By Christopher Tremblay

Ever since he can remember, Norwood’s Joey Steeves has been participating in sports in some aspect, usually with his cousins. However, it wasn’t until middle school that he realized that he had a talent. The three-sport athlete (football, basketball, and baseball) is entering his senior season on the basketball court, the sport he believes he excels at better than the other two. 

Entering high school Steeves made the freshman basketball team, and mid-way through the season he was elevated to junior varsity, and by the end of the year he found himself practicing with the varsity squad. Beginning as either a point or shooting guard on the freshman team, Steeves would play wherever the Junior Varsity Coach needed him to play once he moved up. His very first JV game saw him net 20 points against Holliston.

“My first junior varsity game didn’t really hit me at first, but after the game when it finally did, I was like I just got moved up and did that,” Steeves said. “It was really good for the team to get the win on the road, and I had something to do with it.”

Over the next two seasons, the Norwood point guard has averaged about 14 points per game for the Mustangs while continuously working to improve his shot. It was during his sophomore season when varsity head Coach Kristen McDonnell told him that his shot was too slow, and he needed to work on releasing it much quicker. Steeves took his coaches advice to heart and began doing catch and shoot drills from different places on the floor, and to this day is still putting in the work with those drills.

It wasn’t until this past spring that he totally felt confident in his shooting ability. McDonnell has seen that he has worked hard on becoming the best possible player that he can be.

“He is an awesome athlete that does the right things at the right time,” the Mustang Coach said. “Through the first few days of practice, we have a compete board and he is just blowing everyone away. Joey has 12 wins while everyone else only has 2 or 3. He wins everything he does as he is a tough competitor.”

McDonnell has seen much improvement in the senior’s play on the court over the years and although impressed with his defense, she is looking for more offense from him this winter.

“He is a very gritty defensive player, but I’m hoping that he can be an offensive threat for us this year,” McDonnell said. “He’s a natural leader and should help us a lot. He doesn’t force anything; it just seems to come naturally to him and although he may not believe it, he can do a lot more than he is capable of.”

Steeves takes pride in his defensive game and feels that when he is playing good defense, it gets his offense going. 

“I am very defensive minded on the court, it’s my number one priority,” the senior point guard said. “I feel that when I am playing good defensive my offense feeds off of it.”

Steeves feels that his team has good good depth and a lot of playmakers and believes that this season could be something special, especially if he gets his offense going. 

“Coming into this year, we’ve already played all these teams twice over the last two years so we are very comfortable with the way they play.” Steeves said. “Having different shots will be huge for us.”

With the possibility of a special season forthcoming for the Mustangs, the senior is looking for his teammates to go out and win the Tri-Valley league and then make a run through the tournament. Having no playoffs last year due to Covid and just missing out on a post-season run by one game on the last game of the season the year prior has left Steeves and his teammates driven to make this the year.

 

Although a 3-sport athlete, Steeves enjoys basketball as it’s a sport in which you have the ability to get back and pick yourself up on the very next possession.  

Following his high school career, Steeves is hoping to attend college where he has been in contact with a few basketball coaches. 

“I’ve already spoken to the coach at Western New England in addition to a couple of other schools who have reached out to me, but I wasn’t interested in them,” Steeves said. “At Western New England, I’d be playing basketball, who knows what will happen at other schools. I will try to play basketball or maybe even try to walk onto the football team as a quarterback (his position with the Norwood football team).”

Although his college decisions will be coming in the next few months, right now Steeves and his Norwood teammates will be looking to put together a season in which they can be proud of. Hopefully one which results in a deep run through the tournament.