I am Coach Kevin Boyle Jr., an assistant coach with Montverde Academy's varsity team.

 I've been here the entire time that Dariq Whitehead has been here; since eighth grade. 

Dariq as a middle school player showed that he had elite-level athleticism and the potential to grow into a really effective wing player, athlete, and defender. He had a nice touch in different areas, shooting the ball and fishing around the rim. But what he really showed is that there was just a lot to be developed. 

For him and us, it was a rare situation where you take a kid who's in middle school and put him in a situation that typically works with players in their junior year, senior year, or transferring in to finish high school at a higher level. So the thought from Coach Boyle and the different coaches here was that if you could take a player like Dariq who had such physical tools and athletic tools at a young age and he was committed to being here for 4 or 5 years that at the end of the day he could really learn how to play the game and develop his overall skills and by the time he reached junior year, senior year, he could potentially be the same level players that were used to dealing with. And even more special for us as a program because we took him from truly being a young kid who really did need to develop a lot and go through our system the entire way. Dariq is the only player we've ever had here that's come from eighth grade, through high school, or even from freshman year through high school. So that aspect has been really special.

As an eighth-grader, he was playing some games with some of our developmental teams but practicing and playing with the varsity. He would spot minutes for me had kind of wider margin games. That was great for him to be with that group because that team went 35-0 and featured New York Knicks starter RJ Barrett and Andrew Nembhard, who played in the national championship with Gonzaga. Overall, just a lot of really experienced guys that he could watch and learn from. From day one, he probably had a great example of what it means to be an older player here and the ultimate goal; to be that type of player that just goes about their business and fights to win like RJ and those guys did.

As a freshman and sophomore he was on teams that just had elite talent: Cade Cunningham, Precious Achiuwa, and Moses Moody. Going on down the list, there was a high level of talent in that group, so he got to be somewhat of a contributor as a freshman. More of a contributor as a sophomore with Cade and those guys on the 2019-2020 team that people consider to be possibly the best high school team ever. 

By the time he was a junior, he was a starter and major contributor. He was the most valuable player in some of the biggest games of the year on the National Championship 2021 team. 

This year, obviously, he's been the leader, and it's kind of all led up to this. He's been here for 4 years 5 years, and it's already his time to be a senior and step up. His game has improved overall, where he's got more freedom to take jump shots because he's actually improved his jump shot. He has more freedom to make plays off the screen and off the dribble because it's improved in those areas. It's all come together now. 

Now we're in our final stretch leading up to the Geico National Championship. It's kind of special because it's not all the way over, but it's kind of perfectly fitting into a storybook ending for him. A player to win the Naismith award and follow in the footsteps of several of the guys he actually was teammates with, RJ Barrett Cunningham and Ben Simmons, before those guys won. Being the 4th Montverde player in the last eight years to win the award is really special for him and us. Especially being a guy who's heard us talk endlessly about all these other guys. More than any other player we've ever had, Dariq probably had the pressure to live up to those guys, and he's definitely done that. 

We hope we can finish the job, but overall for him, it's just an incredible achievement. We are all really happy about it, and we're gonna miss him a lot when he's gone.