MUSKEGON TWP. - Reeths-Puffer's Drew Brooks is exactly the type of player that every opponent dreads.
He's assigned to guard the other teams' ball-handlers, play tough in-your-face defense, and annoy them to the point where they cough up the ball or make a bad pass.
R-P head coach JR Wallace says Brooks plays that role very well.
"He makes it hard for the ball-handler before half court," Wallace said. "He gets them out of rhythm offensively. He gets under the skin of the ball-handler."
That type of play is a perfect fit for Brooks' very intense mentality and approach to the game.
R-P's Drew Brooks
"I'm just like, 'I got you, I am above you right now," Brooks said, explaining his approach to defense. "I am going to get a steal. I am going to block you out. I am going to get into your head. I just go a full 110 percent all the time."
Brooks has spent years developing his skills and waiting for the chance to play a valuable role on the R-P varsity basketball team.
He spent a season on the freshman squad, and a year on junior varsity, before joining the varsity full-time as a junior.
He was a reserve last season, backing up All-State guard Jaxson Whitaker, then finally became a starter this year.
He has been a big contributor to the Rockets' attack, bringing a ton of emotional intensity and doing a lot of things right.
Brooks gets instructions from R-P head coach JR Wallace.
In a recent victory over Jenison, Brooks totaled 11 points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Those numbers pretty much describe his value to the Rockets, and explain why Coach Wallace would love to have another year with him.
But of course Brooks is a senior, and his organized basketball career will come to an end sometime in the next few weeks.
The Rockets will host Muskegon on Friday night in their last regular season game. That will be Senior Night, when the team will honor Brooks and classmates Braydon Mitchelson, Elliot Schneider, Kamarion Davis and R'iontae Robinson for their contributions to the program.
The Rockets will then play a good Greenville squad on Monday in their Division 1 district tournament opener. That game will be at home too, because R-P is hosting the tournament this year.
R-P will have to beat Greenville to keep its season alive. A loss at any point in the tournament will bring down the curtain in the 2024-25 campaign.
Brooks dips past a defender on his way to the basket.
For a player like Brooks, who lives for the next opportunity to compete and win, the idea of having his basketball career come to an end seems kind of odd.
He has been playing since the second or third grade, and got close to the R-P high school program when his brother Logan, a 2022 graduate, was on the team.
He experienced the thrill of being part of last season's O-K Green conference championship team, and learned what it was like to be a starter and leader on this year's squad.
When you ask Brooks about the end approaching, it's clear he's still very much in compete mode, and hasn't given it much thought.
"It's surreal," Brooks said. "It's gone by way too fast. It's going to be weird waking up and not thinking about going to the gym to get some shots in, or going to practice. We're just going to have to stretch the season out as long as we possibly can."
Taking the intensity with him
Brooks has had a positive impact on the Rockets in a lot of ways this season.
He was a big scorer as a freshman and JV player, but has adjusted very well to the more defensive role that he was assigned this season.
He still has a nice outside shot and contributes some big buckets here and there. He also gets his share of rebounds for a smaller player, mostly due to effort and determination.
Wallace turns to Brooks to inbound the ball, a difficult task that can turn disastrous if not done correctly.
Brooks has also become the verbal and emotional leader of the team. The Rockets' two big scorers, Mitchelson and Marvin Moore, are very good players, but have more reserved personalities, so Brooks has been the spark plug.
Brooks scrambles to regain his balance and get to a loose ball.
"He's definitely a rah-rah guy," Wallace said. "He's a leader. He's always going to be the first one to speak up, which this team needs."
Wallace said Brooks has become more valuable because he reacts well to his intense style of coaching.
"He accepts the challenge of my coaching," he said. "I tend to scream and yell a lot, and Drew absorbs it and gets better for it.
"During games, I end up saying his name a lot. When I need something on offense, I yell to Marvin (Moore), and when I need something on defense, I yell to Drew. He's able to take that from the bench into the game."
Brooks said he's been getting yelled at since he played youth leagues, so he's used to it.
Brooks launches a shot.
"My dad was my coach in football for years, and he yelled at me a lot," he said. "That made me more coachable in high school."
Brooks still has a season of varsity baseball to look forward to this spring, but after that he has no plan to pursue organized sports in college..
He was recently accepted as a student to Michigan State University, and his early thought is to study mechanical engineering.
While there may be no more games in his future, Brooks says he will take the same mentality that he developed in basketball into whatever he ends up doing in life.
"I am going to keep the same intensity," he said. "It's kind of a pride thing for me. I take pride in doing the best I can, and that's in anything that I do."