Horse Power: CPC hoop title is within reach for Parkland Mustangs

WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA — The Parkland Mustangs girls basketball team is in territory they haven’t seen in more than a decade. Parkland (17-5 overall, 9-4

WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA — The Parkland Mustangs girls basketball team is in territory they haven’t seen in more than a decade.

Parkland (17-5 overall, 9-4 in the Central Piedmont 4A Conference) is sniffing a conference championship for the first time since the 2008-09 season, when they won 20 games.

And with one game left on Friday night in the regular season, the Mustangs are looking up to just one team, Reynolds, a team they split with during the regular season.

Parkland holds the tiebreaker with third-place East Forsyth, which is also 9-4 in the conference, by virtue of sweeping both games during the regular season, for at least the No. 2 seed for next week’s conference tournament.

The Parkland girls basketball team is: Christiana Young (2), Justace Williams (3), Key'Moni Newsome (4), Kori Suggs (5), Amera Alexander (10), Taleeya Reed (12), Jada Richardson (14), Teniya Crosby (20), Jayda Woodard (21), Azari Wilkins (22), Amaja Wilkins (23), Kimora Brooks (24), Asia Blackwell (30), Karema Greer (32), Sou'l Mitchell (40) / Photo by Josh Williams

All of this hasn’t been much of a surprise to Ken Leak, who is in his fifth season of guiding the Mustangs. He saw flashes during the summer and early season practices that his team might have a gear they haven’t had since he took over the program in the 2018-19 season, when it won 11 games. The Mustangs won 10 games the next season, four in the COVID-shortened season of 2020-21, and then seven games last season.

And those numbers are a vast improvement from before Leak took over the program, when the Mustangs won a total of 12 games from 2011-12 through 2017-18, including two seasons when Parkland didn’t win any games.

Leak arrived with a plan and a mission from his previous coaching stop at Winston-Salem Christian School.

“Those girls, they worked hard that first year,” Leak said. “And we may not have been the most talented team around, but they learned to compete. They didn’t know me. They just knew that I demanded they get out of their bad habits. I felt like I could get their heart. They gave me all they could that first year. They started to see my vision for everything. It has been a fun and challenging process to build this program back. And this year has been pretty special so far and we hope it becomes even more so.”

Leak’s team is still a young one that only features two seniors.

One of those seniors, point guard Christiana Young, transferred to Parkland for her senior year after spending the previous three seasons at Winston-Salem Christian.

At Parkland, she topped the 2000-career points mark and Leak said she has also tallied more than 500 rebounds, 400 steals and 300 assists.

Christiana Young (2) leads the Central Piedmont 4A Conference in scoring at 17 ppg despite playing with a torn ACL in her left knee this season and has surpassed 2000-points in her high school career / Photo by Josh Williams

“I helped get her to Winston-Salem Christian when she was a freshman and over the summer, she reached out to me and let me know that since she sort of began her career with me there, she wanted to finish it with me here,” Leak said. “And the best part is that she lives right down the street from Parkland so there weren’t any issues with her transferring in because she lives in our district.”

Young leads the league in scoring at 17 points per game and even more remarkably, has been playing with a torn ACL in her left knee all season.

“She did it during an AAU game in October and was just heartbroken when she came to tell me about it,” Leak said. “Her doctors told her that with intense physical therapy, she could probably put surgery off until after the season if she was willing to work hard. And that’s exactly what she’s been doing. She’s been doing pool therapy four days a week because she did not want to lose her senior year. And the interest from colleges for her has even picked up quite a bit. She had a bit of a slow start this season but really picked it up after the Mary Garber Tournament.”

The Mary Garber Tournament is played right before Thanksgiving every year between 16 teams from the Piedmont-Triad and usually includes all the public high schools in Forsyth County.

Parkland won the lower bracket of the tournament this season for the second time in three years, beating Mount Tabor 50-39 in the championship.

It was the semifinal game against Glenn when Leak saw that his team could have a special season.

Coach Ken Leak is in his fifth season with the girls basketball team at Parkland / Photo by Josh Williams

“It was an absolute dogfight against them until about two minutes to play,” Leak said. “We forced a turnover and Christiana hit a three and we ended up winning by three. That’s the game where it all came together for them. They saw that our defense was working and that continued into the championship game, where our full court press gave Mount Tabor fits in the second half. They really got focused on where they needed to be on the court and understood that we were going to rely on our defense to produce our offense.”

Leak also praised the play of junior guard Justace Williams, who is averaging 14 points and six steals a game, and senior forward Taleeya Reed, his other senior, who is averaging 10 points per game.

Reed was friends with Young when the two were in preschool together, which also helped build team chemistry once Young joined the team.

“Last year we had a lot of freshmen that really got thrown into the fire, but they competed,” Leak said. “And with Christiana and Taleeya being the leaders they have been, this has been the most bonded team I have coached here. That chemistry has definitely helped.”

Leak also sang the praises of junior Amera Alexander and freshman Azari Wilkins for their defense all season.

“We are pretty well-rounded for the first time since I’ve been here, and by that I mean that I have options,” Leak said. “It’s been fun this season to play that chess game and see which player the other team wants to try to stop during the game. And I have a nice three-headed monster, so it’s like picking your poison against us. And we really haven’t had that luxury before.”

Leak said that he felt like this year’s team had a real chance to make the 4A state tournament. They also have a real chance to be the No. 1 seed from one of the state’s most balanced conferences.

“I thought Reynolds and East Forsyth were going to be the two top teams this year,” Leak said. “And I thought we would be fighting with Davie County and Reagan and Mount Tabor and West Forsyth for one of the top four places in the league. And we’ve exceeded those expectations so far. I think the first game we played against West (on Dec. 13) we were down 12 points going into the fourth quarter and we ended up shutting them out in the fourth and winning that game by one point. That showed me that this team has no fear. They didn’t back down. And we were in a hostile environment at their place. That was pretty special.”

Another thing that is pretty special to Leak is that several players from that team that struggled to win 11 games in his first season at Parkland have been coming to the games the last several weeks to support this year’s team.

“I’ve brought them to the locker room and let our current team know that they are standing on these girls’ shoulders,’ Leak said. “And they are celebrating us now as if they are still playing for us. They remember me telling them that first year that I would always welcome them back and that they would always be a part of the program, that I was going to change this, and Parkland basketball would be back. It really makes my heart feel good. I hate that they didn’t get this same opportunity to feel like this when they played but I think they feel like they are on this ride with us now. And that’s really special.”