Gaston Day School senior Halti Fridriksson, a foreign exchange student from Iceland, is a 6-foot-7 post player who should give the Spartans a leg up in the area playoff race this season.

Not foreign to basketball

 

Gaston Day's new Icelandic center brings inside game, leadership

MATT KLINE - Charlotte Observer Article
Special Correspondent

 

GASTONIA -- Gaston Day School's 6-foot-7 center is the team's vocal leader and captain.

 

Sounds normal, right?

 

Not when you consider that the senior is Hjarti Fridrikkson, who is in his first year in the United States after arriving from Iceland in August.

"I'm amazed at how vocal he is on the court, from day one," Spartans head coach John Whitley said. "His adjustment to the States has been pretty easy, mostly because he is so outgoing."

 

Fridrikkson has solidified Gaston Day's inside game, averaging 11 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks per game and has five double-doubles for the 5-2 Spartans entering Friday's game at Spartanburg Day.

 

Fridrikkson's biggest adjustment has been getting used to playing so much inside. Playing club basketball in Iceland, he played as much outside as he did inside.

 

"I think it's been great to work and get to know how to play a low-post style," Fridrikkson said. "If I'm playing against a smaller guy now I can post him up, and against a bigger player I feel like I can take him outside."

 

What makes Fridrikkson's inside presence even more important is the fact that Gaston Day is a guard-oriented team.

 

Sophomore Corey Raley leads the Spartan offense and scored a career-high 33 in a win over Covenant Classical.

 

"Corey is our best athlete," Whitley said. "He does the dirty work and gets big baskets for us. Our offense really starts with him."

 

Junior point guard Terrone Sheffey runs the offense and has scored 25 points twice, including against perennial national power Oak Hill, while sophomore Pet Sumner is a three-point specialist.

 

All that talent makes Gaston Day a target of its opponents almost every time the Spartans take the court.

 

"Coach talks about that with us, and we understand that we're a target because Gaston Day has a history of being strong," said Sumner, whose family is Fridrikkson's host family. "But that's part of the reason why we play here, because we want to compete for a state championship."

 

That can be a lot of pressure to put on someone, especially someone who has only been in the country for five months. But because of Fridrikkson's outgoing personality and his teammates' welcoming of him, he and the Spartans now look to keeping the winning tradition at Gaston Day alive and well.

 

"It has been really fun so far, but I don't think we have played our best as a team yet," Fridrikkson said. "The last few games (Gaston Day had won four straight heading into Friday's game) have been better, and hopefully I can keep improving and help the team play our best basketball."