Inside the Program: Duluth Wildcats 2018-2019

By: Kris Watkins  

Duluth High School’s Coach, Cabral Huff, has had a great deal of success during his time as a coach including winning a State Championship in 2014 at St. Francis while also coaching current NBA Players Kobi Simmons (Memphis Grizzlies) and Malik Beasley (Denver Nuggets).  Since his time arriving at Duluth Huff has had numerous players move on to the collegiate level and the Wildcats are coming off Back to Back Sweet 16 appearances in the State’s largest classification.  We took some time to talk to Coach Huff in regards to the upcoming season as well as recent NCAA Changes.

After spending time as a High School coach then going to college and now back to High School I would love to get your thoughts on the new NCAA Changes in July will affect a student athlete’s recruitment

“I think the new NCAA changes in July will affect the kids who aren’t considered elite as they won’t have the opportunities to get the exposure throughout the month of July that could be needed for colleges to pull the trigger. It creates a bigger dilemma amongst players, coaches, etc. to maximize opportunities for players to get the looks needed to help them reach their dream of ‘D-Free’. I can go back and remember so many players whom benefited from the 3 live periods in July which enabled them to reach their dream. This places much more emphasis on the month of June which many of us as high school coaches here in Georgia were all about; however, now it makes it much more important with what we do & where we go in June.”

You were a part of something pretty unique this summer with our guys over at GaHoopCircle with the summer explosion that took place at Duluth and how you have now transitioned into your preseason preparations?

“The GaHoopCircle Summer Explosion Series powered by SuvTV was definitely something that took off this summer. It was a brainchild of SuvTv, GaHoopCircle & I just adding more exposure to basically what I’ve always ran as a high school coach during June with playdates. Many teams already had been a part of those summer playdates. The addition of the camera and the ability to get high level competition in front of the camera created a boom so to speak as it benefited tons of players and programs around the state of Georgia as we had teams from all around the metro Atlanta area even as far as Augusta and a team from Florida take place in the event. The biggest thing I took from it was ‘competition”. What I mean by that is the games had a high level of competition as teams & players got after it. So after sitting back and observing that level of competition, I thought about what we could do to make teams do things differently versus us & how in our preparation & what we wanted to accomplish could we hit home on those aspects. So we as a staff went into the mindset of preparing our preseason as a war of attrition. That means every day you step into the weight room or on the track or in 4 to 1 workouts or in open gym; you had better bring your best. It’s the concept of ‘One percent better’: being one percent better than the day before knowing that competition breeds excellence. We will be a very deep team this year with many players able to take the helm and lead us as evident if you watched us this summer at the GaHoopCircle Summer Explosion Series. Therefore, our motto this season is ‘Organized Chaos: 12-6-3’.”

Coming off back to back Sweet 16 tournament runs expectations for your program this year are high.  Tell me about how you built your schedule for this season to make another deep state tournament run.

“As always, I build our schedule around making a run in the state tournament so I am very calculated with seeing different styles of play, atmospheres, etc. in choosing our opponents. This year is a little different as we lost 8 seniors (4 starters) so making sure we define roles early is key. We play in one of the toughest regions (Mt. View, Peachtree Ridge, North Gwinnett, Mill Creek, Collins Hill, Discovery) top to bottom in the state so I also have to keep that in mind. Our out of region schedule includes trips to South Gwinnett & Brookwood while we will host Dacula and Centennial. We will play Holy Innocents’ in the Hawks Naismith Tip Off Classic at Maynard Jackson, East Hall in the North Georgia Showcase at North Georgia College, Riverwood in the Gwinnett Daily Post Metro Atlanta Challenge at Lanier, Jackson & Westlake in the Big South Shootout at Duluth and Morgan County in the Sweet South Shootout at Morgan County. We also will play a game in the Warlodge Invitational Classic with our opponent to be determined as well as travel to Tallahassee, Florida after Thanksgiving for the Trojan Thanksgiving Invitational at Lincoln High School where we will face the host Trojans of Lincoln High School and Rickards High School. As always I am expecting our schedule to be a challenge, but a challenge that helps us as we enter the region tournament and state tournament.”

Players to watch:

  • 2019 6’7 Devin Evans (offer from USC Upstate & multiple interest from others)
  • 2019 6’2 G Jordan Blue (interest from many D2 schools)
  • 2019 6’0 G Jaylin Hickman (interest from many D2, NAIA schools)
  • 2019 6’2 G Hector Rosario (interest from many D2, NAIA & D3 schools)
  • 2019 6’6 F Jonathan Bell (interest from DI & D2 schools)
  • 2019 6’3 W KJ Peabody (interest from D2 & NAIA schools)
  • 2019 6’8 F Shalom Osoba
  • 2020 6’6 F Trent Gordon
  • 2020 5’10 G Jordan Johnson
  • 2021 5’10 G James Webster

What former Duluth Wildcats are currently playing in college?

Eric Hamilton 2014 Wichita State/UNCG

Zanyah Robinson 2014 Norfolk State/Northern Kentucky

Obinna Ofodile 2015 Citadel/Midland College

Jalen Hodges 2017 Wallace State

Lamont Smith 2018 Southern Wesleyan

Adam Flagler 2018 Presbyterian College

Bentley Grove 2018 Bluefield College

William Huzzie 2018 East Tennessee State (Football)

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