As Chris Herren took his place in the pregame layup line, a nostalgic feeling descended on many in the crowd.
They’d recall the blur of a red jersey slashing to the hoop. The stitching of 24 in block lettering. The mannerisms — slow shuffling feet and arms hanging loosely, bent at 90 degrees. It all sent people back to Durfee High, circa the early 1990′s.
But the year is 2017 and the site is Stone Gymnasium at Tabor Academy. Instead of the Hilltopper red emblazoned across the chest, Chris Herren Jr. sports Seawolf crimson.
After spending two years at his hometown school of Portsmouth High in Rhode Island, Herren Jr. transferred to Tabor and, in the process, returned the famed Herren name to the SouthCoast.
“I’m a home kid. I just love being home,” Herren Jr. said about choosing the 45-minute ride to the Marion prep school over Vermont Academy — a three-hour drive away in Saxtons River, Vermont — prior to the start of this school year.
The similarities between Herren Jr., 17, and his father are undeniable — the on-court mannerisms and the lethal inside-outside offensive skill set are just a few. But so, too, are the differences. Most notably, the passion that oozed from the pores of Chris Sr. and his older brother, Mike, and lined the walls of the Luke Urban Fieldhouse, is a slow burn from within the youngest Herren.
What Star Wars: The Force Awakens did to reboot the box office franchise, Herren Jr. is doing to a family name that was once synonymous with basketball in the region.
While those who watch Herren Jr. will connect the dots to his father’s playing days of yesteryear, it will be the differences that force him out of the inescapable shadow that follows his surname.
His basketball journey has taken a region back to the future.
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To say basketball runs in Herren Jr.’s blood would be an early candidate for understatement of the year. The younger Chris comes from a long, well-documented lineage of basketball phenoms to don the Durfee jersey, dating from his great-grandfather to his uncles and father.
But Herren Jr. first recalled playing the game in the second grade in a youth league at the YMCA in Middletown, Rhode Island. His father, Herren Sr., a high school prodigy turned national name, never had it set in his mind his children would pick up the sport that carried him to fame.
“If he’s happy playing it, I’m extremely in favor of it. If he didn’t it wouldn’t have mattered. The game of basketball can teach you many things, but is it the be-all and end-all of life? Absolutely not,” Herren Sr. said. “There’s obstacles and ups and downs in all sports.”
The elder Herren went through his fair share of ups and downs as he battled with drug addiction throughout his collegiate and professional playing days. Now nine years sober, Herren Sr. travels the country telling his to-Hell-and-back story to anyone willing to hear it.
His son is always listening.
“He’s always teaching me life lessons that can be learned on the court,” Herren Jr. said of his father. “The other day he was telling me to go into everything, no matter the game, playing the same way. He wants me to go into every game as if it’s my last.”
Herren Jr. may have been able to ignore that message previously, as he breezed through the Rhode Island Interscholastic League. In his final year at Portsmouth he led the state in scoring average with 26 points per game. Now in the rough-and-tumble prep school circuit of the Independent School League, where he is repeating his sophomore year, Herren Jr. is reminded on a nightly basis to bring his own energy.
“I’m playing against better competition than I was last year,” he said.
“I try to text him before each game to bring his own energy,” said Mike Herren, boisterous uncle and basketball phenom in his own right during his time at Durfee. “There’s not going to be fans screaming ‘F--- you’. There’s no cheerleaders. There’s no band. You have to manufacture your own energy.”
Herren Jr. knows this to be true. In fact, it might be the only flaw, if you were to perceive it as such, in the 17-year-old’s game. He barely broke a sweat as he scored 17 points in limited playing time as Tabor cruised to a 72-46 win earlier this month against St. George’s. While his St. George’s contemporaries spent timeouts with their hands on their knees, Herren Jr. sat back calmly, showing no signs of exertion.
Whether he converted a nifty no-look pass in the lane or missed a three-point shot, his face remained the same. The highs are never too high and lows are never too low.
His stoic and, at times, passive demeanor on the court is both a positive and a negative.
“He presents himself much better than I ever did,” Herren Sr. said. “He’s a very humble athlete. He’s not talking. He’s not playing to the crowd. He just goes about his business on the court. Good or bad game. As a father, I’m extremely proud of that.”
When Herren Jr. arrived at Tabor in September he had two basketball-oriented goals in mind: to add bulk and to be more consistent with his mental approach.
“I think I need to do a better job of getting myself into the game,” Herren Jr. said. “Sometimes I start off slow and let the game come to me. I think I have to be consistent through the entirety of the game.”
Tabor head coach Chris Millette finds Herren Jr.’s easy-going approach slides in smoothly next to fiery point guard Noah Fernandes.
“Chris is very even-keel. He’ll knock down three 3′s and won’t crack a smile,” Millette said. “Noah’s pretty fiery. It’s perfect. You might be in trouble if both players had the same mentality either way. There’s a good balance on both sides.”
