In fall 2023, Pearl Dickson showed up to her first practice at Berkshire, hoping to impress the team that had taken an interest when she lived a world away in Ghana.
But there was a big hurdle: the 6-foot-4 center had never played an organized basketball game in her life.
Dickson recalls the first practice vividly. Her head spun as Berkshire coach Junior De La Hoz ran the Bears through drills she had never seen before; all Dickson had ever practiced was dribbling and scoring around the basket. Dickson tried to follow her new teammates’ lead, and De La Hoz implored her to shout if she had questions.
“Then we started doing plays, and I'm like, OK, I don't do this back home because I don't play,” she said.
Dickson has been in the United States for less than two years, thrust from her home village in Ghana to chase basketball and the opportunities that come with it. She has already improved significantly through her sophomore year, having won our NEPSAC Class B Defensive Player of the Year award after helping Berkshire reach the Class B semifinals.
Prep schools commonly recruit from abroad. De La Hoz, between his time coaching at Berkshire and Proctor, typically looks outside the U.S. for post players about every four years. Dickson is the next raw prospect hoping to tap into her boundless potential. Her experiences so far also show the daunting realities of crossing continents to pursue her dream.
