Hazard reflects on joining EPHS boys’ hoops 1,000-point club

Senior joins what is officially at least a relatively small group

By Mike Rego
Posted 2/4/19

EAST PROVIDENCE — Just prior to their home game Thursday night, Jan. 31, against Coventry, members of the East Providence High School basketball program saluted Dion Hazard for becoming the latest …

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Hazard reflects on joining EPHS boys’ hoops 1,000-point club

Senior joins what is officially at least a relatively small group

Posted

EAST PROVIDENCE — Just prior to their home game Thursday night, Jan. 31, against Coventry, members of the East Providence High School basketball program saluted Dion Hazard for becoming the latest on what is officially at least a short list of Townies in recent memory to reach the 1,000 career point milestone.

Hazard accomplished the noteworthy feat the week prior, January 25, on the road against North Kingstown with a layup late in the first half.

“ I wasn’t really thinking about it until the beginning of this year,” Hazard said of his accomplishment. “I didn’t really think it was that big a deal until it happened and got all of the recognition for it.”

According to current EPHS head coach Joe Andrade and previous Townies’ head coach Alex Butler, each of whom has been around the program for the better part of the last two decades, Hazard is just the fourth boys’ player known to them to reach the 1,000 mark.

“It’s a great accomplishment,” said Andrade. “Especially considering he has to handle the ball. A lot is asked of him.”

Hazard’s impact on EPHS boys’ hoops wasn’t quite immediate, but it was still relatively quick to occur. After seeing time in just one varsity game as a freshman, he soon became a regular and key contributor to the Townies as a sophomore.

“Coming into my sophomore year I was obviously nervous at the beginning,” Hazard said of his early career. “I struggled getting used to the pace of the game. JV (junior varsity) and varsity are so different. The pace of the game is a lot faster. The guys are bigger and stronger. It took me a while to get used it, but then I think I had a game when I scored like 23 or 24 points and I started to feel confidence in myself. I started to believe I could play with these kids.”

By last winter, Hazard was among the Townies’ top players, one of their main scorers and, just as important, the leader of the offense from his point guard position. He averaged some 16 points per game a year ago and an impressive seven assists.

“I’ve always been a team player, a pass first player. I always tried to make the smart play, the right play,” Hazard explained. “My junior year, my coaches said I needed to step up a little more. I took it as a challenge.”

The senior point guard is the first to record 1,000 career points since Bobby Perry, who graduated in 2007. Before that, both Andrade and Butler believe, Derek LaCroix, in 2002, and Kevin Bliss, Class of 1992, attained the mark as well. Current district athletic director Gregg Amore, who attended EPHS in the early 1980s and who has been on staff at the school for the last 30 years, said his office has no records of any other potential 1,000 career scorers.

“I didn’t really know it was a big thing until I found out that I was like only the fourth person ever at East Providence to do it,” Hazard added. “That’s when I started to think about it more and more, and actually understood it was a great accomplishment.”

Because EPHS was only a three-year school until some 20 years ago, attaining the feat was made more difficult. LaCroix, Perry and Hazard are the only players definitively to have reached the career mark since the school began enrolling freshmen. Prior to that, ninth graders remained at the former Riverside and Martin Junior High Schools.

Without accurate records, other previous EPHS boys’ hoops standouts like Ray Lambert, Vic Soares and Mario Pereira are considered to either have either reached the plateau or approached it.

Hazard finished last Thursday night with a game-best 21 points as the Townies defeated the visiting Knotty Oakers, 74-55, in a Division I contest. The victory leveled E.P.’s league mark to 6-6 and kept the locals in the running for a berth in the upcoming D-I championship tournament. Mitchel Nocera added 12 points for the Townies while R.J. Pina contributed 10.

Hazard, who entered the season some 200 points shy of 1,000 points, leads the Townies (8-8 overall) in scoring through 16 games total at 19.5 per game. His first objective the rest of his final high school season is to help guide the Townies qualify for both the D-I and Open State Tournament championship playoffs.

As for the future, the All-State football player for EPHS said his first choice is to play hoops somewhere next fall in college.

“My first option is basketball. I love basketball,” Hazard said. “Football is a second option, but I want to play ball in college. Division I, II or III, I don’t care what level. I want to play basketball.”

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MIKE REGO

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.