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03/22/2018 12:00 AMBrett LeQuire recently completed a storybook career with the North Branford boys’ basketball team, but it actually came close to never even happening. Originally, Brett was planning on attending either Career, Xavier, or Notre Dame-West Haven for high school. However, after having a conversation with T-Birds’ assistant coach Stephen Saunders, Brett decided that he wanted to go to high school at North Branford and achieve big things in his hometown.
“I was definitely set on going somewhere else,” says Brett. “But I hung out with Coach Saunders one day and we were in the gym, and he pointed up to the 1,000-point banner and said I’d be up there one day.”
Brett’s decision turned out to be a great one for both himself and North Branford boys’ hoops. Brett not only lived up to Saunders’s prediction by scoring his 1,000th point as a junior last year, he finished his high-school career as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,902 points. The senior guard broke the school record during North Branford’s 70-56 victory over Shepaug Valley in the second round of the Division V State Tournament on March 8.
“Everyone said I’d get it, but I was worried about not getting it. Towards the end of the season, I saw I’d get it with the extra playoff games,” Brett says. “It felt amazing. People thought I didn’t care, because I didn’t ever crack a smile, but in my head, I was extremely happy. The whole gym was loud and I had a head rush. I didn’t think all of this was going to happen.”
Brett broke the scoring record of 1,872 points that had been set by 2000 North Branford graduate Chris Tracz, who is currently the head coach of the baseball team at Marist College in New York. Tracz took to Twitter to congratulate Brett on the accomplishment, and those words meant the world to Brett.
“He tweeted about it. You never know if people will be mad, but he was happy for me, which I thought was cool,” says Brett. “It was out of the blue. I had never talked with him before.”
Brett’s scoring ability was unmatched in the Shoreline Conference. Brett was seemingly able to score at will throughout his career, and that’s the biggest reason why he was named the Shoreline Conference Player of the Year in both his junior and senior years. He also earned All-Shoreline Conference First Team accolades and All-State honors multiple times for North Branford.
What might get overlooked is the number of rebounds that Brett pulled down as a member of the Thunderbirds. Brett says that rebounding is one of his favorite aspects of basketball, and he corralled more than 1,000 boards throughout his tenure with the team.
“When someone puts up a shot, I know if it’s going in or not. Some people jump too early and then the ball is coming down, but nobody is with it. I know when it’s coming down, so I know when to go up,” says Brett. “I was always good at going up to get the rebound. I go up really high. I don’t know why, but rebounding was always one of my favorite things to do, which for a guard is pretty weird.”
While Brett was filling up the stat sheet, he also helped North Branford collect its fair share of victories the past few years. Head Coach Dave Parness often tailored his offense to allow Brett to do what he did best on the offensive end.
“There are just certain players who have the ability to create on their own and can put up points in a hurry. Obviously, you run certain plays and a certain offense, but sometimes, you have to get out of the way and let him go,” Parness says. “Over the last four years, we had him and they didn’t, and that was the difference in a lot of games. You need to give him the freedom to create and do what he does. He doesn’t need a bunch of stuff to score like a normal high-school player.”
Brett also served as a captain for North Branford during his junior and senior seasons. Brett didn’t care about any glory that came with that role; he just made sure that he served as a great leader for his team.
“Captain to me isn’t a big deal, because I think everybody should be a leader. I actually felt Connor Pollack was the best leader on our team,” says Brett. “I make sure nobody is screwing around in practice. I thought I was a pretty good leader, especially in the game on the court.”
Coach Parness says that Brett never let any of his success go to his head, and he feels that type of demeanor helped Brett become a quality leader for the T-Birds.
“There were times he would pass up an open shot or a slightly contested shot for someone else he thought was open. I thought he was a good teammate,” says Parness. “The All-State and All-League is the stuff people look at, but he was a good teammate and worked hard. You didn’t have to beg him to play hard in practice.”
Brett isn’t certain about where he’s going he’s going to play basketball next year. However, he knows that he’s going to continue his career at the Division III level in college one way or the other.
“I definitely want to play basketball in college,” says Brett. “I’m going to play at either Anna Maria College or Western Connecticut State University. I don’t know yet. I’m still up in the air.”