Love of game drives Ramacus
MEDICAL LAKE – For as long as he can remember, David Ramacus has wanted to play basketball.
“Ever since I was a little kid I played,” said Ramacus. “It’s been fun. I never watched cartoons. I watched basketball all the time. MJ (Michael Jordan), Reggie Miller, one of the greatest shooters of all time, J.R. Rider and Clyde Drexler. My dad is a Blazers fan and I just followed his trend. I like Kobe Bryant, too.”
The Medical Lake High School senior forward found some good offensive role models, and it has paid off. Ramacus is second in the Great Northern League in scoring and is helping lead a Cardinal resurgence in the latter weeks of the season.
“At the start of the year we struggled a little bit, but we’ve fought back and won a couple in a row and seem to be turning it around now,” said Ramacus, who is averaging about 15 points a contest. “I think we can go to districts, succeed there and go on to state. We just need to keep our heads up. We know it’s a long season. We just have to work hard in practice, rebound, and box out because that’s what killed us earlier in the season.”
Scoring has always come naturally to the 6-foot, 5-inch Ramacus, who stuck with the game of basketball despite being on the move regularly in an Air Force family.
“He’s from the base, so he plays all the time,” said Cardinal head coach Arnold Brown. “He really works hard at his game. He doesn’t play any other sports. He probably plays basketball every day, which I’m sure he’s been doing since the fourth or fifth grade. … He has an ability to handle the ball and he has a quick release for his shot. He has a way of deceiving his defender a little bit and creating his shot.”
While creating his shot always came easily, incorporating four other players on the court came a bit tougher early in his Medical Lake career.
“I think when you score like that, it can be kind of tough to become a team guy and I think that might have hurt him a little bit,” said Brown. “In his sophomore year we had to kind of teach him that frame of mind that you have to depend on other people, too.
“Sometimes with kids you build it in them, build it in them, build it in them, and they never get it, never get it, and then one day they get it. I think he’s at that stage where he’s got it and he sees it and he believes in those guys.”
“I try to get the team involved,” said Ramacus. “I try to stay relaxed and let the game come to me. I like to get the ball at the top of the key, or slash to the hole. I like to work without the ball and utilize my teammates in the offense. I just want my teammates not to rely on me so much. When it comes down to it, my teammates are the ones who get me the ball and set the screens helping me to get the shots and I appreciate it.”
On the other end of the floor, Ramacus, like a lot of players who enter high school, has had to learn from square one on the finer points of defending.
“I think he’s just growing,” said Brown. “You get a little mature agewise and get the things we’ve taken through with him defensively. He missed his freshman year so he didn’t get that base. He’s coming along with that now. He’s making a special effort to play defense. When you can score the way he can, defense becomes secondary sometimes.”
“I’ve worked really hard in defensive drills and in boxing out to improve there in the off-season,” Ramacus said. “I played a lot to improve in games.”
Ramacus hopes to take his game to the next level after he graduates and has worked hard to strengthen his 170-pound frame.
“He’s so thin, but he’s tried to work and develop a little bit. He’s figuring out a little bit that you have to be a little stronger out here. These kids are a little more physical here, especially in our league, which is a real physical league. Most of those kids play football, too. We try to put pounds on him, but I think the older he gets, he’ll get stronger.”
“I’m very interested in playing in college,” said Ramacus. “I’m working in the weight room and on my endurance. I try to get in the weight room as much as possible. Putting on weight and working in the weight room is my greatest concern right now.”