On Target – Emmett Cook In the Spotlight

Jonas Emilsson
www.KramMag.com

Sit down and have a chat with Emmett Cook and it’s easy to tell the kid has nothing but basketball on his mind.

The 6′5″ grade-11 guard lives and breathes the game, which becomes even more evident when he steps on the court to represent the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs senior boys basketball team.

As a grade-11 athlete he certainly doesn’t look out of place on the court competing against stronger and more experienced players, and the truth is, he fit right in last season when he played a big role for the senior team as a grade-10 student, which is extremely uncommon in any high school league across the country.

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This year, the born and raised Calgarian is averaging close to 20 PPG and 10 RPG. His game-high this season was a 27-point outburst against the Father Lacombe Lasers.

“We took Emmett as a grade-10 last year and it was one of those situations that we knew he had fantastic athleticism, I mean that boy can fly, but we challenged him to become a shooter, and he worked hard,” said Bulldogs’ head coach Morgan Tudor.

By the time he plays his true senior season next year the strength and experience will be on par with his peers, which is a scary thought for the competition.

The repertoire in his toolbox as a grade-11 player is nothing short of impressive, and under the tutelage of Tudor and former Dinos post player Chris Wright the tools will be finely sharpened and perfectly calibrated to prepare him for whichever post secondary route he decides the pursue.

“He’s a 60% shooter from behind the line and it was simply because of the hard work he put in,” said Tudor. “He has the athleticism, he has the shooting, he’s getting close to putting it all together and he’ll be playing post-secondary somewhere.”

His outstanding touch from long range has been an effective weapon for him for a long time, and he has recently learned to take advantage of his lightning-quick first step which has allowed him to blow by defenders when they respect his shot too much. His finishing still needs some work, but the good news is that his coaches know it, and more importantly, Cook knows it.

“He has a great first step and right now Coach Wright is working with him to finish strong at the hoop,” said Tudor. “He beats his guys easy because people have to respect his shot, and he goes the rim hard but he finishes a bit soft. So now we’re asking him to finish that thing hard. If he gets that I’m not sure how you stop him.”

Thanks to an explosive 35-inch vertical jump, Cook is primed to be known as a player that finishes in spectacular fashion. The aggressiveness was evident in last week’s Kram Game of the Week when the Bulldogs squared off against the Notre Dame Pride. On more than one occasion Cook used his quickness to blow past a defender, and on one occasion he narrowly missed throwing down a thunderous dunk in traffic.

“I’m an athletic 3-guard, I’m a shooter and when I get the chance I attack the rim,” said Cook when asked to describe himself as a player. “If I can get that first step, or initiate the pump fake and the jab, guys go past me and I’m attacking and trying to dunk it. I look for it all the time. If I get the chance I’m going for it. It’s exciting for me and it gets our players pumped up and gets us all excited. And it looks good.”

Cook credits the opportunity he was given to play at the senior level in his grade-10 year for giving him an edge on the competition and bringing in a certain level of confidence this season. And it’s not like he rode the pine last year, he was actually given significant minutes on a Bulldogs team that knew they weren’t quite on par with some of the other powerhouse teams in the league.

“I thought it was a huge advantage because when I was in grade-10, and I got to play quite a few minutes last year, with other players that were bigger and stronger and me I already know what I have to do for me to help the team and what I have to do to stop them,” said Cook. “Coming in now, it’s a huge confidence boost because those guys that were in grade-12 are now gone and the guys that were in grade-11 are were about the same as me. It’s a big confidence boost and I feel like I fit in completely.”

The other valuable thing that came from his experiences last season is that he’s able to pass on some wisdom to his teammate Adonis Monfort-Palomino, who is also skipping his junior year of basketball and plying his trade on the senior team.

Conveniently, the two ballers are best friend, and have been for a long time, so they have plenty of opportunities to share knowledge and dream about what they will accomplish together in the future.

“Me and him have been really good buddies for a long time and I see him every day,” said Cook. “We’ve been best friends since we were little and he’s really enjoying the experience as a grade-10 as well. We’re always talking about what we want to do. We both want to go down to the States and get Div. I scholarships.”

Based on what both players have demonstrated so far this season, the sky is the limit for how far they’ll go together.

Kram 5 with Emmett Cook

What is your favourite NBA team? Memphis Grizzlies
Who is your favourite NBA player? Kevin Durant
What is your favourite movie? Coach Carter
What is your favourite pre-game meal? Pasta
What are your sneakers of choice? Lebron 9

For more action photos from this game click HERE.