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Baseball may be Caden Scarborough's "better" sport, but he was a leader for the Harmony Longhorns' basketball team as it won a district championship this season for the first time in school history. PHOTO/KATIE WHITT WILLIAMS
Without question, Harmony coach Duke Leonardo had a deep boys basketball team in 202223. He stuck to a rotation all season of replacing his five starters with five new players and then substituting back to the original five. In short, the reserve five played almost equal minutes with the starters for the entire game.
The strategy worked well, as his two units were usually fresh and could give Leonardo maximum effort while they were on the floor. The end result was a team that took its first district championship in school history and won a school record 22 games.
But it also meant that the stats of no individual Longhorn player would jump off the page.
No Harmony player averaged in double figures. Only three times in the entire season did a Harmony player score 20 points in a game and that effort came from three different players. Still, the Longhorns dominated the 11-member Osceola News Gazette’s All-County Boys’ Basketball Team with three selections, including Player of the Year Caden Scarborough.
The 6-5, 200-pound center averaged 7.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 2.5 blocked shots per game in leading Harmony to a 22-6 record. Those numbers are impressive when you consider he was averaging around 18 minutes of play per game under the rotation system Leonardo employed.
“Our system was definitely different for high school basketball team,” Leonardo said. “We had depth, where our starting five and second five played almost equal minutes. That said, Caden had a great season for us. It just seems whenever we were in a tight game – and we were in a bunch of them – Caden would always seem to make that big shot, pull down the big rebound or make a big play on defense when we needed it the most.”
As for Scarborough, he said he was honored by the selection, but said it really belongs to his teammates.
“We had a great time this year and it was because we were a team,” Scarborough says. “No one really cared who got the credit, what we cared about was winning. It’s great being recognized, but frankly two or three other guys on our team would have been equally deserving.”
Scarborough, who is also a star shortstop and pitcher on the Longhorns’ OBC champion baseball team, says he loves basketball, but believes baseball is where he can play at the next level. “My future probably lies in baseball, but this past year in basketball was so much fun. I played with those guys for a long time and to have the type of season we did was such a rewarding experience.”
Those players included fellow Harmony seniors Rafael Balines and Miquel Tirado, who also are members of the Osceola News Gazette’s All-County Team. Both were also selected to the Orange Belt Conference first team by the coaches and Balines was their choice for OBC Player of the Year. He averaged 9.4 points per game and shot 36% from beyond the arc; while Tirardo averaged 9.2 points and almost three assists per game.
Gateway and Tohopekaliga each had two players on the Osceola News Gazette’s All-County Team: seniors Dimas Cervantes (11 points, 3 rebounds per game) and Aiden Lake (12 points, 7 rebounds); while the Tigers had a pair of seniors in Jevon Andrew-Brown (9 ppg, 7 rpg) and Eliel Salva (10 ppg, 7 rpg).
A total of nine seniors made the 11-member Osceola News Gazette’s All-County team, including Mitchell Starks (Celebration) and D.J. Hollingsworth (St. Cloud). Starks played point guard and averaged 12 points and six assists per game; while Hollingsworth led the county with a 13.3 pointsper- game average and also tacked on almost eight rebounds per game.
The only sophomore on the team was Osceola’s Alex Springs. A rising star, Springs moved up from the junior varsity team and led the Kowboys in scoring at 11 points per game and played a role in a 15-win season that included a win in the Orange Belt Conference Tournament. The final selection was Poinciana junior Hakeem Alvena, who averaged double digits in points (11) and rebounds (11) this season.
Leonardo, who was selected OBC Coach of the Year by his peers, is also the Osceola News Gazette’s selection for that award.
THE OSCEOLA NEWS GAZETTE’S
All-County Basketball Team
Caden Scarborough, 6-5, Sr., C, Harmony (Player of the Year)
Rafael Balines, 6-0, Sr., G, Harmony
Miguel Tirado, 6-0, Sr., G, Harmony
Aiden Lake, 6-5, Sr., F, Gateway
Dimas Cervantes, 6-0, Sr. G, Gateway
Alex Springs, 5-11, So, G, Osceola
Javon Andrew-Brown, 6-0, Sr., G, Tohopekaliga
Eliel Salva, 6-6, Sr., F, Tohopekaliga
Mitchell Starks, 6-0, Sr., G, Celebration
DJ Hollingsworth, 6-5, Sr., F, St. Cloud
Hakeem Alvena, 6-2, Jr., F, Poinciana
ONG Coach of the Year – Duke Leonardo, Harmony
