Steinert High senior Nick LaBelle shields the basketball from the Pennington defense during an 80-48 loss Feb. 10, 2014. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
Nick LaBelle can remember his first foray into a varsity basketball game, more for what he didn’t do than what he did.
He didn’t have a point but he didn’t have an accident either.
It was Steinert’s sixth outing of the season, and he was a mere freshman playing in Trenton’s famed Tornado Alley. Suddenly, coach Dave Perry yelled down the bench.
“I almost had an accident in my pants,” he said with a laugh. “I remember Perry saying ‘LaBelle!’ I was like “Me?”
“And then I walked out and got into the game, playing against seniors in high school. I was just soaking it in. My freshman year, and I’m playing varsity with these kids. But I don’t think I scored that day.”
He survived, however, and has increased his scoring ever since.
During that first year, LaBelle averaged 2.5 points in 13 games. As a sophomore, he started all but one game and averaged 4.2 points. The forward blossomed last year, averaging 13.3 points including a then-career high 24 against Hopewell Valley.
This season, through Steinert’s first 19 games he was averaging 17.8 points and nearly 10 rebounds. He had six games over 20 points, including a career high 27 against West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Feb. 12.
“He’s big-time,” said Shane Plunkett, a fellow three-year starter along with LaBelle. “He’s our leading scorer. He does everything for us. He’s a hard worker, plays hard every game, that’s all you can ask for.
“He doesn’t talk about it too much. He just plays the game and let’s his game do the talking.”
Unfortunately for LaBelle and Plunkett, the Spartans’ record during the past four years is 20-68, with seven wins being the high-water mark for a season. Steinert was 4-15 as of Feb. 14 this year. Included were three losses in overtime, double-overtime and triple-overtime, along with several other close losses in regulation.
“I’d rather win than do what I’m doing (individually) now,” LaBelle said after a late-season loss. “Your senior year you don’t want to go out losing like we are.
“But we’re fighting, doing what we can do. I’m playing as hard as I can; trying to make us win. Every day we come out and play the game hard.”
That’s actually a trademark of LaBelle, as well as Plunkett.
“No matter if we’re up 10 points, down by two points, down by 40 points Nick plays the same every minute of every game,” assistant coach Joe Radice said. “It’s been a big thing keeping us in games this year.
“He and Shane Plunkett, the two of them being out there together, those two seniors are the heart and soul of the team. No matter if we put seniors or freshmen out there with them. They play hard from whistle to whistle, that says so much about their character.”
Not only this year, but throughout the years. The two also play baseball and are used to winning most of their games in the spring. But through the dreary days of winter, neither lets up for 32 minutes.
“The adversity they’ve had since they’ve been here as freshmen, all the way through, has been tough,” Radice said. “They haven’t experienced too much success and you would think that would bother you at some point and they might give up a little bit. But there’s no quit in either one of them.”
Even when things aren’t going well for LaBelle, he continues to hustle. Teams have concentrated on taking him and Plunkett out of the offense. Sometimes it has worked on LaBelle, but he still kept grinding in other ways.
And most of the time, teams have not stopped him, as he was held under double digits just twice.
“There has been some wear and tear,” Radice said. “You can see when teams are putting two or three guys on him. They’re scouting all our plays that go towards him, they know he’s getting the ball.
“Whether they know the play or not, he’s still putting up close to 20 a game. That says a lot when you know where the ball’s going and still can’t stop it.”
LaBelle has been defying defenses since his days with St. Raphael’s in the Mercer County CYO League. He moved on to Grice and played on a team of current Hamilton Township basketball all-stars. Members included Nottingham’s Tevin Williams and Bam Johnson, Hamilton’s Tyleer Wrenn, Dan Garcia and Malik Snead, Steinert’s Jeff Cohen, Notre Dame’s Manny Dixon and Trenton Catholic’s Malachi Richardson.
“We went undefeated through our eighth-grade year,” LaBelle said. “That team was unbelievable.”
And while the winning did not continue in high school, LaBelle continued to improve his game over the years. This past summer he and a bunch of Spartan players went to some AAU tournaments with Cohen’s step-father, and would also have shoot-arounds at Rutgers Prep when the Steinert gym wasn’t available.
“It was a lot of hard work over the summer and fall,” LaBelle said.
He put that work to use this year, using several different methods to score. While LaBelle considers himself more of a scorer in the lane, either with a short jumper or by penetrating, Radice feels he’s fairly versatile.
“When you look at high school basketball in this area he’s kind of like a poor man’s Carmelo Anthony,” the coach said. “He can take you inside, he can hit the mid-range jump shot and knock down the three-point basket.
“He does a little of everything. He can create a mismatch if you put a guard on him or a big guy on him, which is what makes him so tough. He’s stronger than all the guards and quicker than most of the big guys. That’s what makes him such an effective scorer.”
That kind of range has gotten LaBelle looks from several Division III colleges. Although he considers himself (and Plunkett) equally good in basketball and baseball, hoops has always been his choice at the next level.
LaBelle has talked to several Division III coaches, including Drew and several others in New Jersey, along with a few in North Carolina.
“College has always been my dream,” LaBelle said. “Growing up, watching people play on TV.
“I’m not playing Division I, obviously. But still, getting the chance to say I played college basketball, college sports in general. It’s every kid’s dream to go on to the next level and keep going. That was my goal from the beginning, and I just worked hard on that every day, from CYO through high school.”
And through all the great days he had in high school, he’ll always remember the day he didn’t score a point, but began a career.
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