Prospect Spotlight: Easton Darling (2020)
Winterset has one of the finer young backcourts in all of 3A with 2020 Easton Darling and 2019 Casey Kleemeier.
Darling, a 6-foot combo-guard, just wrapped up his freshman season with the Huskies, and was one of the state’s more productive frosh guards, averaging 13.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per game.
The talented freshman says he prides himself on not just his ability to score, but being a two-way player.
“I like to shoot, and I like to run up and down the floor in transition and get my teammates good looks. I like to go hard on defense, especially in man-to-man, that’s what we do on D (at Winterset),” said Darling.
Only five other Iowa freshman scored more points per game than Darling this past winter, but things weren’t always smooth sailing for him.
Still, he knew coming in to the season that he’d have a significant role with the upstart Huskies.
“At the start I wasn’t quite sure what my role might be, but I had a feeling that by the end of the season I’d be around where I ended up scoring-wise. We were a pretty young team, so I knew I’d have to step up,” said Darling.
“It took a couple games to get a feel for varsity, but towards about the seventh or eighth game my shot started falling and teams started to identify me as a shooter.”
Now that his first season of high school hoops is complete, he’ll head right into his first-ever grassroots season. Darling told PHIA that he’ll run with Martin Brothers 15U this spring and summer.
“I chose Martin Brother because I thought they were the best fit for me; they like to run up and down and get up shots and play tough defense,” said Darling.
“This spring I’ll be doing a lot of stuff in the gym with my high school coaches, and Hank (Huddleson), the Martin Brothers director.”
Still with plenty of time for his recruitment to materialize, Darling says his main focus — rather than recruitment — is to just get better.
“Recruitment comes to my mind, and I think I might start getting seen this spring and summer,” said Darling.
“What I’ll really be working on is turning the ball over less, taking it to the rim better and my free-throws — that’s really about it.”