Watkins scoring helps Chargers reach potential

Jordan Watkins sat on a chair in Providence Day’s Mosack Athletic Center after scoring 15 points in a 69-58 win against Walnut Grove Christian.

He said he doesn’t feel like he scores that much.

He’s averaged about 13 points in his three years on the Chargers’ varsity boys’ basketball team, but when he broke the 1,000-career-point mark earlier this month, he was surprised.

“I honestly didn’t know at all,” said Watkins, who turned 18 in December. “I didn’t think I had that many points. I haven’t felt like I’ve been scoring at all.

“It was an honor. It felt good knowing I’ve been here helping the team win. That’s what that meant to me.”

Watkins, a junior, is helping the team win a lot more this year. He’s the leading scorer on a Providence Day team that has started the season 15-3 – more wins than the Chargers had all last season.

Watkins started playing basketball at 6. He played football at Providence Day as an eighth-grader, but the pace of the game was too slow for him. He thought about baseball, but never signed up. He stuck with basketball and realized he had a knack for the game.

“I was pretty good at it from the start,” Watkins said. “My parents could tell I had potential. I just stayed with it.”

Watkins started as a freshman on Providence Day’s varsity team. Providence Day head coach Brian Field described him as a “skinny, young kid” who was mostly a spot-up shooter. Watkins averaged 9.4 points per game.

He improved during his sophomore year, earning all-conference honors while averaging 16.8 points and helping the team to a 13-17 record. The Chargers lost in the first round of the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association playoffs, 63-55 to Wesleyan Christian.

By the time this season started, Watkins had 10 Division I scholarship offers, according to Field. Soon after the season started, he committed to play at Davidson.

“That’s the team that really fits me,” said Watkins, who carries a 3.3 GPA. “I put a lot of thought into it. Like, if I didn’t have this school on my list, where would I go? And I couldn’t really think of a school right away.”

In three years with the Chargers, the 6-foot, 160-pound junior guard has developed from a one-dimensional shooter to a leader on the court. He is stronger and improved on defense.

Through 18 games this year, Watkins leads the team in scoring (17.2 points per game), assists (2.5 per game) and steals (3.4 per game). He also averages 3.9 rebounds a game, third-highest on the team.

“He’s one of the hardest-working kids I’ve ever been around, as far as basketball and school work is concerned,” said Field. “He really put in a lot of work over the last couple of summers – particularly this summer – to work on some of the things we asked him to improve on.”

Field said he felt his team started to play well at the end of last season. He hated to see the season end but knew he had the entire team returning and was encouraged by the way the players worked in the offseason.

“I was sad because I felt like we were just starting to reach our potential,” Field said. “The guys absolutely attacked the offseason. Every day they were in the weight room, they were in the gym.”

Senior guard Bryon Fields averages 14.1 points and junior forward Devin Mills averages 9.4 points and a team-high 5.2 rebounds. Those upperclassmen, with Watkins, are the leaders on a team with seven freshmen and sophomores.

Freshman forward Grant Williams (6-foot-5) is averaging 7.1 points and 4.8 rebounds, and 5-foot-8 sophomore guard Chaz Raye is averaging 5.6 points and 2.3 assists.

“We’re a young team, so having good role models like Devin, Jordan and Bryon, who work really hard, is good,” Field said.

Two of the Chargers’ three losses came to some of the state’s best teams: Sweet 16 No.1 and nationally-ranked Olympic; and Wesleyan Christian, the No. 3 team in the state according to MaxPreps.

“That helps us a lot,” Watkins said of playing teams like Olympic. “What they did is what we want to do. They run, they get up, they talk on defense, they bring energy to the court. That’s what we want to do to other teams: Run them and make them feel uncomfortable.”

Providence Day beat defending NCISAA 3A state champion Ravenscroft earlier this year.

Even though it was in a holiday tournament and didn’t count toward conference records, the Chargers beat Charlotte Christian by 10 points in December. Christian has won the CISAA title 11 of the last 12 years.

“That was a motivation booster, right there,” Watkins said. “We come back, we see them again, we won’t underestimate them. We (will) play them just as hard as we did before. That’s what we’ve got to do.”

Providence Day hasn’t won a conference championship in the seven years Field has been head coach. According to a sign right behind the basket in the Mosack Athletic Center gym, the Chargers haven’t won the CISAA since 2001.

Field played at Providence Day, graduating in 1994. He has coached at the school for 13 years. He knows the conference rivalries and wants to win as much as his players.

“I want us to compete,” Field said. “There’s a lot of personal rivalries that I have with those schools, too, and ultimately we want to achieve our potential and be one of the top teams in the city and in the state.”

A conference championship is Watkins’ main goal, and the Chargers will need his scoring to attain it.

“Everybody wants to win, everybody wants the conference championship,” Watkins said. “That’s what we’ve been driving for. That’s why our record is so good. That’s what we really want.”

This story went to print before Providence Day’s Jan. 11 game against Greensboro Day.