Esho Eschewing DC for Maine

Ron Bailey, Publisher

August 26, 2008 – Sometimes a young person just needs a change of scenery, one more relaxed, less distracting and somewhat foreign to succeed. This applies for both the high school and college experiences, and is fairly common. Maxie Esho, a 6’7”, 200 pound high school frontcourt player is one such guy.

Heading to Lee Academy (Lee, Maine), Esho, a junior, is leaving the Washington, DC area for the best reason of all. “He’s going there to strengthen his academics” shared Zach Suber, Esho’s travel team coach with DC Assault yesterday during a phone interview. “There are fewer distractions up there”.

Esho on DC Assault: "It was fun, I had a great season".

Indeed, as Lee is located in the city of the same name that is about an hour from Canada, two and a half hours from Maine’s largest city, Portland, and five hours from Boston. Esho welcomes that isolation.

“I’m going to be more about my books, the basketball is going to come” said Maxie last night, also via telephone. He is also anticpating “to going to school with different people” – expectantly Lee has many white students who attend, but its multicultural footprint is enhanced by a significant Asian population. Esho is African American, and leaves Wise High School, an excellent school in Prince George’s County Maryland that is predominately black.

Earlier in the day the young man arrived on the campus, and even had an opportunity to play ball with his teammates, something that impressed him as he indicated “There are a lot of good players on the team”.

Suber, who coached Maxie’s team to an astonishing four loss (two in 16 and under play, two in the 17u classification), national-level, spring and summer travel team schedule, is not concerned whether Esho will do well during Lee’s challenging season, one that includes playing not only other prep schools but college junior varsity squads as well.

He shouldn’t be, as Maxie is an ascendant player, one that can block shots and score around the basket. Those attributes will be enhanced with increased strength and skill work, all of which he engages in.

Colleges have taken notice, given UMass having offered, Cincinnati showing major interest, Kansas State recruiting him, and other schools, such as Clemson, Xavier in the picture. According to Maxie, Georgetown supplied an interest letter.

Check back with i95Ballerz.com for updates on Maxie Esho. His star is bright.