Southeast’s Jerrick Harding sharpens focus headed into senior basketball season

Some lessons come with a price.

Last season, Southeast’s Jerrick Harding paid up.

The target of every team’s defensive gameplan from the moment the basketball season started, Harding took a physical pounding during a junior season in which he led the City League in scoring for the second straight season. Even worse, his team didn’t pick up a single win against the league’s top five teams and Southeast finished 9-13.

The end result is an uber-motivated, physically changed Harding, a 6-foot guard who averaged 24.8 points last season and 18.0 points as a sophomore.

“I’ve just been working hard over the summer, trying to improve my game and be the best I can headed into my senior season,” Harding said. “I want to go out as good as I can. Last season was pretty tough, but through all the adversity we went through I think we’ve grown as a team. We’re hungry to get some wins.”

Last season’s struggles underscored a point that Harding’s father, Eric, and Southeast coach Melvin Herring had been trying to make to Harding for years – he needed to get stronger. Harding put on 10 pounds of muscle in the offseason – “Lots of pushups,” he said – and thinks the results will end up on the court.

“That’s been from Day 1, from his freshman year to now and knowing he was a little thinner and needed to put on some weight,” Herring said. “But one thing about Jerrick is I’ve never questioned that hunger, that desire to be great. That’s because he sees a bright future for himself, in basketball and with gettting his education.”

The first week of practice, Harding walks into Herring’s office and the difference is noticeable even under a lightweight hoodie. For the first time, he looks like he has some bulk.

“My dad and Coach Herring have been preaching to me about putting on muscle for awhile,” Harding said. “Telling me they don’t coach me for high school, they coach me for the next level. I need to be ready. I think things will be a little easier when I’m taking the ball to the basket, and on the defensive end I think it’ll help me a lot.”

And that’s the biggest thing hanging over Harding’s head this season — colleges have taken a “wait-and-see” approach with Harding after Southeast’s struggles last season. Primarily a shooting guard so far in his career, he’ll have to show he can handle playing both backcourt spots with ease to get a shot at the Division I level.

And he’ll have to win some more games.

“Everything he’s done, he’s earned, nothing has been catered to him, no one has coddled him,” Herring said. “Every basket, he’s earned it the hard way. He’s hurt his body, he’s put himself on the line. He’s a true competitor.”

And the lessons don’t stop. In Herring’s office, Harding talked about watching basketball with his father, and that he’s starting to get him to come around to the Golden State Warriors and Harding’s favorite player, Steph Curry.

But still.…

“My dad likes to predict the games, which usually leads to a big argument, and he likes to talk about the old players,” Harding said, smiling. “He likes to talk about how the game used to be, how it used to be a lot rougher and he liked that better.

“He says the game is soft now. He likes Kobe, but he’s warming up to Steph Curry.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Southeast’s Jerrick Harding sharpens focus headed into senior basketball season."