Rodney Gallagher had one of the best seasons of any freshman in WPIAL basketball history, leading the Mustangs to a WPIAL title and becoming the first freshman to make the Post-Gazette Fabulous Five.
Could there be a sophomore jinx? Huh. At least when it comes to teammates, Gallagher has been one lucky 10th grader.
Luck came in the form of help — from two talented sophomore players who transferred to Laurel Highlands.
The new players are Brandon Davis, a 6-foot guard, and Keondre DeShields, a 6-2 guard-forward. Both are projected to be starters for Laurel Highlands and expected to provide lots of help to Gallagher.
“They’re both good players,” Laurel Highlands coach Rick Hauger said.
One scouting service (PA Hoops Recruits) ranked the top sophomores in the state and had Gallagher No. 1, Davis No. 11 and DeShields No. 27.
Even Gallagher acknowledges the two should benefit the Mustangs.
“They can score the ball well,” Gallagher said. “We’re just working with them defensively. They know the game. After losing Keandre Cook and Tim Smith at guards, these two won’t miss a beat. We should be all right.”
Nick Egnot, a 6-foot-3 senior, and Gallagher are the only two returning players that started last year’s WPIAL Class 5A title game against Mars. Senior guard Caleb Palumbo started during the regular season, but was ineligible for the playoffs.
Gallagher is quite familiar with his new teammates, Davis and DeShields. He played with them on the same AAU team (ESF) in the summer of 2019.
“They did everything by the book,” Hauger said. “I sure as heck never talked to anybody about them coming here. If I wanted to recruit, I would’ve kept coaching in college years ago.”
The WPIAL has already made Davis and DeShields eligible to play. WPIAL executive director Amy Scheuneman said both were “presumptively eligible” because they both moved into the Laurel Highlands district, and the WPIAL then ruled both eligible because there were no claims of transferring for athletic intent from any of the schools involved.
DeShields transferred from Uniontown, where he averaged 8.1 points as a freshman. He is the younger brother of Billy DeShields, who averaged 18.9 points as a senior at Uniontown last year.
Hauger said DeShields transferred to Laurel Highlands before the end of the 2019-20 school year and Davis enrolled this summer. Hauger said he doesn’t even know where Davis went to school last year. Gallagher said Davis is from Wilkinsburg, but did not play basketball last year.
“They’re both really talented and very good offensive players,” Gallagher said. “We’re all in the same class, so we should all have a good future and we’re all just working to get better.”
Hauger said, “We’ve got to find guys who are committed on both ends of the court, offensively and defensively. We’ll be athletic, but we’ll be small. … We’ll actually try to increase the tempo a little bit of how we play. We also have some other kids who can come in and contribute.”
But Gallagher will still be the leader — just like he was as a freshman when he averaged 22.7 points, 3.8 assists and 3.8 rebounds, and scored 591 points. Gallagher was offered a scholarship by Pitt as a freshman. He recently was offered by Wake Forest and also has offers from Penn State, Illinois and Rhode Island.
Gallagher, though, is also a football standout and has offers from Pitt, Penn State and Michigan, among others, in that sport. He plays receiver and defensive back in football, but also played some at quarterback this season.
In basketball, you could see a slightly different Gallagher from his freshman year. He has added 10 pounds since last season and is now 5-11, 160 pounds. After Laurel Highlands’ football season ended, Gallagher often would work out before school at 5 in the morning at South Union Recreation Center in South Union Township. His main goal in the offseason was to better his long-range shooting.
“I’ve been working my butt off to improve my 3-point shot a lot,” Gallagher said. “I still worked on my mid-range game and explosiveness, too. I really worked on everything.”
Gallagher helped make Laurel Highlands one of the surprise stories in WPIAL basketball last season. The Mustangs won a WPIAL title for the first time since 1968. Laurel Highlands won only eight games the previous season.
“His role won’t change,” Hauger said. “He’s still the leader and he worked real hard on his 3-point shot because he wasn’t happy with it. That looks much improved. He’s a little bigger and stronger, too, just natural things that come as you get older.
“But he still is that same team player with that winner’s mentality. He just has that intense desire to win. To this point, he’s never been worried about stats or anything like that. Guys like that, you don’t get a lot of them.”
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published: December 10, 2020, 10:30 a.m.
