In 1968, the NCAA allowed freshman eligibility in all sports, except football and basketball. This rule was later extended to those sports effective with the 1972 academic year. At any level for a team sport, making an impact as a freshman or rookie is difficult.
Last season, Moreau Catholic's Damari Milstead started from day one as a freshman as his Mariners went 27-7 while he averaged 15.5 points, 3.4 assists, and 3.3 steals. The point guard upped his scoring in the postseason as he averaged 18.8 points in the seven games. As a result, the Mariners were able to win their first North Coast Section and Northern California championships, and advance to the school's first ever state championship game.
Moreau Catholic Coach Frank Knight says about Milstead's abilities, "Damari's strengths are his ability to get to the basket at will. He is awkward for a defender to guard. He drives left better than he does right, but can finish with both hands at the rim. He is crafty with his moves so for many defenders at the high school level, it is just too hard to figure one way to deal with him. He makes great decisions with the ball so many times he can beat his defender off the dribble and then force the other team to help which creates many open looks for our perimeter players. He is a coach's son so he has a high basketball IQ, he seems to know where to be on the court, in the right place at the right time and he knows how to use his body to get contact from defenders."
Milstead started playing club basketball in the 3rd grade with the Oakland Rebels. For the past two summers, the right-handed prospect has been playing up with the Oakland Soldiers 15U team as an incoming freshman and he was playing for the Oakland Soldiers 16U team after his freshman year. He will be on the top Oakland Soldiers 17U club next spring as a young sophomore (September 1999 birth month/year).
Milstead has good genes and family support for his basketball goals as his father, Jules, is an assistant coach for Moreau Catholic and is also a Director for the Oakland Soldiers. The elder Milstead prepped as a forward at St Joseph Alameda and Fremont Oakland. He had multiple scholarship offers and was set to join the Washington Huskies but did not qualify academically as he would go on to Diablo Valley Junior College before finishing his collegiate career at Western State in Colorado.
Coach Knight assesses why his point guard is a high level college recruit, "Damari is a warrior on the floor. He wants to show that he is the best player on the floor. We usually get his best performances when he is up against other high rated guards. He takes it as a personal challenge and wants to see where he measures up. He is soft spoken but leads by example, when a guy plays that hard it's tough not to play just as hard and that starts to spread throughout the team. I think he is a high major player and will potentially have an opportunity to make money playing a game he loves. If his improvement curve continues working on his shot and point guard skills along with weight training, it will be the sky's limit for this young man."
Being productive during his freshman year and playing for a high profile summer team has garnered college offers from Cal, Hawaii, Loyola Marymount, Montana, and New Mexico State while Stanford, Texas A&M, and USC have solid interest. He wants the college style of play to be up tempo but structured with a coach that emphasizes defense. He does not have a geographic preference. Milstead finished his first year of high school with a 3.3 GPA.
Recent freshmen in the Bay Area who had both a statistical and team impact include Archbishop Mitty's Aaron Gordon and Bishop O'Dowd's Ivan Rabb. Along with their 2016 forward prospect, Oscar Frayer, the Mariners will continue to have an intriguing inside outside combination. The 6-foot-1 and 160 pound point guard has worked hard to be good but he has stressed to his coaches that he wants to work on being great.
Coach Knight has been coaching East Bay high school basketball for close to two decades and will be going into his fifth year at Moreau Catholic. He believes Milstead is a unique talent. "I haven't really came across too many Bay Area guards that are like Damari. I'm not saying that there aren't any but it's tough to find one guy to compare him to. I would say in my opinion he is a combination of Penny Hardaway, Jalen Rose, and Russell Westbrook. He has a knack for getting to the basket at will like Penny used to do, not with a whole bunch of flash just very efficient with three dribbles and he is at the rim. He has the competitive nature and confidence that Jalen used to have in high school and at Michigan. He pushes the players around him to play harder, he wants to go up against the other teams top guard or guards around the area and he is crafty with his moves. Lastly like Russell, he takes on challenges to improve his game. Russell had to improve his jump shot and PG skills to really be elite. He worked on those things and you can see it in his game now. Damari wanted to work on his jump shot and become a better ball handler and he worked on that all summer and during the season. He will be a special player coming out of the bay in three years."
Last season, Moreau had no seniors and only one junior on their roster to make their postseason run. The Mariners will start the season off with Drake in the Tip Off Classic, battle Modesto Christian in their own Winter Classic in Hayward, trek to the Duel in the Desert in Arizona, end the year in Palm Springs for the Max Prep Holiday Classic Invitational, and will be at the MLK Classic at UC Berkeley. Watch for Milstead to build on a strong freshman year and to continue to make an impact in the upcoming season with the Mariners in Hayward, Calif.
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