Jennifer Toland: Former SPM star Kamahl Walker climbs scoring list at Endicott
Endicott senior guard Kamahl Walker graduated from Portsmouth (New Hampshire) High, but he proudly lists Worcester as his hometown in his player biography. After all, he was born in Worcester and raised here for 16 years.
“I still have a lot of family and friends in Worcester, so I’m always there,” Walker said. “It’s my home. It’s like I never left.”
Walker played two seasons at St. Peter-Marian before moving to Portsmouth before the start of his junior year of high school. After helping to lead Portsmouth to a Division 2 state title, he did a postgraduate year at Bridgton Academy in Maine, and has been thriving at Endicott College in Beverly since.
Walker played a key role in the Gulls winning back-to-back Commonwealth Coast Conference championships and making the NCAA Division 3 Tournament the last two years, and last week, he moved into second place on Endicott’s all-time scoring list.
“I’m not big on tooting my own horn,” Walker said, “but it was a good feeling and probably one of my biggest accomplishments.”
Walker scored 19 points in Endicott’s 73-62 win over Southern Maine in the first game of the Salem State Holiday Classic and went over 1,500 career points. He entered Tuesday night’s game against Wentworth at 1,521 and well within reach of the program’s top spot, held by Eric Simonelli, who scored 1,677 career points.
One of the players Walker passed to move into second place was former Endicott star John Henault of Lunenburg. Henault finished his college career with 1,495 points. Walker and Henault, who played at St. Bernard’s, were former Central Mass. Conference foes, teammates for two years at Endicott and have remained good friends.
Henault called Walker after the Southern Maine game to tell him he moved past him on the all-time list.
“That’s how I first found out,” Walker said.
The 5-foot-11 Walker is averaging 18.1 points per game to lead the Gulls in scoring. He is one of six seniors on the team, and the group has helped Endicott to an 8-2 record under third-year coach Kevin Bettencourt, the former Bucknell star.
“We’ve played in the same system the last three years with the same coach, so I think our experience and our leadership have played a big role in our success this season,” Walker said, “and we’ve done a good job helping the young guys understand what’s going on and how we run things with our offense and defense.”
Walker’s career got off to a great start at SPM, and he was sad to leave his friends and teammates.
“I was there with close friends having a good time, and then I went to a completely new state where I knew not one single person, and I was going to be a junior in high school, which to me was like the biggest time of high school,” Walker said.
Basketball and the support and encouragement of his mom helped ease the transition.
“I had to adjust,” Walker said. “Once school and basketball started, I just took it like it was any other day, and it was fine. I had to get myself to mature and get over it. I met 12 new friends, my teammates, that I could talk to, and my mom helped me in that transition, too.”
Walker was the 2012 NHIAA Division 2 Player of the Year.
The year at Bridgton Academy helped Walker advance his basketball skills and continue his maturity, and prepared him for the rigors of college.
“That year was the biggest maturity process of my life,” he said.
In addition to starring for the Gulls, Walker has been flourishing in his sports management major and in the internships he has done as part of the program.
He helped with marketing for a former teammate’s start-up training company, worked with the public relations department of the Maine Red Claws, the Boston Celtics’ NBA D-League affiliate, and last semester served as sports director at a local YMCA.
“When I first started with sports management, I thought it would be about coaching or becoming an athletic director,” Walker said. “I learned a lot of different aspects, and I learned that I’m interested in the business side and bringing communities together through sports.”
Walker will graduate in May. He would like to play basketball professionally, but, it seems, has laid out some other career options as well through his internship opportunities.
Walker was Endicott’s 2015-16 Co-Male Athlete of the Year. He was the 2014-15 CCC Co-Player of the Year and a two-time first-team All-CCC selection. Last week, he was named co-MVP of the Salem State Holiday Classic.
“It’s going really, really well,” Walker said. “The class I’m a part of, we’ve accomplished a lot. The success I’ve had individually, it’s come from my teammates and, of course, my coach. Just as much as I get the praise for it, they should, too.”
Defense backs Hounds
The Assumption women’s basketball team started the 2016-17 season 1-3 with three straight losses before Thanksgiving break.
Those few days off could not have come at a better time for the Greyhounds.
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Assumption beat Queens, 67-59, and the victory started the Greyhounds on a seven-game winning streak, which they take into Wednesday’s game at AIC.
“After the slow start we went home and thought about where we were and where we wanted to be,” coach Kerry Phayre said, “and our players definitely came back with a different attitude. Our upperclassmen knew they had to step up in order for things to change, and things have changed. Our practices have been better, our intensity, our competitiveness.”
The Greyhounds are following a familiar formula by playing excellent defense. Assumption has the No. 1 scoring defense (57.3 ppg) in the Northeast-10 Conference. The Hounds are allowing just 53.5 points per game during their winning streak.
“We are playing with confidence,” Phayre said, “but we’re focusing on one day at a time. We have a tough stretch of road games coming up.”
Assumption plays five of its next six games away from Laska Gymnasium as it gets into the heart of its NE-10 schedule.
“It’s a battle every night,” Phayre said. “It’s not different than any other year. Every night is a battle, and we have to be ready for that.”
Weekday matinee
The Holy Cross women’s basketball team will host its sixth annual “Get Fit with the Crusaders Day” for Worcester Public School students Thursday at the Hart Center.
HC faces Patriot League foe Colgate at 11:15 a.m., and during the game there will be presentations by the HC strength and conditioning staff about the importance of nutrition and exercise.
HC coach Bill Gibbons said he will introduce members of the men’s hockey team during warmups, and they will also mingle with the students in attendance. Gibbons said he is expecting about 2,400 students to pack the Hart Center stands.
Their energy and enthusiasm may be just what the Crusaders (2-11, 0-2) need as they try to get their first league win of the year and snap a four-game losing streak. Gibbons was encouraged by his team’s play in the second half of Monday’s game at Navy. The Crusaders trailed by 15 in the third quarter and battled back before losing, 57-56.
“Hopefully we can get our first league win at the Hart Center and move forward,” Gibbons said. “We’re looking forward to it. It’s a great day, and it’s become a great tradition.”
HC rowing
The Holy Cross athletics department has restricted the women’s and men’s rowing teams from all team-related activities pending an investigation of emails sent by certain upper-class team members.
In a statement, the school said, “The College of the Holy Cross recently learned of emails sent by certain upper-class team members of the women’s and men’s rowing teams to other team members that appear to encourage conduct that would violate the College’s Community Standards and Code of Conduct, as well as using vulgar and inappropriate language.
“On the basis of the contents of these emails, the Athletics Department has restricted both the women’s and men’s rowing teams from all team-related activity pending a formal investigation by Student Affairs, which will begin immediately and is expected to be complete within the next few months.”
The rowing teams’ first scheduled competition for 2017 is at the end of March.
—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTandG.