From walk-on to All-American.
That’s the path Northern Oklahoma College Maverick guard Demaree King made for himself.
“From walk-on to All-American, that is quite the story for a young man who has put in the work to get the opportunities he has earned,” NOC head coach Donnie Jackson said. “I couldn’t be happier and more excited for him.”
It was not an easy path, however.
King was a non-recruited high school player from Tulsa who attended Will Rogers High School.
“A former coach of mine is the assistant Athletic Director for Tulsa Public Schools and had coached at Rogers,” Jackson said. “He called in July (2017) and told me about Demaree. He said that Demaree was a player worth taking a chance on. I brought him in and showed him our campus. I think he liked what he saw but I had to tell him that I didn’t have any money (scholarship funds) available. If he wanted to come, it was going to be as a walk-on.”
King remembered that conversation.
“I had talked to coach (Jackson) during that summer,” King said. “He asked me if I wanted to come for a visit and I did. I liked the campus and all but coach said they had no scholarship money left so I would have to walk-on.”
“I thought about it and really didn’t have any options if I wanted to play,” King added. “I talked to my Mom and she said I needed to use my gift of basketball so I decided to come to NOC.”
The first couple months for King weren’t easy. Student-athletes have to adjust to college life and college athletics, not an easy transition for many.
King saw that he was going to be challenged in the classroom and on the court.
“I didn’t get into academics that much in high school,” he said. “So that was tough, and it was going to be tough to get on the court, there were a lot of good players on the team.”
Besides King, Jackson had recruited Omar Boone and Khobe Austin-Johnson so there was competition for King at the guard position. The Mavs also had heavily recruited Trevion Lamar on campus as well.
“It was tough,” King said. “I thought about quitting a few times, I just didn’t see anything working out for me at NOC. Being away from home was hard, I was really wanting to leave.”
Jackson said he feared King was going to quit.
“Before we left for ...
