Bryce Forbes needed a sign.
The 6-foot-7 Damien boys basketball player had completed his junior year, and a strong performance at the Division II state tournament boosted the Monarchs to their first title. Moving up to D-I next season, a possible No. 1 ranking with most of the lineup returning — all practically set in stone.
Forbes looked a lot like a tall, improving player who would fit in well with any program in the nation. He stayed and played with Damien in the ‘Iolani Summer League. But there were rumblings under the surface that he and Jydon Hall might not be back. Hall wound up moving to Georgia to live with his father.
Forbes went to Washington D.C. during the summer. Within a week, his life had changed.
“I went to a Georgetown Elite Camp. There were 32 of us. It was good. I got to meet some legends, learn from them,” Forbes said on Tuesday.
Forbes said the Hoyas are interested enough to offer what amounts to a partial scholarship. If he gains enough weight, Georgetown could bring him to campus immediately after he graduates high school. The second option would be to attend a prep school.
“I’m OK either way. Going to prep school would help me a lot with getting playing time. I need to get bigger, stronger, faster,” said Forbes, who weighs 185 pounds. “Knowing I could actually attend a school like that feels good.”
Forbes’ family is originally from Maryland. He has plenty of relatives still there. His heart, though, is with the Monarchs.
“I feel like we’re going to go back-to-back even though we lost a big part of our team. It’s hard because I’m really close to Boogie. I’ve known him since middle school,” he said.
Forbes, Hall, Jake Holtz, Hayden Bayudan and many of the Monarchs put a lot of reps and time into year-round workouts. While Holtz plays quarterback for Damien’s No. 7-ranked football team, Forbes doesn’t play a fall-season sport.
“I’m trying to gain weight, but more sharpening my skills, shooting, dribbling, jumping. I have trainers giving me advice,” said Forbes, who downs his share of protein shakes. “I’m trying to balance out my plate. I’m not just eating fast food.”
Forbes said he doesn’t eat much fried food.
“I don’t drink (regular) shakes and I don’t drink soda, either. I eat ice cream, but not often,” he said. “I love meat. They said I could pretty much eat any kind of meat.”
X
Watch out Maryknoll & Punahou! Damien beat you both last year when they were Div II still. They have a lot of starters returning with a lot of talent.
KalihiFB
Means absolutely nothing that they played D2. Their administrators chose to put them in D2, not the ILH. Punahou and Maryknoll will always play D1 and challenge the kids and program. Maryknoll and Damien have similar enrollments, Damien fielded almost twice the amount of boys teams from intermediate to varsity then Maryknoll could field last year.
I’ve grown very skeptical of parents, players, and coaches over the past few seasons reporting D1 scholarship offers and then there is no proof of this offer other than their own claims. It happened with Ng last year who ended up walking-on to UH after almost a year of local reporters claiming he had MULTIPLE D1 offers. Even if this kid ends up at Georgetown, he won’t sniff the court look at who they have recruited in the same position as this guy. If Damien were smart, they’d have stayed at D2 in Hawai’i and just swept house again because in this state, reporters and spectators don’t care if you play in the lower division you still get just as much hype and shine as your D1 counterparts.
Move to the mainland if you want to play D1or D2 college. Hawaii will not get you anywhere. Be realistic! Damien academically is not even that good!! You need to have almost 4.0 gpa to get into Georgetown!! A
Jetwavy
Agree 100%. The OIA re aligns every 2 years based on a teams record the previous 2 years. The ILH leaves it up to the school to declare D1 or D2. Allowing schools to “sand bag”. Damien basketball had almost their entire team returning yet chose to remain in D2. Saint Francis softball returned a bunch of players from the D2 state championship team in 2018, and added a UH commit from the Big Island and still chose to play D2. Then half way through the season requested to compete for a D1 state berth. Rarely does an OIA D2 team win back to back State Titles if ever.
I love the hate it fuels me. Keep talking down on my name. I need the extra motivation – Bryce Forbes
Good for you Bryce. Take in all the hate, work hard and prove them all wrong.
You DO NOT have to move to the mainland if you desire to be recruited for basketball. Anyone that works in youth basketball here in Hawaii and thinks that needs to resign. If I was spending money to have someone train my kids in Hawaii and they talked like that, I would stop sending my kid to them and get a refund. All that is is a cop out reason as to why they can’t develop kids well enough to get them offers.
If more Hawaii kids and families went to D2 games in Hawaii, people would see how strong D2 basketball is. We have THREE D2 programs in Hawaii. There’s little chance that a kid that’s good enough to play at any D1 basketball program wouldn’t have an offer from one or all of those schools. If you can’t get the local D2 programs to offer you, then you haven’t done enough (at least locally) to get their attention. Chaminade was a top 25 team last season. HPU went to the NCAA Tournament a couple of years ago. UH Hilo is always just a player or two away from being a contender. I wonder if any of them have shown interest in Forbes. If he can develop, grow, and fill out he’d be a good D2 forward. Sadly, most players are more interested in saying they were on a D1 roster and playing 3 minutes a game than they are interested in playing quality minutes at a solid D2.
Way too many ways to check on the truth. Verbal Commits and other sources provide access to scholarships offered by schools. Also, schools like Georgetown post their offers on their websites. I have been a mainland AAU coach for 15 years, but grew up in Hawaii. My advice for kids in Hawaii would be to just keep working hard and stop giving interviews to people that don’t do their research. I know a lot of coaches out here and there hasn’t been a player from Hawaii that has been recruited by a school in the East Coast since D-Low, unless you count the Villa boy’s. But, knowing how we are in Hawaii, they would be considered less local than a lot of the kids that transfer in, even though they were born in Hawaii, have Hawaiian blood, and one graduated from Kahuku.
Bryce, stay off social media. If you have what you have, who cares what people think. You don’t have time to respond to these things. The whole time that all you players are on social media, someone is putting in work. Be that kid!
As for the opinion of kids going to the mainland to get offers, I have personally seen a lot of kids succeed from Hawaii. I have seen a lot in the recent past lie about what they are getting though, and then being forced to tell the truth sooner or later either verbally or by “choosing” to walk on instead of taking a full scholarship to one of the “many” schools that offered them. The mainland offers more competition and there is more availability, but that has nothing to do with how bad a player wants to work.
Derrick Low, Ramsey Williams, Rashaun and William Broadus, Kyle Pape, Kahi Villa (pro baseball and basketball), Brandon Cablay, Dennis Harrison, and many more. So, it can be done.
What is important is to be honest with yourself and play in the division that best fits your game. You have to actually play and not sit. People would rather play zero to three minutes of crap time for a D1 team instead of playing significantly at a lower division. That’s why there are 700 or more names of the D1 transfer list and most of those players are going down a level, where they belonged in the first place. Just my observation over years of coaching on the mainland.
Who in the world is Kyle Pape and Brandon Cablay? Sounds like the person who wrote this are friends with these guys and are trying to pump up their friends.
@Really
If you don’t know Kyle Pape then your opinions on Hawai‘i high school basketball are suspect lol
Brandon Cablay is from the Big Island, I believe, and he played professionally in the Philippines. He was the PBA dunk champ.
Lots of neighbor island greats were slept on on O‘ahu. Had some of them gone to ‘Iolani, Punahou, or another legit state title contender then they’d be talked about a lot more. We don’t give enough respect to neighbor island players or coaches.
Good stuff. Brandon Cablay of Konawaena and Vanguard University was also the PBA Finals MVP during his rookie year.