Hawkins leading Eagles to new heights
Darren Hawkins
-High School: Freedom
-Club team: VA Elite
-Sport: Basketball
-Position: Guard
-Height: 6-foot-2
-Accolades: 2012 All-Cedar Run second team
For the first time in his four-year varsity basketball career, Freedom
High School senior guard Darren Hawkins is experiencing a winning
season. The Eagles’ previous best season during Hawkins’ tenure was a 7-16 record in 2010-2011. But this year, the Eagles have doubled their number of wins from last
year, boasting a 10-8 record with four games remaining in the regular
season, plus district playoffs.
“It’s the best season I’ve experienced here at Freedom,” Hawkins said. Hawkins, who is averaging more than 15 points a game and has posted
eight games with 20 or more points, is a large part of his teams’
success.“I’ve asked a lot of him all four years and I’ve put a lot of
pressure on him,” Freedom coach Derek Gaunt admitted. “I put a lot of
pressure on him as a freshman and he used it to continually get better.”
“It’s rare that you get a kid that has coachability and talent and
when you got them both like I have in Darren, you’ve got a winner,” he
added. While Hawkins is a prolific scorer, some of his greatest
contributions on the court are his intangibles, say his coaches and
teammates. “He’s a consummate leader,” Gaunt said. “He knows what it takes to
put his teammates in a position to make them better but when it comes to
crunch time, he knows he’s going to be the guy I look to to get us over
that hump, whatever that hump may be, whether it’s a lackluster
practice or a game-winning shot.”
Teammate Kyle Wrighte, who runs the point for the Eagles, agrees and notes that Hawkins is who he looks to in a tight situation. “When we need him, we go to him and it seems to work out most of the
time,” Wrighte said. “Whenever I get the ball and my head goes up,
Darren’s always in the back of my mind.”.
Hawkins acknowledges his position as team captain and leader and
strives to make his teammates better. Both Hawkins and his coach have
set a goal for the emerging Eagles, which is to advance to the regional
playoffs for the first time. Though Freedom currently sits third in the six-team Cedar Run
District, just one game behind Battlefield and three games behind the
first place Stonewall Jackson, Hawkins feels neither a district
tournament title nor a regional bid are out of reach.
“I don’t think we’ve reached our full potential,” Hawkins said. “The sky is the limit". However far the Eagles manage to soar, Gaunt and his team know one thing: Hawkins will be leading the flock.”
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