By Tom Elliott [email protected]
Monday, January 07, 2008
He's a 6-foot-5 forward and St. Cloud Apollo's leading scorer, averaging 17 points per game.
The soft-spoken senior also barely played on the varsity last season when the Eagles were finishing runner-up to eventual state-champion Buffalo in Section 8-4A.
"I got better going against Seth Noreen and those guys in practice every day," Farah said. "I waited for my chance and I finally got it.
"Hopefully, I'm doing the best with it."
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| Times photo by Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@ stcloudtimes.com St. Cloud Apollo's Ahmed Farah (right) is the school's leading scorer, averaging 17 points per game. |
Farah has excellent touch from about 18 feet in. He's creative inside, usually finding an opening with defenders hovering near him.
And he's quick.
Apollo uses him at the front of its full-court press, where his extra-long arms are adept at picking off errant passes while opponents sometimes frantically try to advance the ball past midcourt.
The combination has made him the player opponents target when they play the Eagles, who are 1-3 in the Central Lakes, 5-5 overall and are playing host to Alexandria on Thursday.
"I hope we get better," Farah said. "We've got too much talent to be .500.
"Basically, we've got eight starters like coach has said."
Farah fits this season's Apollo team. He's comfortable in the Eagles' fast-break offense, able to finish it with his deft touch and strong jumping ability.
"The thing about him is how long he is," said senior forward Kendall Smith, Apollo's lone returning starter.
"He's got arms that are just like … this long," said Smith, holding his own long arms wide for emphasis. "He's also tough. And he jumps out of the gym.
"But mostly, he's very, very long."
He's also a very, very long way from his birthplace.
From Africa to here
Farah was born in Somalia, leaving with his family from the war-torn African nation when he was 4 years old.
The first stop was DeKalb County, Georgia, near Atlanta. That's where he began to love basketball.
Farah moved to St. Cloud in sixth grade. There was another brief move to St. Paul his freshman year, where he went to Harding High School. His family moved back later that year. He has been involved in Apollo's basketball program ever since.
"Coach (Dean) Kesler, I have to give props to him," Farah said. "He's pushed me to get better ever single day. I'm thankful for that."
It has made him better, he said. Farah led the junior varsity in scoring last season, so his scoring prowess was not totally unexpected.
The key for Farah's success, however, has been getting heavier and stronger. He says he weighs 165 pounds and that's up from the 140 he weighed as a sophomore.
That size, or lack of it, will be a cause for concern for college scouts. And know this: Farah wants to play college basketball.
"A lot," he said with a smile.
He says his younger brother, 14-year-old Abdirahman, also is a basketball prospect. He also has a younger sister, Amal.
"I think my little brother is going to be taller than me," Farah said. "He's already over 6 feet tall."
Close section
Like his teammates, Farah would like to turn the season around. The Eagles this season are in Section 8-3A where the top team is Rocori (9-1). The section also includes Thief River Falls (4-3), Sartell (5-4), Fergus Falls (3-3), Little Falls (3-4), Sauk Rapids (3-5) and Detroit Lakes (2-6).
After the Spartans, everyone else is close.
"We've just been up and down," Farah said. "We have potentially a good team, but we need to be consistent. And like Coach Kesler says, we need to consistent not only in games but in practice.
"And we need to play more as a team, too."
One way to improve consistency for the Eagles is their outside shooting. They operate best when players like Ryan Cosman and Greg Wimberly are draining 3-pointers outside of opponents' zone defenses. That was one difference in Apollo's 93-44 win Saturday at St. Cloud Cathedral.
"And some of those were NBA threes, too," said Cathedral head coach Dan Hagen incredulously.
"When they (Cosman and Wimberly) hit shots like that, it gets everybody going," Farah said. "It was good to see."
Source: St. Cloud Times, Jan 07, 2008