Northern Guilford has a very good boys basketball team, and they’re going to get better.
I saw them play in person on Satruday night and this team is for real. They may only be using freshmen and sophomores but they are beating everybody in sight. The NGHS Nighthawks beat Northwest Guilford for the second time this year in a game at Guilford College and the contest was never in doubt. Northern won it 64-50 and Stan Kowaleski’s boys are going to be really good before they graduate.
The Nighthawk kids are lead by Jonathan Frye and the red-head can do a little bit of everything. He can bring the ball up the court, set up the offense, rebound, shoot 3-pointers, and he can dunk. Frye is the real-deal and the entire Nighthawk squad plays well together. Jacob Lawson is probably 6’7 and he gives them an inside presence with scoring power and rebounding.
Northern is (5-0) to start off 2007 and they will give any of our area teams a good run for their money. The Nighthawks will be playing a Triad 3-A schedule and they will be able to compete with all the conference powers including Dudley and Northeast Guilford.
If NGHS is eligible for the state playoffs and I guess they are even though they are only playing sophomores and freshmen, then the way they look today, Northern is in the playoffs and they should make a good run at the title. Do they get to play in the Triad 3-A conference tournament? If so, then the way things look today, they are in the finals versus Dudley.
Some of the other kids I saw out there on the floor Saturday evening are Michael Neal and Dylan Berry who were working mainly at wing and guard, JR Grant who went inside, and Asad Lamont and Brandon Mayfield who helped out in reserve.
Jonathan Frye is one of the best players in our area, if not the entire state and Jacob Lawson is not far behind. These are not just a bunch of kids out there just trying to put a team on the court, this Nighthawk bunch is for real.
This might be the setting for a great movie some day if these kids keep on winning. The winning streak will have to end sometime but until it does, let’s keep watching these Nighthawk kids.
What if they won the State 3-A Championship? Who will be the first team to ever beat the Nighthawks? Nighthawk fever has hit the county.
When you look at the local sports landscape, isn’t it interesting studying the men who have come here from out of town and the successes they have experienced playing and coaching in their respective sports?
Alan Ashkinazy(Baseball), Eddie Radwanski(Soccer), Stan Kowaleski(Basketball) and Jocko Nagurski(Football). Ashkinazy-New York, Radwanski-New Jersey, Kowaleski-NE United States, and Nagurski-Parts Unknown. You get these connections only at GREENSBOROSports.com.
Sounds like a very impressive group of young men. I know that I saw J. Frye play last year at High Point Central and over the summer with the Ragsdale team. He is a great all around player. The other names are not familiar to me, but I might know them from where they played last year. Do you know where these other young men played their High School Freshman season or if they are Freshman, what MS they played at?
I checked in with Stan and he said that the word I had on Frye and Lawson was correct. Stan said the other kids came in from the schools that feed Northern and that would be the areas of Northeast and Northwest Guilford that now have become part of the Northern Guilford district or boundaries plus anyone that attends or moves up from Northern Guilford Middle School.
Stan said all of the kids on his team are living in the Northern district and that the Nighthawks would be playing for the Triad 3-A conference championhip and that they would also vie for the conference, sectional and all post-season tournaments.
The Nighthawks head to New York later this week to play Christ the King.
Andy…you stated,
I checked in with Stan and he said that the word I had on Frye and Lawson was correct.
What was the word on Lawson? I still can’t place him.
Thanks for the follow up and what an exciting time for Northern…a trip to NY for Christmas! WOW!
Yes, sorry about that but I had talked with Stan in regards to Lawson and mentioned that I thought that Jacob Lawson had been at Bartlett Yancey previouly and Coach K said that was correct. Lawson’s dad took a job at Northern and the Lawson family moved into the Northern district.
Coach K told me that we can check his records, and it’s true beyond a shadow of a dobut, “Every kid on the Northern team is living in the Northern Guilford school district”.
The Northern Guilford Nighthawks are very good basketball team and you have a lot to be excited about.
Thanks Andy… I had no doubt that they all live in the Northern area, just trying to place where they had been before! I appreciate your help!
who is this stephen neal and michael neal kid i heard that the both of them are very good stephen dosent play why? rumer has it he could be top 20 in te nation if not better and michael neal heard he is a great gaurd and needs to improve shot
I haven’t heard of Stephen Neal but I have seen Michael play and he is very good. Michael had 21 points last night in the Nightawks loss to Rocky Mount to end NG’s season.
With Frye, Lawson, Lamot, Berry, Grant, and Dillard all around for the next several years there is no telling what this team might do. 19-9 with 9th and 10th graders and if this Stephen Neal kid gets in there. Well, Northern will be one of the favorites at next year’s Little Four Tournament, I can tell you that…….