As fate would have it, Manual Cass and Marcus Relphorde crossed paths recently on the Madison Square Garden court, two wandering yet kindred spirits searching for their niche in the high school basketball spectrum.
Two years ago Cass was a 6-foot-6-inch Carbondale junior with a world of promise, squaring off against a junior phenom named Jon Scheyer in the Class AA title game won by Glenbrook North.
That same season, the 6-7 Relphorde was the sixth man on a Homewood-Flossmoor team–led by high school All-American and Mr. Basketball winner Julian Wright–that fell to Thornton in the supersectionals.
Not long after Cass had made an oral commitment to DePaul, he transferred to Boys To Men Academy to be closer to his future college home.
The unexpected departure wounded an entire basketball community that had welcomed Cass after he had left his mother, Sabrina Hughes, in San Diego and arrived in southern Illinois at age 13 to live with his grandmother, Doris Howard-Mitchell.
“My mom didn’t mind,” said Cass, whose parents had divorced when he was an infant, with his mother later getting remarried.
“She said that whatever I needed to do was OK with her. I just loved being around my grandmother.”
After one semester at Boys To Men, Cass transferred to South Kent (Conn.) Prep school, withdrew his promise to the Blue Demons and committed to Texas-El Paso.
“The Carbondale people thought I didn’t want to play with their team, but I just wanted to better myself,” Cass said. “I didn’t want them to hold me back.”
He was speaking after having scored 12 points (3 of 4 from three-point land) in South Kent’s 110-91 loss to Relphorde’s American Christian Academy (Aston, Pa.) at the same Nike event at which Simeon lost to nationally rated Rice.
“My grandmother died on Aug. 19, 2005,” Cass continued, “and I had this feeling that I couldn’t be there any longer. I couldn’t stand not having her as part of my life.
“I went to Boys To Men looking for a better atmosphere and hoping to improve my perimeter game. I stayed in a dormitory and had never seen anything like Chicago. At the time I felt it was a good move for me. I wasn’t just a back-to-the-basket player like at Carbondale.”
It was in the Second City that Cass befriended Relphorde, whose circuitous route had taken him from H-F to a military academy near Lexington, Ky., then to Hales Franciscan (where he was ruled ineligible by the IHSA) and onto Boys To Men for a semester before finally landing at American Christian.
“We played together for one semester, and Marcus is one of my best friends now,” said Cass after they guarded one another briefly at the Garden.
That friendship and the tutelage of Boys To Men coach Loren Jackson wasn’t enough for Cass to make Chicago his newest home.
“I found out Chicago was too big for me,” Cass said. “I just didn’t feel comfortable in a big-city area.
“It was an even bigger change to come to South Kent. But I can really focus on school and basketball. This has been helping me get ready for the next level. There was no going back to Carbondale because according to IHSA rules, I would’ve been ineligible.”
According to Carbondale athletic director Rick Moss, a lack of guidance was responsible for Cass turning away from Carbondale, and the death of his grandmother didn’t help the situation.
“Manual has a lot of good in him, but he just didn’t listen to the right people,” Moss said. “Anytime you have a star, he attracts what I refer to as star-watchers.
“Manual was listening to people 21, 22 years old who were looking to use him instead of the people who really cared about him–like the parents of (Carbondale player) Lakean Bryant. Those folks did everything they could and practically raised him. That was the sad part.”
Carbondale AAU summer basketball coaches Aaron Lee and Charles Jones helped guide Cass to South Kent.
“No matter what, you just don’t throw the kid away,” Moss said.
Relphorde has made the adjustment at American Christian, where the absence of distractions has him focusing on his academics and basketball.
“But I really miss Chicago,” said Relphorde, whose family lives in Homewood.
“That’s why my favorite two college choices are Wisconsin and St. Louis. I miss my family, and I’m ready to come back to the Midwest.”
Starting on a high-profile team that features the nation’s top-rated junior, Tyreke Evans, Relphorde has attracted scholarship offers from St. John’s, Temple, St. Joseph’s, La Salle and Fordham along with St. Louis. Wisconsin and North Carolina State are also quite interested.
“Coming here has really expanded my game,” Relphorde said. “Every day in practice I’m going against Division I players. And the schedule we play gives me a chance to face some of the best players in the country.”
Cass’ cross-country odyssey from California to Connecticut has taught him a lot.
“I’ve learned you can’t go back,” he said. “Once you make a decision, it affects you the rest of your life. Make sure it’s the right decision for you. I’ve had to learn to be on my own, and I think I’ve done all right.”
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bsakamoto@tribune.com
