He’s friends with Drake? Mikey Williams puts Lake Norman Christian in national spotlight
Last weekend, N.C. high school basketball recruiting analyst Jamie Shaw drove four hours from Raleigh to Myrtle Beach to watch Lake Norman Christian play in a high school basketball showcase event.
A few years ago, Shaw covered the circus around Zion Williamson’s high school games. But what he saw in Myrtle Beach may have been a few steps above that.
It’s not everyday that a high school has a Zion-level star like Mikey Williams, who has 2.6 million Instagram followers and oftentimes, like last Saturday, literally needs an escort to get on and off the court.
“That was the most media for any game I’d ever been to,” said Shaw, who runs Absolute Basketball. “It was a ridiculous amount of media. Mikey couldn’t come out of the locker room because there were fans standing by the door. They had to sneak him out. The kid’s level of fame last Saturday even peaked Zion.
“I’d never seen anything like it before.”
Williamson became a household name due to his high-flying dunks and moves during his senior year at Spartanburg Day School. The 6-foot-3 Williams, however, is just getting his prep career started.
Lake Norman Christian (2-0) is ranked No. 4 in the Charlotte Observer/News & Observer statewide basketball rankings. The Storm will beat No. 3 Burlington School 91-79 Saturday at the Rock Hill Sports & Events Center. The game was streamed nationally and Williams didn’t disappoint.
He scored 40 points, showing off 3-point shooting ability, deep turnaround jump shots and a big one-handed pump jam.
Williams’ star began to grow in middle school, when he played summer ball with LeBron James’ son, Bronny, and even more last year when he scored 77 points as a freshman in a high school game. NBA players like James and Kevin Durant follow him on social media. Williams has worked with entertainers like Drake. MaxPreps, the national prep sports website, named him its national freshman of the year.
So when Williams — who didn’t want to risk missing this season due to COVID-19 restrictions out west — announced in September that he was moving from San Diego, CA to Charlotte, it caused a stir.
It also raised the profile of a school few people had ever heard of before.
‘Not too many NC teams scare me’
Lake Norman Christian is a small, K-12 private school in Huntersville, a short drive down Old Statesville Road from North Mecklenburg High, a large public school that won a N.C. 4A state championship last season.
Annual tuition ranges from $10,680 for kindergarten to $12,280 for high school.
The basketball team has a winning tradition, but has played against modest competition, often lower-level charter and private schools.
From 2014-18, for example, the Storm went 93-25. Last year, the first for coach Mason Padgett, Lake Norman Christian was 31-2 and won a state championship. One of the losses was a 90-50 defeat to Charlotte Country Day, a team that went 9-20 last season.
Padgett, 28, came to Lake Norman Christian from Cannon School, where Cougars’ head coach Che’ Roth said Padgett was the Cannon head middle school coach. Before that, Padgett was a student volunteer coach at Division II Catawba College, where he ran cross-country, and an assistant at Hickory High School.
Padgett and Lake Norman Christian headmaster Shane Ridgeway declined or ignored repeated interview requests from The Observer for this story, but Padgett told Phenom Hoops that when Ridgeway hired him, he asked Padgett to stay for at least five years. (Phenom is hosting its “November Classic” event that Lake Norman Christian is playing in Saturday).
Padgett made him that promise and began to build a team that he told Phenom Hoops he hopes could rival, albeit at a smaller level, what Greensboro Day’s Freddy Johnson has built: A consistently nationally ranked program that wins state title after state title.
Before Williams moved to Charlotte, Padgett had welcomed the type of talent that he thought would help him begin to build a power — guys like AJ Allenspach, a 6-8 forward who played at Hillcrest High in Simponville, S.C. last season; 6-8 Shane Fernald, who played at Hickory Ridge; and 7-footer Jonathan Kurtas, who played at SouthLake Christian.
That trio played in the Team Curry travel program last year and Padgett coached in the Pro Skills Basketball program, which is a part of the same organization.
“It’s just a better environment, a better basketball team, better coach,” Kurtas said of Lake Norman Christian. “I kind of knew about it and (Padgett) coached a PSB team and I saw him at tryouts and he talked my ear off about it. When I came over here ... I thought we had a powerhouse then. It’s just gotten better.”
Jonathan Fernald, Shane’s father, said the promise of face-to-face instruction during the pandemic was a big driver for his family.
“He was staying on pace with the virtual stuff (at Hickory Ridge),” Fernald said Friday, “but he’s more hands on and making a 4.2 (grade-point average) now.”
Jonathan Fernald said the national-level talent and national-level schedule has all been a bonus.
“(Padgett) told me he would play a better schedule than he would normally,” Fernald said, “but Mikey changed the game, which is great for all the kids. Shane loves it. I think the sky’s the limit if they jell and share the ball. I tell you this: There ain’t too many teams in North Carolina that scare me.”
North Lake Christian’s talent continues to grow
Once Williams committed, other players followed. Padgett told The Observer last month that he has nine Division I recruits, including Williams, a five-star combo guard who is already built like a college sophomore.
But there’s also 5-9 sophomore guard Trey Green, 6-7 senior A.J. Allenspach (who has committed to Army), Fernald, 6-9 Georgia transfer Joyful Hawkins, a top-130 national recruit in the junior class, Kurtas and 6-5 junior J.P Haggarty.
Riley Allenspach, a promising 6-9 sophomore, marveled at the talent before a preseason practice.
“It’s the best team I’ve ever played on,” he said. “If we all play together, we can be really good.”
Green, all-conference in one of the state’s best leagues as a freshman, would’ve been one of the best players on a Vance High team that would’ve been among the public school state championship favorites. He said concerns about playing a COVID-shortened 14-game regular-season schedule was a big factor in him transferring.
Lake Norman Christian played two nationally televised games, in Virginia and Arizona, before its season officially began. Padgett said the team’s ultimate goal this season is not just winning a state championship but making the GEICO national high school championship tournament in New York.
“At Vance,” Green said, “we were only going to play 14 conference games. We really weren’t going to go anywhere, do anything. So I saw a better opportunity here and I took the chance.”
Like Allenspach, Green — a top-10 in-state recruit in the class of 2023 — likes what he sees.
“We’ve got a lot of talent,” he said. “Really, the thing we’ve got to pick up on is coming together and playing as a unit, playing as one.”
Padgett told Phenom Hoops that his biggest job isn’t teaching how to dribble or pass with this group.
“Most guys at this level have been the best player on their team every year, averaged 20, 25 points, taken the most shots, played the most minutes,” he said. “Now, you come to a place where maybe I have to sacrifice some shots and pass it to a teammate. Maybe I don’t score the most points every night. Maybe I’m not the only guy getting highlight videos. There’s some sacrifices.”
And what about Mikey Williams?
He’s freakishly athletic. Fans crowd around the court to watch him warm up.
He averaged 29 points per game last season as a freshman in California and has already proven that his game, and flash, can travel. He had 24 points against national power Oak Hill earlier this month and he had 22 in the Storm’s home opening 101-49 win over Phoenix Montessori Tuesday. Williams was also named to the MaxPreps’ preseason All-American team this week.
In an Instagram live video with ESPN director of recruiting Paul Biancardi, Williams said he got his jumping ability from his father, Mahlon, who was a high school basketball star. His mother, Charisse, was a high school softball star who played at Hampton.
Williams told Biancardi he wants to be a marine biologist if he doesn’t make the NBA, and that he dunked for the first time the summer before his sixth grade year. And Williams spent part of his middle school years in Charlotte, where he has family.
When California announced that it would not play high school basketball until March, if at all, Williams said he began looking for somewhere he could definitely play his sophomore season. He said it came down to Texas and North Carolina.
And besides his prodigious athletic talent, Williams said he’s just like any other kid at Lake Norman Christian.
“I’m very laid back and a lot of people look at me and see the on-court stuff and think I’m real arrogant,” Williams told Biancardi. “But if you have a conversation with me or meet me in person, I’m real laid back. I’m real cool.
“I think (basketball) business is business, but off the court, I’m normal.”
Padgett did not allow Williams to speak to The Observer for this story, but his teammates described his play.
▪ Said Kurtas: “He’s quiet, but he’s just a normal dude. He passes well and he honestly is probably one of the best players I’ve played with.”
▪ Said Green: “He’s a cool guy. He’s not a ‘Hollywood’ guy. People think he’s, like, a cocky guy, but he’s laid back.”
Myrtle Beach and beyond
Jeff Schneider is the owner-operator of Big Shots Basketball, which hosts high school and travel tournaments year-round. He’s seen some of the nation’s best players at his events over the years.
He said he’s seen great teams like Lake Norman Christian before, but not many players like Mikey Williams.
“He’s a rock star,” Schneider said. “Zion had the same thing. He’s a rock star when he comes out. It’s just one person after another that wants a picture. He’s got a (security) guard with him. You’ve got to run him out a different door. He has a following, man.
“Zion became a rock star as a senior. How much bigger can (Williams) get?”
247Sports ranks Williams as the No. 1 player in North Carolina in the class of 2023 and the No. 1 combo guard nationally. He’s ranked No. 2 in his class behind DaJuan Wagner Jr., a 6-3 point guard whose father played for Kentucky coach John Calipari when Calipari was at Memphis.
Shaw has already been to four Lake Norman Christian exhibitions or games this season, and is starting to believe that Lake Norman Christian — and its star — could be really, really special this season.
“The hype about Mikey, for me, has always been bigger than his game,” Shaw said. “My hearing about him was always about his celebrity, doing collaborations with Drake and NBA players coming to his games. But he’s a good player. He’s got a lot of tools. He’s really strong, explosive. He can pass the ball. He’s got a lot of stuff to his game. And that team is good.
“It’s something to see.”
Phenom Hoops November Classic Schedule
(at Rock Hill Sports and Event Center)
Arena Court
Northwood Temple vs. Carmel Christian, 11 a.m.
Trinity Christian vs. Concord Academy, 12:30
Wesleyan Christian vs. Metrolina Christian, 2
Legion vs. Liberty Heights, 3:30
TLAP vs. Bull City National, 5
Combine Academy vs. Winston-Salem Christian, 7:30
Lake Norman Christian vs. The Burlington School, 9
Court 1
Bull City National vs. New Faith Christian, 11 a.m.
Moravian Prep National vs. TLAP, 12:30
Winston-Salem Christian Regional vs. Northside Christian, 2
Victory Christian vs. Northwood Temple, 3:30
United Faith vs. Providence Day, 5
WANT TO GO: a limited number of fans can attend for $15 for Session 1 (from 11 am to 6:30 p.m.) and $15 for session 2 (7-10:30 p.m.). Games will be streamed at this link.
▪ The gym will be cleared out after the first session Saturday. Only fans who purchased a pass for Session 2 will be allowed to re-enter. Fans must will out waivers and there is a mandatory face mask policy.
This story was originally published November 21, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
