Hammond Central’s Marcus Browder knew the challenge awaiting him this season.
The junior guard was ready for it.
“I just looked at it as knowing that I had to do more,” Browder said. “We’d lost a lot of our key players, and I was willing to take on that burden.”
Hammond Central needed a new leader and appears to have found one in the 6-foot-2 Browder, who is averaging a team-high 19.9 points.
Browder was more of a role player last season, when he averaged 7.8 points as the Wolves went 26-2 and made the first semistate appearance by a public high school in Hammond since 1954. Jordan Woods, who plays football at Eastern Illinois, was that team’s leader.
Browder has emerged for the Wolves (5-6) this season, playing with a newfound level of confidence as the points pile up.
“It’s just playing at my pace,” he said. “That’s helped a lot, and I’m taking the shots that I feel are best for me. If I don’t take the shots, then they’re not going to fall. Putting that faith in myself translates over to the court.”
First-year coach Jermaine Boyette, a 1998 Hammond graduate who was an assistant for several seasons after a playing career that included a decade of professional basketball, believed from the beginning that Browder was going to be a key part of the team.
“Coming into this season, there were a couple of guys — him in particular — that were going to have to step up and build this team,” Boyette said.
Browder was a freshman when Boyette first saw him play, and Boyette immediately thought a future star had arrived in the program.
“When you see a special kid, you keep your eye on them, to make sure they’re getting the proper training and the things they need to get better as they move along,” Boyette said. “A lot of people were saying that this guy could be pretty good.”
With a slew of veteran players ahead of Browder, however, Boyette preached patience — until a conversation they had at the end of last school year.
“Last year, we had a bunch of other guys on the team, and he couldn’t really get the time he wanted to show he was ready to play a lot of minutes,” Boyette said. “This is where that transition comes, when you have to improve to be a better leader. You wanted to shine? This is your time.”
For Browder, that transition didn’t mean only scoring more points. Senior forward Quentez Jenkins said he has noticed Browder embracing the role of being a team leader despite being a junior.
“He’s become more humble and more unselfish this season,” Jenkins said. “He’s tried to get his teammates more involved too.”
Browder’s new demeanor goes back to conversations he had with Woods during their time as teammates.
“He told me that everybody can’t be the star player,” Browder said. “But everybody can play their role to the best of their abilities. That’s stuck with me a lot. It’s still a team sport at the end of the day. I have to lift up the others around me as well.”
Browder is still working on elevating his game, too, saying he isn’t fully satisfied with his performance in the first half of the season despite the improved numbers.
“I’ve played OK, but there’s a lot I can work on to play better,” he said. “There’s always room for improvement. I’m still learning.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
