By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers pride themselves on rock solid defense, so it’s only fitting that one of the team’s seniors was a lockdown stopper.
Forward Darian Thuku ends the season as the Metro-area defensive player of the year. Thuku won this season’s District 32-6A’s defensive player of the year award as well.
“It feels great. (Defense) is something I worked on a lot,” Thuku said. “I enjoy playing defense. It’s great knowing I stood out of all the players because there are some good defenders in the district and it feels good to stand out among the best.”
The Chargers (29-8, 10-4) made the switch to a man-to-man defense during the offseason and it paid off with the school’s best season to date, ending the year with the Metro-area’s highest win total and a second-place finish in district.
Brownsville Veterans held opposing teams to 49.5 points per game. Thuku shined as the team’s defensive ace on his way to being recognized for his defensive prowess by the district. He also co-led Brownsville Veterans with 1.6 steals a game and grabbed 5.5 rebounds a game.
He made it a point to turn heads for his defending skills, and wanted to end the season as the district’s best.
“That’s what I wanted (to be the best at defense),” Thuku said. “Since the beginning, I told myself that I want to stand out as the best in the district at defense because that’s what I enjoy doing the most. I worked hard and I’m glad I got it.”
Thuku constantly served as Brownsville Veterans’ clutch defender. His nightly assignment was to guard the other team’s best player, which often had him lined up against guards and post players.
“It feels good because he deserves it,” Brownsville Veterans coach Larry Gibson said. “He worked for it. It wasn’t given to him. No matter who we played, we always put him on the other team’s best player. It could be a point guard, like when we played (Sharyland) Pioneer, they had Jordan Wilson their point guard and we put (Thuku) on him. Harlingen South, they have Luke Bradford. He’s a big man and we put (Thuku) on him. When we played Harlingen, we put him on their best scorer.
“Whoever we played, we put (Thuku) on them. They might beat him sometimes, but I feel like he won more often than he lost.”
Joshua McKinney covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @joshuabvherald.