A recruiting journey that took Harlan County senior Trent Noah around the nation and brought several Division I basketball coaches to Harlan concluded Sunday with Noah’s announcement that he will continue his basketball/academic career at South Carolina.
Noah, an all-stater the past two years and a five-year starter for the Bears, had narrowed his college choices to South Carolina, Stanford, Seton Hall, Western, Richmond, Saint Louis, Dayton and Butler before picking the Gamecocks in a ceremony at the HCHS auditorium.
“It’s been an awesome experience,” said Noah, who added that he considered “fit, style of play and where I was needed” in making his college choice.
Harlan County coach Kyle Jones noted before Noah’s announcement that Noah would be the first player from the county since Harlan’s Charles Thomas in the 1994-95 season to sign with a Division I school when he picked Minnesota. Thomas went on to become the second Harlan County athlete to win Mr. Basketball honors.
The first Harlan Countian to be named Mr. Basketball, Cawood’s Phil Cox, was the last county athlete to sign with a Southeastern Conference school when he picked Vanderbilt in 1981 before going on to be a four-year starter and all-time leading scorer with the Commodores.
Noah will have the opportunity to play against some of the top programs in the nation, including Kentucky, at an SEC school.
“That definitely mattered,” Noah said. “I wanted to play at the highest level and play the best competition. That definitely factored into it, but I felt I couldn’t go wrong with South Carolina.”
Noah thanked family, friends, coach and teammates after announcing he would play at South Carolina, including his cousin, Noah, who died earlier this year. He noted she helped him when he first started playing basketball and was like “a second sister.”
Noah led the Bears to a 27-6 record and a 52nd District Tournament title last season while averaging 26.5 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. The Bears are the preseason favorite in the 13th Region with Noah and junior point guard Maddox Huff returning, along with junior center Jaycee Carter. Senior forward Caleb Johnson, junior guard Brody Napier and sophomore guard Reggie Cottrell are also expected to be key players. Noah said he wanted to have the decision behind him before official practice begins on Oct. 15.
“I definitely wanted to have it done before then so I could put it all behind me and focus on the high school season,”Noah said. “We have big hopes for this season.”
Jones called Noah a “rock star in the county who doesn’t realize it.” He noted how humble Noah was at school, especially with other students and said he “always knew Trent would be special.”
Noah is ranked fourth all-time in the county with 2,540 points scored and has a chance to pass Thomas, who scored 3,365 points in his career. Noah will become the third 13th Region player in the SEC with North Laurel’s Reed Sheppard at Kentucky and Corbin’s Andrew Taylor at Mississippi State.
Harlan County High School Principal Kathy Napier said Noah “was not only a great athlete but more importantly a fine young man.”
Eugene Farmer, the athletic director at HCHS, opened the program and noted that Noah “is a tremendous generational talent, but even at that is a much better person who says less and does more.”
Noah joins a South Carolina team that finished 11-21 last season and 4-14 in SEC play. Lamont Paris enters his second season as coach. Paris came to Carolina after five seasons as the head coach at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, coaching the Mocs to an 87-72 overall record (.547), including a 65-29 mark the last three seasons. Paris came to Chattanooga after seven seasons as an assistant coach at Wisconsin (2010-17). The Badgers averaged 27 wins per year during his tenure. Wisconsin won a school-record 36 games in 2014-15 finishing as the national runner-up a year after reaching the Final Four in 2014 and also reached four NCAA Sweet 16s.
story by John Henson
