Mastery's Plowden to play next at Bowling Green
On a dreary, rain-soaked Wednesday afternoon, a light shone brightly inside the dimly lit gymnasium on Mastery North's Wayne Avenue campus in Germantown.
On a dreary, rain-soaked Wednesday afternoon, a light shone brightly inside the dimly lit gymnasium on Mastery North's Wayne Avenue campus in Germantown.
In front of proud family members, friends, teammates and teachers, Daeqwon Plowden, whose foray into basketball began inauspiciously, signed his National Letter of Intent to play college basketball at Bowling Green.
"It feels amazing to know that you're going to the next level," said Plowden , flashing a trillion-watt smile. "It's overwhelming."
Perhaps similar nerves nearly caused the 6-foot-4 forward to shoot at his own basket during an eighth grade basketball game at Mastery. Fortunately for Plowden, he missed the shot.
When varsity tryouts began the following year, he almost missed again.
"He played [junior varsity] by accident," said coach Terrance "Nip" Cook.
Plowden, whose recruitment didn't pick up steam until late in his junior season, was tardy to varsity tryouts as a freshman and thought he missed his opportunity.
Players were on the court when he arrived, but the coaching staff was in the locker room preparing the next phase of the tryout.
"I walked in, and I saw everybody already working, and I thought, 'Ah, man, this probably already hurt my shot,' " he said.
So he turned around and walked out.
Later, he tried out for the junior varsity team, and he played until his skills on the court quickly earned him another varsity chance.
"When I saw him play on the JV team," Cook said, "I was like, 'Nah, no more JV for you, kid!' "
Now, Plowden is an athletic, intelligent and tenacious basketball player capable of hitting three-pointers on the wing, blocking shots in the paint and finishing dunks above the rim.
Last season, he led the Pumas to a runner-up finish in the PIAA Class 2A finale at the Giant Center in Hershey.
His stock continued to rise last summer while playing AAU basketball for Team Philly.
Bowling Green, which is in Ohio, Central Connecticut State, Stoney Brook and NJIT became his main suitors.
"For me to be one of the first in my family to make it to this point is a huge step," Plowden said. "It's exciting. It's just everything that I would have hoped and dreamed for."
On Wednesday, several teachers commented that Plowden has been a student that they hope and dream for. One female teacher addressed the room and said she hoped her eight-year-old son grew up to be a young black man of Plowden's caliber while his parents, Derek Plowden and Margaret Gilliam, looked on with pride.
And with the Bowling Green campus only about 530 miles away from Philadelphia, whether the vehicle has wings or wheels, Plowden's mother will never be too far away.
"I didn't want him to feel as though he had to stay in Philadelphia," Gilliam said. "This is a beautiful opportunity for him to progress and grow. And if that meant for Daeqwon to go half way around the world, there's no plane or no bus that can't take me where I need to go."
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