Jackson Jambalaya

The New York Times published a very entertaining story on three yewts who found their way to playing basketball for Jones Junior College after growing up in Brooklyn. Going from Brooklyn to Catfish Friday's in Jones County.  Read on.

It was quite a moment, especially considering that three of Ladner’s top players — Leroy Fludd, Bryce Jones and Thaddeus Hall — had never heard of Pearl River Community College until last summer. Or even Jones County, for that matter, which was understandable: All three are from Brooklyn.

“This,” Fludd said, “is the last place I thought I’d be at.”

They arrived here as freshmen in the fall, their mutual struggles with academics leaving them little choice but to delay their dreams of playing Division I basketball. At Jones County, they have excelled. The Bobcats are 20-5 ahead of their game Thursday against Southwest Mississippi Community College in the first round of the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Region 23 tournament in Clinton, Miss.

They are a team of outliers. No other program in Jones County’s 15-team conference — the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges — has even one player from New York, let alone three, though that could change. Ladner said he had heard from other coaches who were suddenly curious about how these young men wound up in Ellisville, of all places.

“I think people are starting to realize that, gosh, there are certainly more than three of these guys up there in New York,” he said. “We’ll go grab some of our own.”

Each team in the conference is allowed only three non-Mississippi players on its roster. Fludd, a rugged forward who goes by the nickname Truck, and Jones, the starting point guard, were teammates at Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where they helped the team to a state championship as seniors. Hall, a swingman from Coney Island, was a standout at Thomas Jefferson High School in East New York, Brooklyn. They have known one another for years....

“Back home, there’s so much noise,” said Vazquez, who is sitting out the season because he enrolled in January. “Here, there’s a whole bunch of nothing going on.”

He meant that in a good way. The pace of life can be languid. Ellisville (population: 4,448) has a laser tag establishment, whose importance to the players is difficult to overstate. Weekends often entail the 22-mile drive to Hattiesburg, which has a movie theater and several chain restaurants that the players frequent. They also hang with friends who play at Southern Mississippi.

Beyond that, though, there is little to distract them from basketball and schoolwork. Fludd considers Catfish Friday at the dining hall to be one of the highlights of his week..

Ladner typically speaks once or twice a week at civic clubs in nearby towns like Waynesboro and Laurel, and he said audience members were peppering him with the same question at the start of the season: What was the story with these kids from New York? Ladner quickly made it a habit to try to bring at least one of them along whenever he has an engagement.

“I guess I’m there,” Ladner said, “but everyone would rather talk to the players.”

Often, people simply want to know how they are getting along. Are they liking school? Are they enjoying themselves? Do they feel at home?

“I tell my guys, ‘As long as you treat people nicely, they will bend over backward to make your stay here warmer,’ ” Ladner said. “You can have the greatest two years of your life here.”....Rest of the article