For standout senior guard Richaud Pack, it all started at age six. He picked up a basketball, never in his wildest dreams thinking that this ball could someday be the key to earning him a Division I scholarship.
“My dad built a court and I just started playing from there,” said Pack. “My dad and older brother both played so I got out on the court.”
Many successful athletes are naturals, they start playing a sport and it just comes easily to them. For Pack, this wasn’t the case, he didn’t have natural skills, but he had something just as good, determination.
“He had a certain drive about himself that he wanted to achieve,” said Coach Dietrich Lever, who started coaching Pack when he was in elementary school, “When I started teaching him one thing he wouldn’t stop until he actually got it, he was one of those type of kids.”
He started playing organized basketball in the Redford Township Junior Athletic Association.
“I was pretty terrible. I didn’t jump higher than anybody, didn’t run faster, I couldn’t really do anything better,” said Pack.
It was with the help of Lever that Pack was able to take his game to the next level.
“Coach Lever started working with me and his son [also named Dietrich] because his son was really good,” said Pack.
“We worked on a whole lot of ball handling,” Lever said. “Physically handling the ball, and making the right decisions with it while you had it. It was about the basketball IQ.”
It’s been about ten years since that and much has changed.
“Dietrich was a lot better than me when we were younger,” said Pack.
Lever’s son Dietrich is now the starting point guard for Canton High School, who Pack and the Maples faced early in the season. It was a close game, but the Maples won 56-54. Lever struggled from the field, shooting 2-18 and scoring 9, while Pack put up 27 points.
One thing Pack always did have going for him though was his height.
He was usually taller than kids his age when he was younger. With the height advantage, he was placed at center and power forward most of the time. With his dad’s help, Pack began to work on his dribbling skills.
“My dad was making me dribble around our court through the legs all day,” said Pack.
Getting more serious about his game, Pack moved on from the recreational leagues, and started playing with better competition.
“I did a little CYO (Catholic Youth Organization), and then I did AYBT (American Youth Basketball Tour) with Triple Threat and that’s where I got a lot of my game from,” said Pack.
It was after this, at age 10, that Pack would take perhaps the most important step in his career. Some kids on his AYBT team played for an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) team called The Family, and they took Pack with them to the team.
“The Family just improved my skills tremendously. We practiced a lot. I was learning fundamentals that like college players do at about age 10,” said Pack.
Today it is evident that all the hard work paid off, not just for Pack, but for all the kids on that team. More than half of the players from that team, including Roy Marble Jr.
(Iowa), Mike Talley (Duquesne), and Carlton Brundidge (Michigan), will be playing Division One basketball in college.
Staying with The Family all the way until the summer of 2009, Pack continuously improved his skills.
“Playing AAU was really a big deal to me. We did tournaments; we were traveling around the country 7th and 8th grade,” said Pack. “In 8th grade we went to Indiana, Florida, and Kentucky.”
Pack had found a solid AAU team to stick with, but not everything in his life was as consistent. He switched middle schools all three years. First he attended Hilbert in Redford, then moved to Warner in Farmington Hills, and finally ended up at Berkshire in Birmingham.
“I actually liked it,” Pack said. “For each school I went to, I got a whole new group of friends. Now wherever I go, I know so many people.”
He did play basketball at the schools, and he was one of the best players, but his focus was on The Family.
“He’s changed a lot since middle school,” said teammate and friend Chris Smith, who has played with Pack since eighth grade, “but he’s always been the best player on the team.”
“It was really fun. I didn’t really take middle school basketball that seriously though because I was playing AAU,” said Pack.
Pack wasn’t always set on attending Seaholm for high school, but after weighing his options, he decided it was the best choice for him.
“I was deciding which Birmingham school I would go to including Country Day and Brother Rice and I didn’t want to wait to be on the court at Country Day so I came over to Seaholm. I liked [then varsity head] Coach [Keith] Hart and I wasn’t a fan of Groves basketball,” said Pack.
Pack was initially placed on the JV team, where he could get more play time, but it didn’t take long for him to get his shot on the Varsity team.
“By about game five or six I got moved up for the Country Day game,” said Pack.
The team struggled that year and the next going 16-28 from 2006 to 2008.
“There was a lot of separation,” Pack said. “Half of us didn’t even talk to each other in school.”
Between the two years, after a 5-16 record in the 2006-2007 season, there was a coaching change from Keith Hart to junior varsity coach Jose Andrades. Andrades took over for the 2007-2008 season and is still the head coach today.
“I really liked Coach Hart and I didn’t feel he should get fired,” said Pack. “I was actually contemplating leaving after that. I said if they kept Andrades I would stay but if they would have hired a random coach then I would probably leave.”
Pack’s game was certainly improving as he averaged 17.6 points per game in his sophomore year. His potential to be a dominant player was seen in games against Stony Creek and Andover where he scored 38 and 30 points.
The next year, everything seemed to click for the team as they went 20-3, winning the league with a 15-1 record, and going undefeated at home.
“We had a lot more team chemistry,” said Pack. “All of us were friends.”
Pack averaged 22.1 points per game that year, establishing himself as a true leader on the team.
“It’s been very good to see him as he improves his game each year and how he gains strength in different areas of his game,” said teammate and friend Buddy Ellis.
That team moved on to the playoffs and won their first two games, ultimately getting eliminated in the District Championship game against Pontiac Northern.
Losing seven seniors off that year’s team, expectations for the 2009-2010 season were uncertain. The team came out red hot, winning its first 11 games. The off-season improvements in Pack’s game were evident immediately. He averaged over 37 points a game in the first five games of the season.
Certainly the highlight was a record breaking, 56 point performance at home against Troy High School. Pack was an unstoppable force everywhere on the court. He shot 71 percent, making 8-11 three-pointers, and also shooting 80 percent from the free throw line. He also added 11 rebounds, 6 steals, and 2 blocked shots.
“Nothing worked,” said Troy head coach Gary Fralick, “We tried to double him every time he touched the ball, and when he went down into the post we tried to front him with backside help.”
“Three things stuck out in that game,” said Pack. “The crowd’s intensity in the game, how happy my dad was, and Shawn [Conway]’s unselfishness to give up the ball when he had an open dunk.”
The team went on to finish the regular season with only one loss, winning the league for the second straight year, and remaining undefeated at home for two full seasons.
“Winning two years undefeated at home is important to us,” said Pack.
Throughout the season, fans were treated to electrifying performances by Pack. He was able to take over games, despite teams putting extra focus on him, and even double-teaming him sometimes. In important situations, everyone knew whose hands the ball would be in. Pack did it all, running the point occasionally, playing on the wing, and getting down low in the post. What makes Pack so dangerous is his ability to hurt teams in multiple ways. Play him too close and he blows by you, driving to the basket. Give him space and he will knock down shots from all over. There were games where Pack made no threes, getting most of his points in the paint, and there were games where Pack made eight threes. You never knew how he would get his points on a given night, but he always found a way, averaging close to 26 points a game.
“The reason he is so good is that he can score inside and outside,” said Fralick.
A defining characteristic of Pack is his confidence. He’s actually pretty modest when you talk to him, he doesn’t like to brag about himself. Even after the 56 point performance, he wanted to talk about the fact that the team was undefeated. The confidence is there though, he knows what he is capable of, and he’s not afraid to do anything on the court, taking advantage of every opportunity he sees. This confidence is what carried the team. Pack thought the team could go undefeated in the regular season, so that was the goal.
It’s not all so serious with Pack on the court though. He has fun out there; tossing alley-oop passes to Conway every once in a while and laughing with teammates. Watching him on the court, it is clear that he’s enjoying himself. He plays with plenty of emotion, but always seems cool and collected, in control of the situation. If he is upset with a call by the referees, he’s not one to whine and complain. He’ll walk up to the referee, put his arm around him, and talk to the ref, explaining why he is unhappy.
These are traits he displays off the court as well. Pack can be seen in the Seaholm hallways with a smile on his face everyday, except perhaps days after losses.
A disappointing 60-53 loss to Brother Rice in the District Semifinals was Pack’s last game of his impressive high school career.
Pack led Seaholm in scoring with 16 points, and also grabbed 11 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to get the job done on a night when the Maples really struggled offensively as a team.
“I feel like we didn’t step up to the pressure, or even let that pressure bother us enough because we really overlooked the game,” said Pack. “We didn’t bring enough energy on the court with us.”
Pack brings the hard work and focus that he has on the basketball court into the classroom as well. An issue with some athletes is that they don’t focus enough on academics, that all of their time is spent in the gym, not in the classroom. With Pack, this is not the case. He has found a way to balance his schoolwork and his work in the gym.
“That has really been hard because I love basketball and my mom makes me do schoolwork so it’s like, if I really want to do what I want to do in basketball, she makes me do it in school first,” said Pack.
“It’s the most important that he works hard in school because first and foremost, if you have academics, you have the world,” said Pack’s mother, Kaija.
Something you don’t often hear from kids in high school is that they enjoy their classes, but that’s exactly what Pack will tell you. Along with the enjoyment, he is driven.
“I’ve really just been able to focus these past years,” said Pack. “I buckled down after sophomore year and got to really focus on keeping schoolwork up while working hard in the gym.”
For coaches, Pack is a special player. With his great grades (a 3.9 GPA) and even better athletic talent, coaches knew he would be a good player to sign.
“With every coach that was recruiting me they knew it was definitely not extra to go over with for NCAA Clearinghouse,” said Pack.
The NCAA Clearinghouse is what determines the eligibility of an athlete that wants to play at the college level.
Pack’s hard work in school paid off when it came time to sign a letter of intent for college.
“I was cleared for NCAA midway through junior year so that took a lot of pressure off knowing that I didn’t have to work hard to get another class in before I could sign my letter of intent,” said Pack, “I was already set for everything academically.”
Pack’s decision to play basketball next year at Florida International University for head coach Isiah Thomas was the result of a lot of time spent figuring out where he wants to be next year. Ultimately, Pack decided that it would be the best fit for him, making his official visit in October 2009.
“We spent a couple months just researching a school, visiting a school, finding out their graduation rate, and what they were strong in,” said Kaija Pack.
FIU is a large school with about 40,000 students in Miami, Florida. For Pack, location was part of his decision.
“I didn’t want to be in the Midwest for some reason,” Pack said.
Something that most people don’t know is that Pack is interested in going into medicine, which played a factor in his decision.
“[FIU] had just built a medical school that opened in August 2009 and that said a lot to us because blow-off schools just don’t build medical schools,” said Kaija Pack.
Maybe the most important factor in Pack’s decision though was some advice that his mom gave him.
“She told me ‘go with who wants you more than where you want to go’,” said Pack.
Pack received similar advice when talking to current college players from all over the country. He spoke with players from big programs such as Illinois’ Dominique Keller, Syracuse graduate Eric Devendorf, and Alex Legion, who has played at Kentucky and Illinois, and will now be transferring to FIU and playing with Pack next year.
“They all told me go with where you’re wanted more than where you want to go,” said Pack. “A lot of them went to big time schools but the school wasn’t just for them. It focused more on other players and then you get lost in the crowd and you don’t really get your shot ever.”
Pack knew that FIU was where he was wanted. Coach Thomas attended many of his games over the summer when he was playing for AAU Team Detroit. Also on Team Detroit with Pack was fellow FIU recruit Dominique Ferguson, one of the top big men in the country, who chose FIU over top programs like Kentucky and Arizona. If Thomas wasn’t there, then there was another coach representing FIU in attendance. Pack didn’t want to change his style of play, and these coaches at FIU weren’t going to make him.
“Other colleges were saying how they could transform my game and put me at point guard,” said Pack. “I want to go somewhere where I can play my game and I feel like FIU is a place where I can play my game and be me.”
Other schools interested in Pack included Central Michigan, Bucknell, University of Nevada, UNLV, and Penn.
Pack will attend FIU next year as a part of a very solid recruiting class. With new head coach Thomas, they are trying to build a program. After a 7-25 record this season, in Thomas’ first year as head coach, there is lots of room for improvement.
“I wanted to be a part of something new, and see if I could contribute to that program,” said Pack.
After such a hot start to his senior season, some were wondering if Pack was considering bigger programs.
“I was confident with my decision,” said Pack. “I wanted to go somewhere where I fit the system and I would play.”
Pack leaves Seaholm as the all-time highest scorer in school history, and a two-time league champion.
“It’s been a tremendous joy to see your son not only excel, but to love what he’s excelling in. To know that he’s doing something that he wants to do and that he’s really great at it,” said Kaija Pack, “It’s been an amazement, each night, I don’t know what I’m in for, a dunk or threes in the air, or if I’m just in for an asthma attack, you never know what you’re going to get with Richaud.”
