6 a.m. practices and love of basketball carried Livingston Christian boys to regionals
PETERSBURG — Every new coach talks about culture change, but what does that abstract concept look like?
For Livingston Christian boys basketball players, it meant being in the gym at 6 a.m. during the summer and even before school during the season.
For the Falcons’ first-year coach, Jeremy Harrison, it meant instilling a love of the game that made his players enjoy working harder than they ever had in previous seasons.
Culture change translated into Livingston Christian’s first district championship since 2014, as well as a league title.
The Falcons’ playoff run ended Tuesday night with a 55-39 loss to Detroit Douglass in a Division 4 regional semifinal at Petersburg Summerfield, but players left the gym believing this wasn’t an ending.
It was only the beginning.
“We hadn’t done this in 10 years,” senior center Jacob Martin said. “This was fun to do. Hopefully, we continue this legacy next year, hang some more banners, get some more trophies next year and just keep going.”
Martin said the bulk of his high school career was “losing a lot,” adding, “Getting a new coach changed everything, changed the whole dynamic in the basketball program and I think we’re going to continue it.”
The night after the Falcons won a district championship, senior Caleb Nixon had players over his house to reflect on their accomplishment and encourage his teammates to keep pushing further.
“One thing we talked about was the culture we created,” Nixon said. “When I got here as a freshman, I didn’t play varsity much, but sophomore year we didn’t have any culture. I felt everybody wanted to just play for fun, didn’t really show up and work hard.
“This year, it was different. I wanted to set an example as a leader. I talked to all my senior guys before we got here and just said, ‘This is our year. We’ve got to leave a legacy, leave an imprint.’ I feel like we did.”
Nixon said the team’s perspective began to change during early-morning practices over the summer, a habit the players continued into the school year.
“We didn’t really know how good we were going to be this year,” Nixon said. “When we practiced, we were like, ‘We could win this. We could be good.’ Then just texting every morning, ‘Let’s go early.’ We’d wake up at 5:30, get in at 6 and just play for an hour and a half before school, take showers and just come out and prove everything we can and give it everything we can because it was our last year.”
Harrison’s enthusiasm for basketball was infectious with his players.
“I love the game,” Harrison said. “I think they felt the love of the game, because I’m talking about the game nonstop and also making it fun. I really believe in making practices as fun as possible, as competitive as possible and making them love the game.
“I really felt they did love the game all the way through. That’s our culture going forward. We love basketball at this school. We want to be on the team and when you’re here, you’re going to work your butt off.”
The Falcons, who represent a school with only 66 students, knew they were in for a tough challenge against a Douglass team that faces Division 1, 2 and 3 competition while playing in the Detroit Public School League.
Livingston Christian jumped out to an 8-0 lead, with Nixon hitting back-to-back 3-pointers, and led 16-14 after one quarter. Douglass never looked back after scoring the first 11 points of the second quarter.
The Falcons trailed 27-20 at halftime and 40-26 after three quarters.
“We haven’t faced a tough man-to-man,” said Nixon, who hit five 3-pointers to finish with 15 points. “It isn’t anything on the coach; he prepared us perfectly. We came in knowing what we had to do. We just tried to execute, but it didn’t go our way. We ended up winning two banners. I’m happy with the way it ended. I just wish we could have kept going.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Livingston Christian falls to Detroit Douglass in basketball regionals
