(Enlarge) Keron DeShields, a senior for Pallotti, drives to the basket in a scrimmage last month. (Photo by Kitty Charlton)

Keron DeShields, on most school days, leaves his home in Baltimore County around 6:30 a.m. and drives to Pallotti High in Laurel.

The trip takes about one hour each way. It is not an ideal situation, but it was one born of necessity.

DeShields was a junior on the boys varsity basketball team last year at Towson Catholic, which played in the A league of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. But last spring Towson Catholic closed its doors for good, leaving students and teachers scrambling to find new schools.

A talented guard with college aspirations, DeShields was courted by other private schools such as Archbishop Spalding, in Severn, and National Christian Academy, in Fort Washington. He ended up at Pallotti, which plays in the B league of the MIAA under head coach Shae Johnson.

"I like it a lot. I loved Towson Catholic," DeShields said after scoring 18 points in a win Dec. 4 at Mt. Hebron. "Towson Catholic was my home. Pallotti is showing me a lot of love."

DeShields played at Towson Catholic for head coach Josh Pratt, who is now the head coach for the Pallotti girls. But DeShields said he was not aware Pratt would be at Pallotti when he decided to play for the Panthers.

"He is not a huge guy. He is not a real quick player, but he knows how to score," Johnson said of DeShields. "He is probably ideally a point guard, but he will have to play the two (shooting) guard in college."

DeShields made a 3-pointer with 2:35 left in the game at Mt. Hebron to tie the game at 63 as the Panthers came back from a six-point deficit for their third straight win. "He had a great game. He hit some clutch shots," Mt. Hebron head coach and Pallotti graduate Mike Linsenmeyer said of DeShields. "He got them back in the game."

"He is confident. He likes the ball in his hands in the last second," Pallotti junior Brandon Manning said of DeShields. Manning transferred this year from DeMatha Catholic in Hyattsville, along with junior Anthony Yancy. Sabastian Opon, another Pallotti junior, came to the Panthers from St. John's Catholic High in Washington.

Manning and DeShields had never met until they started working out this past summer at Pallotti with their new teammates. Manning, a Beltsville resident, said he transferred from DeMatha partly to get more playing time and to focus on academics. "I wanted a new start," he said. The transfers played together this summer for Pallotti in a league at Annapolis Area Christian School.

The four transfers help make up for the graduation of Leon Porter and Kendall Watkins, whom Johnson called two of the best guards he ever coached. Porter now plays for Division II Dominican College in upstate New York while Watkins is a student at VCU in Richmond.

Can Pallotti contend for another title this season? "If we stay the course we can," Johnson said. "It is a big dropoff (from last year). All of them (transfers) are coming in humble and ready to go. Everyone wants to win."

DeShields said he is not related to former Oriole second baseman Delino DeShields, who grew up in Delaware and played college basketball at Villanova. But the Pallotti senior said his third cousin on his mother's side is Donte Green, a former hoop standout at Towson Catholic who played in college at Syracuse and is now with Sacramento in the NBA.

Other players that Pratt coached at Towson Catholic include Larry Bastfield, a sophomore guard who had seven assists for Toledo in a win Dec. 5 against winless University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

After his final hoop season at Pallotti, DeShields hopes to play at the college level. He has attracted attention from small schools such as Wilmington and Goldey-Beacom in Delaware. "I like to be smart on the court. I am not as quick as most guards," he said. For now his best drive may be the one he makes from near Randallstown to St. Mary's Place in Laurel every day.

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