Reed Sheppard makes North Laurel a contender. Lifelong pals make North Laurel.
Reed Sheppard cradled the basketball, released a euphoric scream and hugged North Laurel teammate Caden Harris. Thirty seconds remained in the 13th Region championship game and their team led Knox Central by 14.
A three-pointer, a couple of free throws and an altercation between a rival player and an official transpired after the premature embrace, but none it negated the cause for it. Their Jaguars for the second time in school history were going to play in the state tournament, an event in which they’ll be as big of a crowd favorite as any team that’s ever made the field.
Sheppard’s the agent most responsible for that fandom. The junior has committed to the University of Kentucky basketball team, is the son of two former Wildcats, plays for an eastern Kentucky high school team, shoots nearly 40 percent from the three-point line and seems like a nice kid. A genie couldn’t conjure a more ideal in-state athlete, as far as star potential is concerned.
He’s accustomed to the spotlight, but Sheppard’s eager to share it. His tournament MVP award was a formality — 37 points on 13 of 24 shooting and 10 of 10 free-throw makes, 11 assists, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals — but would not have been achievable without a decade’s worth of experiences, on and off the court, with guys like Harris. North Laurel is a contender because of Reed Sheppard, sure, but also because of those relationships. They’re what kept him in Laurel County instead of chasing a Sweet Sixteen bid elsewhere.
“Every single one of these kids I’ve grown up with, since like third grade or lower,” Sheppard said. “We’ve all played together from then to now. To be able to finally do this now is a dream come true. I’m excited to go enjoy this time with them.”
Region champs
The Final Four Most Outstanding Player winner on UK’s 1998 championship men’s basketball team was in tears by the end of North Laurel’s 69-56 victory on Monday night.
His son has a lot of basketball before him, but Jeff Sheppard knows already that memories of Monday’s victory and the next week are going to be seared into Reed’s mind.
“This is as special as it gets, no matter where everybody goes to play after this,” Jeff said. “They’ll look back when it’s all said and done and nights like tonight will be at the very, very top of the list. I know, because I went through a lot of basketball and nothing compares to playing with your childhood friends. And to be able to win after everything they’ve gone through, and the opportunity for Kentucky boys to play in Rupp Arena? It’s obviously a very special thing.”
Jeff Sheppard played high school basketball in Georgia but was never able to advance past that state’s equivalent to Kentucky’s regional round. He was concerned his son might follow in his footsteps: Knox Central eliminated North Laurel in the region tournament each of the last three years and this year fielded a team that returned five of its top six scorers. The Jaguars got out to a double-digit lead from the jump but were pushed deep into the fourth quarter by a team that was decidedly more physical than theirs. It was a three-point game with a little more than six minutes to play.
“If this was a weight-lifting competition, we lose,” head coach Nate Valentine said. “They’re strong and tough. We just talked about staying ‘tougher longer’ and taking care of our teammates.”
After a series of sloppy possessions by both teams, junior Ryan Davidson, North Laurel’s second-leading scorer on the season, connected on a transition layup for the last of his 13 points. That bucket put the Jags up eight midway through the final period, and Knox never got closer than six points for the remainder.
Davidson has been turning long-distance feeds from Reed into baskets for as long as he can remember. The two are cousins and live next to one another.
“I know he’s gonna throw it and I just catch ‘em and lay it in,” Davidson said.
Brady Brock hit a pair of timely three-pointers to help quell Knox Central runs in the second half. The attention thrown upon the team because of Reed could be overwhelming if he wasn’t as cool-headed about it as he has been, Brock said.
“He’s so humble,” Brock said. “He cares about us. He cares about us more than he cares about himself. He’s great to be around and helps our team in so many ways.”
Reed’s got a knack for penetrating through traffic and hitting pull-up jumpers. That ability often leads swarming defenders to abandon their man, allowing the UK commit to find wide-open teammates with relative ease. They’ve got one job, at that point: shoot.
“He’s so unselfish,” Valentine said. “He doesn’t care to pass the ball. If he’d had scored seven points tonight and had 15 assists, he’d be just as happy as he is now. He’s just a tremendous kid, and I love these guys to death.”
Rupp Arena
Reed’s prep career is now starting to more closely resemble that of his mother, Stacey Reed Sheppard, who won two state championships at Laurel County before going onto a decorated college career. She left UK as a top-10 scorer in school history and is still second all-time among the school’s steals leaders.
The former Wildcat is North Laurel’s stat-keeper, so she has one of the best seats in the house every time her son and his friends take the floor. Next week she’ll be marking makes and misses from the sideline of Cawood’s Court, potentially with 20,000-plus fans eyeballing from the stands.
“BBN’s got some crazy fans and they’ve showed up wherever Reed’s been, wherever we’ve played,” Stacey said. “I’m excited for him to get the chance to play in front of them and for them to get to see him play at Rupp.”
Jeff said the Kentucky High School Athletic Association doesn’t get enough credit for the grandeur of its state basketball tournament. Kentucky is one of two states, along with Delaware, that continues to crown a sole champion in boys’ and girls’ basketball.
That fact means North Laurel, a school with about 700 boys in London, might have to topple teams from Louisville, Lexington and northern Kentucky — the so-called “Golden Triangle” — in order to win a state title, in addition to other challengers, like-sized and smaller.
“When you live here, you just think that’s what everybody does around the nation but they don’t,” Jeff said. “It’s what makes it so special.”
The Jaguars should command a hearty crowd for as long as they’re alive in the field. Their stay could be as short as a single night — they open against 15th Region champ Pikeville next Wednesday, the tournament’s first day — or extend into next weekend.
Thousands who come will be there to get their first glimpse of Reed Sheppard on the floor he’ll call home in a couple of years. That they’ll see his lifelong friends is a fortunate by-product; the latest chapter of his story would be unwritten without them.
“There’s pictures of those boys when we were ‘The Playmakers’ in second and third grade together,” said Jeff, “going to play against bigger competition and getting beat up, and then getting pizza and going back to practice, just over and over and over. It’s just so much fun to see ‘em be able to to get the victory tonight.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 2:12 PM.
