NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — The loss gnawed at Alex Wilkins. In last season's NEPSAC Class B semifinals, his Brooks School squad held a 13-point halftime lead over Rivers before the reigning champs stormed back to hand them a two-point loss in a game decided on the final possession.
On one side, Rivers celebrated with its wild home crowd before going to win its third straight Class B championship. On the other, Brooks walked off the floor heartbroken after missing its golden chance to dethrone the champs, forced to live with the pain all summer.
“That’s something I really remembered,” Wilkins said. “I had nightmares about it.”
Now, they’re turning those nightmares into dreams. They’re channeling that pain they endured, and using it as motivation for a new season filled with optimism in 2024-25. With a strong returning cast – led by Wilkins – and some key new additions, Brooks, even more so than last year, is ready to challenge for the Class B championship this winter.
Here’s what to expect from Brooks ahead of an exciting 2024-25 season in North Andover.
Wilkins leads the way
When Wilkins (Boston, Mass.) joined Brooks last year after transferring from Charlestown High School, head coach Kenya Jones remembers watching the point guard and being so impressed that he thought there was a chance he would eventually lose him to a higher class NEPSAC school. Jones knows it’s uncommon for Brooks to get high-level, Division 1-caliber players, and he would never want to block a player from getting a better opportunity if it meant they were getting more exposure.
So, at the conclusion of last season – after Wilkins was named All-NEPSAC in his first year in the league – Jones sat down with Wilkins and let him know that if a school came calling, he had his support but to just let him know.
“He cut me off in the middle of me talking,” Jones said. “He was like, ‘Coach, I’m not going anywhere. I love the school, I love my friends, I love my teachers, I really love this place, I’m getting what I need out of it. I’m getting the exposure I need out of it.’ …
“It’s hard for us to get a really blue-chip kid like that to come here and stay because he could easily go to a AAA program and be a killer out there, but for him to stay here is a testament to the school and a testament to him and how much that means. He’s a really neat kid wherever everything needs to matter and everything matters here.”
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Wilkins, who recently committed to Furman, is unquestionably Brooks’ best player, a 6-foot-5 playmaking guard and one of the best leaders Jones has ever coached. Much will be expected from him this season. There was a learning curve for Wilkins last season as he adjusted to better competition, but with a year under his belt, he’s going into this season much more comfortable and with a higher intensity.
“I feel like I’m going to go out the gate and really set standards for the team,” Wilkins said. “Being a captain, making sure those standards are set. … Really the only thing that’s on my plate this year is winning a Class B championship. So, that’s something I’m going to bring to practice (on the) first day and last day, throughout the season I’m bringing intensity on and off the court, in the classroom, in the dorms, on the court, everywhere.”
Jones has a unique trust and relationship with Wilkins, and he’s excited to see what’s in store in his second and final season at Brooks.
“I think at the beginning of last year, he was trying to prove himself to the team, trying to prove himself to the school,” Jones said. “I think now he’s in a place where he’s settled and he’s going to make the right plays. I am a coach where I want everybody touching the ball each possession, that ball’s gotta move. … I have to let him be who he is, and I trust that because he’s going to make the right play. He’s the coach on the court. …
“Is everything on his shoulders? No, but yeah. Because he is now the coach on the court.”
Missing piece?
There were times last year when Jones essentially threw stuff against the wall to see what stuck. He didn’t have a particularly deep team, and when guys got in foul trouble, it could be a struggle to get by. He doesn’t really have that problem now.
Outside of Wilkins, Jones brings back three more players who earned All-NEPSAC recognition last season: senior guard Emersen Davis, junior guard Trokon Harris (Lowell, Mass.) and junior forward Riley Clarke (Winchester, Mass.). And he has several other players he can trust. Junior Harryns Cantave (Everett, Mass.) will play a role, sophomore DJ Cassamajor (Boston, Mass) played big minutes as a freshman, junior Izzy Wane has developed and junior captain Tristan Yepdo (Dracut, Mass.) is big for Brooks’ culture. Even promising freshmen Jayden Gibson (Cambridge, Mass.) and Jack Rousmaniere have a shot to play a role this season.
Brooks’ biggest X-factor? It’s the addition of 6-foot-6 junior forward Noah Walker (Providence, R.I.), who transferred from the Darrow School and might be the missing piece to put Brooks over the top this season because of his defensive versatility.
“I don’t have a true big and I don’t have a true wing and he plays both of them,” Jones said. “His ability to just be a Swiss army knife is incredibly huge, especially on the defensive end. …
“He’s an ace in the hole that not a lot of people know about, nor I don’t think it will jump out in the stat sheet. He kind of reminds me of OG Anunoby, but I’m really starting to look at him like a Rasheed Wallace who can play on the wing. He can do all those little things, offensively and defensively. He’s a pretty important piece for us.”
Jones certainly welcomes his newfound depth, but knows it will be a challenge to navigate.
“It’s a good problem to have, but it’s a problem,” Jones said. “I’m gonna need to figure out how to get all of these guys, make them happy, keep them appeased. … I’ve seen how it’s done. Not saying it’s easy, but it’s a luxury to have where I can go to a guy and there’s not going to be any drop-off. It’s incredibly important, but it also changes the way that I can play and want to play. We’re gonna have to pick up the pace, we’re gonna have to pressure the ball more, I want to go up and down so we’re really utilizing guys the way we need to be.
“It’s a great problem to have, but I’m going to have to figure out how to keep people happy and that’s going to be the hard part.”
‘Different feel in the air’
Jones is entering his third year as Brooks’ head coach, but he’s been on the coaching staff for more than 15 years. He’s seen the height of the program’s success when it won three straight Class B titles from 2016-18. He knows what a championship team is supposed to look like.
So far, he likes what he’s seeing. There’s no ego. More than anything, there’s a heightened focus from his group.
“There’s a different feel in the air,” Jones said. “You notice it by how mature they’re being about the process. They’re waking up in the morning, 6 a.m., they’re coming to shoot, they’re coming to work out. I don’t ask them to do these things, I never have as a coach.”
In the past, Jones said he’s had to try to make them believe. He’s pointed to the banners. But now, he doesn’t have to.
“You can see it in their eyes, now they’re like, ‘Holy (expletive), we’ve gotten there, we’ve gotten to the semifinals twice, we can actually do this,’” Jones said. “I think they see the talent is there more and so the hunger is there, and it’s the focus. I’ve always had skilled kids here, but not very much focused. They’re incredibly focused.”
Jones believes his squad gelled by the end of last season, but it took about two-thirds of the year for it to happen. He was acclimating new kids into the program, trying to instill his culture and introduce concepts, and it took time. Now? They’re picking up where they left off. Jones doesn’t have to use up his time teaching things or bringing along new players, and they’re in a much better place to hit the ground running when the season begins.
Add that to an experienced, motivated roster that’s hungry for hardware and believes in themselves, and all the ingredients are there for Brooks. There’s a feeling that the last few years have led to this moment, and they’re ready to make it theirs.
From the outside looking in, it’s Rivers that’s the team to beat in Class B. But Brooks will be ready for whatever challenger awaits.
“Much respect to Rivers, but they’re not the only ones we have to worry about,” Jones said. “Are they the staple? Absolutely, they’ve won three straight, they’ve won two or three ISL titles in a row,” Jones said. “So yeah, they are a staple of the league and you have to beat the best to be the best. But this is a new season. It’s probably the New York in me, I always think we’re the team to beat whether or not we’ve won before.”
