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Trinity boys basketball coach Larry Kostelac stood outside the locker room at East Pennsboro High School. His team had just ended Holy Redeemer’s season in the PIAA Class 2A first round.
“That Washington kid got off in that first quarter,” Kostelac said. “My God, if he would have kept that up they would have beaten anybody in the state.”
That Washington kid was Darius Washington, who had done the same to Wyoming Valley Conference teams all season. So much so that the affable 6-foot senior guard was named the Times Leader Player of the Year.
Washington put up impressive numbers for Redeemer this season, only his second since transferring from GAR. He averaged 17.8 points in WVC play, leading the Royals in scoring once again. He pulled down nine rebounds per game to go with five assists and four steals per contest.
Numbers, though, didn’t define Washington’s existence on the court. He wanted the ball in tough situations, feeling prepared to succeed but also strong enough to accept the alternative.
“I feel to be the best you have to accept challenges and be ready to fail,” Washington said. “If you fail, you have to go right back at it. You have to keep fighting.”
Determination was a staple of Redeemer’s season. The Royals were 0-2 in Division III with the chances of unseating five-time divisional champion Meyers looking bleak. The team recovered somewhat with three wins, but then faced Division II frontrunner GAR.
Against his former teammates, Washington scored a game-high 19 points in a 60-47 victory. Two weeks later, he scored 24 in a 73-62 overtime win against Division II contender Hanover Area. And when a second crack at Meyers rolled around in the WVC finale, Washington finished 10 of 12 from the foul line with 15 points in a division-clinching 54-47 victory.
“Especially for him, it’s early and late,” Redeemer coach Paul Guido said. “Early in the game, he wants to get us off to a good start. And late in the game, he wants to try to seal the deal for us at the end. That comes from him having the confidence that he put the time in to take advantage of those opportunities and situations when they presented themselves.”
Opportunity knocked in 2013 when Washington received a chance to transfer from GAR to Redeemer. Although there was some grumbling about the move, truth is he was a product of the Catholic school system. Washington attended St. Nick’s/St. Mary’s — a Redeemer feeder school — from grade school through middle school. He attended GAR only as a freshman and sophomore.
Those two years, though, made heading to Redeemer difficult. Washington was an occasional starter at GAR as a sophomore. He would have likely started as a junior and relished the idea of playing alongside GAR standout Isaiah Francis. Plus a loss to Abington Heights in the District 2 Class 3A championship game gnawed at him.
“It was definitely tough, especially after the district championship where we lost to Abington Heights,” Washington said. “Not getting a chance to play with Isaiah or any of my old friends I grew up with playing.”
Redeemer, though, was a better fit and it had nothing to do with basketball. The regiment of a Catholic school, Washington believed, would be more beneficial in the long run. He aspires to be a physical therapist.
“Everybody around here was welcoming. Everybody helped me out,” Washington said. “They try to help me be where I want to be. I told them my vision of where I see myself in the future, and they’re helping me get to where I need to go.”
The next step in a few months is college and more basketball. Washington has drawn interest from mainly Division III college programs with some Division II programs sprinkled in.
His coach believes Washington is up to the next challenge.
“He’s done a lot of growth,” Guido said. “He put a lot of time in to make that growth. He’s made leaps and bounds with his game — physically, playing-wise, mentally with his preparation how to play with different styles.”