Trenton Catholic’s Erin Garner plays for the Iron Mikes during last year’s championship season.
Trenton Catholic’s Erin Garner signs her letter of intent to attend Georgia Tech and play basketball there Nov. 13, 2013 as her parents, Urian Garner and Narissia Williams, and head coach Khaliq Lewis (back) look on.
Erin Garner’s first season of high school basketball helped produce a state championship at Trenton Catholic Academy.
It remains to be seen what her second season will bring, but one thing is certain—the summer in between solidified her future for the next four years.
The TCA senior signed a Letter of Intent to play at Georgia Tech on Nov. 13, making her the fourth player from last year’s NJSIAA Parochial B championship team to earn a Division I scholarship. Garner made her decision last July, ending a hotly contested recruiting war.
“Erin has the potential to become an inside presence at Georgia Tech,” Georgia Tech head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “She is big, strong and mobile. Erin has tremendous potential and I am excited about the impact she can have at Georgia Tech.”
A 6-foot-3 forward who moved to Hamilton Township last year, Garner averaged a double-double in points and rebounds, at around 10 and 10. She also led the team in blocks, living up to her long-time nickname of E-Block.
Once she goes from being an Iron Mike to a Ramblin’ Wreck, Garner has a good shot at seeing time as a freshman from what Joseph has told her.
“We’ve spoken about everything,” the personable Garner said. “She expects me to come in and be a contributor on the team. There will be two juniors who play my position, she’ll want me at the four (power forward), so I guess I’ll be competing with them. But she said I have the potential to come in and start right away and be a big impact on the court.”
Although she is a newcomer to high school hoops, Garner is a veteran basketball player. She began playing at age 4 and has been in AAU for half her life.
After one year with the Northeast Blockers, Erin’s dad started his own team, called the Philly Freedom Stars, which went on to win a national championship in 2009.
“My dad wanted to make his own team, he thought I had the potential to be good,” Garner said. “He started that when I was nine and it became a bigger program over the years.”
She attended Spring Side High School in Chestnut Hill, Pa. as a freshman and Prep Charter as a sophomore, deciding not to play hoops.
“It was just a lot,” she said. “I just wasn’t feeling it. I felt like with AAU, I didn’t really need to.”
She had already drawn the eyes of recruiters, as some of her finals choices came down to Penn State—who offered her a scholarship as a freshman—Syracuse, LSU, Louisville, Seton Hall, Oklahoma and several other Southeast Conference schools.
In July 2012, Garner moved to Hamilton and finally got into a high school program, which took some adjusting.
“It was a whole different picture,” Garner said. “Everything was different. I had to learn to play with new people after playing with pretty much my AAU teammates all my life. It was a challenge, but I overcame it and we won the state championship.”
Last summer, July became an eventful month for Garner once again as she attended a Georgia Tech team camp with the Freedom Stars.
She was immediately taken by the coaching staff and the Yellow Jacket players who worked the camp, and was completely enamored with the entire atmosphere.
“I love Atlanta, the location is great,” she said. “I don’t like cold weather, which was the reason I was skeptical about choosing Syracuse. Atlanta has really nice weather, has a great basketball program and great academics.
“I’m not gonna play basketball all my life. I need a good degree to get a good job, so that had a pretty big factor in it. I’m thinking of going into Sports Medicine.”
Two other reasons were the apparent loyalty Joseph has for her recruits, and the Tech team chemistry, which is a huge issue for Erin.
“When I committed, she said ‘Commitment to me means if you get hurt during your AAU tournament, I still want you here,’” Garner said. “Also, I just felt really at home with the girls. I’ve been playing for the same girls in AAU since I was nine years old. I’ve literally grown up with them, so it was big for me to see what the girls were like and the team chemistry before I decided.”
Garner will have one more year in Hamilton, which she says “is really different from living in Philadelphia, but I like it.”
During that year, she will take on the leadership role as the only senior on TCA.
“Hopefully we’ll have a good year, we’ve been working on it,” she said. “I’m kind of the team captain, that will be good for me to work on leadership examples. We have two juniors and two sophomores and the rest are freshmen.
“We’ve got a lot of freshmen, so we’ll be pretty young this year. People are doubting us, but the freshmen good, they have a lot of experience. I’ve seen them play.”
And for a second straight year, area fans will get to see Garner play in a high school environment. If it’s anything like the first year, it should be fun to watch.
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