Senior Daquan Brooks spent the past summer working on his all-around game and becoming more vocal and more aggressive on the court.

That work has paid off as he stepped up for the Chieftain boys basketball team according to coach Danum Hunt.

“Daquan has taken over as leader of this team,” he said. “Not only is he a leader vocally, but he does it with his actions. Every day he brings 100 percent maximum effort to practice. He makes the others pick it up and he encourages when they are down.

“He not only does it at the varsity level, but he does it for the JV and the freshman players as well. Daquan is definitely our go-to guy when it comes to leadership in this program. I am proud of him and I am starting to depend on him more and more every day to help me pull this thing together and get it done.”

Brooks may not have the largest stat line at the end of the night, but it is the other things he brings to the table that are important to Hunt and the Chieftains.

Brooks will tell you flat out, he has worked hard to prepare for his finals season.

“During the summer I was working on being a leader as well as my all-around game,” Brooks said. “In the off season I was working really hard on helping other guys get better while I was helping myself.

A year ago, Brooks was satisfied taking an outside shot instead of going to the basket. That has changed this season as well.

“Usually I just like to shoot the jumper,” he said. “But over the summer I practiced driving to the basket. I have been working on my game as a whole.”