By Justin St.Peter

Quardell Young was born to play basketball. The leading scorer for the Warhawks men’s basketball team said he has been playing the game since he was 10 months old.

He is a big reason why the ’Hawks currently own the tiebreaker over UW-Stout for second place in the WIAC.

The sophomore point guard majors in broadcast journalism and aspires to be either a sports writer or reporter someday.

Outside of basketball and class, he enjoys hanging out with friends and gaming. When asked about it, he lit up, talking about how he has Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. He loves to play NBA 2K13, Madden, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

He played football in middle school and for a short time in high school, but decided it was not for him.

“I really wanted to focus on one sport and felt basketball was my sport, and I really didn’t want to multitask with both of them,” he said

The ’Hawks are glad that he stuck with it. He started 11 games last year as a freshman and was a key contributor off the bench in the ’Hawks’ run to a national title.

This year, he has started all but one game. Not only is he the leading scorer with 11.9 points per game, he also leads the team with four assists per game and leads the team in steals.

“Usually when he plays well, we do well,” center Luke Knoble said. “He’s gotten to be a better leader, too, as time has gone on.

This is not the only team that he led, though. In high school, he led Kenosha Bradford to two regional championships, two straight sectional finals appearances and was named team MVP in his junior and senior seasons.

“He was the quiet heartbeat of our program,” said Kenosha Bradford men’s basketball coach Damon James. “He was an excellent teammate off the court as well, a good leader, a good role model for the guys.”

When asked about how his team did in high school, he never said anything about his team awards. He just focused on how the team improved his three years at the school.

“He’s all about his team, he’s not an ‘I’ type of kid at all,” James said. “He’s a ‘we’ type of kid. Very rarely do you find that kind of hard worker.”

Young was not content with how he played last year and worked hard to improve, especially his outside shooting.

“Last year, teams would sag off me, play off me,” Young said. “I wouldn’t have the confidence in myself to shoot the outside shot.”

As a result of his offseason work, his 3-point shooting percentage has improved, forcing teams to respect it.

That helps open driving lanes, where he leads the team in trips to the free throw lane by a wide margin.

Young wants the fans to know that cheering helps spur on the team.

“Every little bit helps, like yelling, screaming, some chants, some motivations. It’s good momentum,” Young said.

The ’Hawks need all the help they can to be able to win the WIAC and claim their second straight national championship. Young will be a huge part of that.

“Seeing that the national championship is the best, it’s hard to achieve that again,” Young said. “It’s a huge goal, so it’s definitely something to work toward.”