“Emergers”: Breakouts From Jan 10-16

Keith Agran January 21, 2021 @ 04:42 PM

As football players get better integrated into their rosters and other faces step up for injured stars, we get more emerging prospects around the ATL-Metro. Dajuan Devonish, Junior, 5-11, CG, Etowah Loved seeing the Devonish I’d gotten in spurts over the summer for the Deep South Blue Devils, an explosive first step that had both Thornton and Carlyle reaching at air, a really nice soft touch on the jump shot and the kind of control that when he slows things down makes him a very effective scorer, add to that a defensive intensity in facing the 2 big Milton prospects and we saw the kind of complete performance from this gifted athlete that we hope to see more of, when on the floor with super-soph PG [player_tooltip player_id="1042849" first="Brandon" last="Rechsteiner"] they make for both an entertaining and also very productive pair. Cam Walker, 6-3, Junior, SF, Milton Certainly not an unknown commodity around town and in grassroots circles but Walker can easily be overshadowed by his highly ranked teammates, still his quiet and steady production is always notable as is the way he gets it down with an ease of effort that is driven not by any lack of said effort but by a solid skillset and package of talent, soft touch on the jumper and plenty of brute strength around the basket, superb passer and rebounder with high IQ across the board, quickly emerging as one of the true steals of the 2022 class but one who will continue to get big attention whether it be with the Eagles or as his crucial senior lead-in summer with TSF gets rolling. Brian Baylor, Junior, 5-11, PG, Centennial Joined the Knights after Christmas break, he’s given them another dimension off the bench at the guard spot with a downhill and aggressive scoring and ballhandling presence to accent the work of [player_tooltip player_id="869644" first="KJ" last="Spooney"] and exciting 2023 riser [player_tooltip player_id="873090" first="Mansir" last="Williamson"], showed a ton of confidence in the convincing win over River Ridge both with the ball in his hands getting to the rim or playing off of Spooney or Williamson, exceptional speed and athleticism gives the Knights another solid backcourt defender as well, an intriguing up and comer particularly next year when he steps out of the shadow cast by their trio of touted seniors. [player_tooltip player_id="820292" first="Jackson" last="Head"], Sophomore, 6-2, SF, River Ridge (13, pictured above) A top TE prospect on the gridiron, much was whispered about the athletic talents of Head during the summer season and bits of it were on display at the LakePoint Fall League, we saw much more of his game against Centennial as he appears to be getting his ball legs, powerful frame and good quickness are his allies as he drives it to the hole and makes his presence felt on the glass at both ends, can guard all the way up to the 5-spot with his movement and strength, a real working man’s forward who picked up a ton of slack with [player_tooltip player_id="870180" first="Grant" last="Portera"] out (ankle) and will be a huge factor augmenting big guys [player_tooltip player_id="870203" first="Braden" last="Pierce"] and [player_tooltip player_id="870150" first="Jared" last="Russo"] in RRHS’s postseason push. Jake Ruth, Junior, 6-1, SG, River Ridge Also stepping forward with Portera out and bigs Pierce and Russo having off nights was Ruth, again word on the street was a lot of talent especially at an early age but hadn’t seen it all come to fruition just yet, glimpses of that skill level and savvy were apparent against Centennial as he showed a really nice long-range shooting touch to go with heady on-court smarts and understanding, together with Head a much-needed depth contributor (along as well with talented soph guard [player_tooltip player_id="1049232" first="David" last="Hansraj"]) if the Knights are going to make a serious challenge at some of the perennial 6A powers come playoff time.