutes.
Harper finishes with 14, the 6-5 Hobson with 11 - including a couple of spectacular dunks - in a 116-58 win.
``You see how we play so many people?'' says Hobson, who would like more playing time and figures he'll get it next year, once this year's sophomores move on.
Brown says Hobson was the team's most valuable player before the Christmas break, but has hit a little slump. He's still the team's best defensive player, however, and should be heavily recruited next season. Penn State, Wake Forest and James Madison have been keeping close tabs on him.
Harper may be the team's most talented offensive player but needs to improve his defense, Brown says. Virginia Tech, Clemson and Georgia Tech are among the schools following him.
The boosters hold a social after the game, with pizza and a keg of beer, and a cake celebrating Brown's 400th. Hobson and Harper grab some pizza and soda and accept the congratulations of the boosters.
The party soon begins breaking up, and moves to a local hotel where there is a reception for Brown. By then, Hobson is ready to head back to his apartment. Harper visits with his father, Wayne, who has driven up from Hampton.
Pleasant as it is here, both Harper and Hobson are marking time, waiting for a chance to move on to the world of televised games, March Madness, ``crunch time.''
Harper says he'll leave after this season if he can. He's willing to sit out next season at a Division I school if one will take him. That way he'll have three years in the big-time.
``I'm happy here,'' Harper says. ``But my goal is to play high Division I ball.
``I think about that every day.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by RICK FOSTER
Shawn Hobson and teammates Rhashii Booth, left, and Randy Mills,
right, leave the arena after a win over Essex Community College.
Shawn Hobson, Granby class of '95, is at Hagerstown Junior College
because ``I was lazy.''
Brett Harper, a 6-2 guard from Hampton's Kecoughtan High, is dubbed
``Baby Iverson'' by teammates.
RICK FOSTER photos
Hagerstown Junior College coach Jim Brown, kneeling, instructs his
players prior to recording his 400th victory against Essex Community
College. His philosophy: ``You're not going to come here and operate
by your policies, you're going to operate by ours.''
Graphic by Ken Wright
Junior Colleges
Where six South Hampton Roads Basketball players are attending
school.
by CNB