ALBANY SPORTS HALL OF FAME: Andre Young transformed into a Deerfield-Windsor great

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final in a series of stories profiling the four members of the 2016 class being inducted into the Albany Sports Hall of Fame.

ALBANY — Gordy Gruhl remembers first hearing about Andre Young through a local newspaper.

The guard had been featured in an edition of Sports Illustrated for Kids as part of the Faces in the Crowd section that highlights the accomplishments of unknown athletes.

The story was eventually picked local news outlets where Gruhl, the head basketball coach at Deerfield-Windsor School, happened to hear about it.

“I wrote the family a letter,” Gruhl said. “I congratulated him on being in Sports Illustrated and I told them that he seems like the type of kid that would really thrive at Deerfield. I told them if they had an interest in pursuing that to give me a call and left my phone number.”

A couple of weeks later, Young and his family set up a meeting with Gruhl.

“As they say, the rest is history,” Gruhl said.

After an illustrious high school, college and professional basketball career, Young will be one of four into the Albany Sports Hall of Fame Monday night at the Hilton Garden Inn.

“Being inducted into the Albany Sports Hall of Fame never even crossed my mind,” Young said. “I’m definitely grateful and it is a huge honor.”

Not long after the initial meeting with Gruhl, Young enrolled at Deerfield-Windsor. Despite being undersized at the time of his enrollment, the guard developed into one of the best athletes to ever come through the school.

“When he first came to school, he was about 5-foot-4 and couldn’t have weighed 100 pounds,” Gruhl said. “He had a two-handed shot, but after his freshman year, I told him we’ve got to do something about your shot if you want to play college basketball.”

After two weeks of practicing a new shot, Gruhl checked on Young and he said it looked like the guard had been shooting that way his whole life.

Young scored 2,062 points in his Deerfield-Windsor career, which broke the school’s scoring record. He also left as Deerfield’s career assist leader (471), career steals leader (498) and was first in free throw percentage (78), three-pointers (199) and total field goals (780).

“Playing at Deerfield gave me a great foundation in terms of knowledge for the game,” Young said. “Gordy did a great job of teaching the basic concepts like motion offense. By the time I got to Clemson, I wasn’t that far behind.”

By the time Young was a senior, he had been rated as a four-star recruit and had garnered offers from multiple D-1 schools including Maryland, Purdue, Butler, Auburn, South Florida and Wichita State.

Young decided to continue his basketball career at Clemson where he continued to break records. In his four years there, Young knocked down 236 threes and scored 1,223 career points.

After finishing up his college career, Young received tryouts with multiple NBA teams but eventually landed overseas. He has played professionally in Holland, Ukraine and most recently in France.

When asked what made his career so special, Young refused to take credit for his success and his induction into the hall of fame.

“Basketball is a team sport,” he said. “Even though I am being recognized, it is not an individual accolade thing. This whole thing would not have been possible without certain people like my family, coaches, teammates and all the people who came to watch me throughout my career.”