NVC's Farrington, Jackson named Freshman Honorable Mention for NorCal by Signal The Light Basketball
Photos courtesy of InsanenessMedia
First photo: Napa Valley College's Chris Farrington
Second photo: Napa Valley College's Chris Farrington
By MARTY JAMES
Napa Valley College's Chris Farrington and Jerard Jackson, both guards, were named Freshman Honorable Mention for Northern California by Signal The Light Basketball.
Signal The Light Basketball announced its Northern California Freshman of the Year, first and second teams, and those earning honorable mention in a report, at stlball.com, on April 3.
According to its website, stlball.com, Signal The Light Basketball is the "#1 News Source for California Men's Junior College Basketball."
John Bynum Jr. is a writer and scout for Signal The Light Basketball.
The 6-foot-1 Farrington, who is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, started all 28 games for the Storm, averaging 15.5 points per game on 39.3 percent shooting from the field, 28.9 percent from the 3-point line, and 65.5 percent from the free-throw line. He also averaged 6.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
He averaged 33.3 minutes per game. He scored 435 total points and had 171 total rebounds during the 2023-24 season.
Farrington, the Storm's point guard, scored 20 or more points in nine games and scored in double figures in 20 games.
He had 28 3-pointers.
He scored a season-high 48 points, hitting six 3-pointers, in the Storm's 107-98 Bay Valley Conference loss in overtime to Solano Community College on Friday, Feb. 16 in Fairfield. It's one of the greatest games by an NVC player in school history.
Farrington was 17-of-29 shooting from the field, 6-of-8 from 3-point distance, and 8-of-15 from the free-throw line, in 39 minutes. He also had eight rebounds and four assists.
After scoring 13 points in the first half, Farrington exploded, scoring 26 points in the second half, as Napa Valley rallied to force overtime, with the score tied at 85-85 at the end of regulation.
Farrington has been in the NVC program since 2021, but was unable to play for the Storm due to suffering stress fractures twice to the fifth metatarsal in his left foot. He had surgery in November of 2022.
This was his first season playing for the Storm.
"He's been chomping at the bit to get on the court. He's been poised and patient and mature and biding his time and waiting his turn," NVC coach Steve Ball said, earlier in the season.
"I feel like, with everything that any of us do, we start off with the things that we're most comfortable with. And then we expand upon that as we get more and more adept at them. I feel like he's really good on screen and rolls. So, we did a lot of plays throughout the season, especially the second half, where we had him involved in a screen and roll. Because that was our most productive action, as far as points per possession, was having the ball in his hand, having him make decisions and other guys reading the decision that he makes and making plays off the backside of that.
"He was so quick with his screen and roll, that teams started to come underneath the screen and roll and then later in the season, he would just stop and pop on the backside of it."
Farrington was named to the 2023-24 All-Bay Valley Conference team. He was also named to the conference's All-Freshmen Team.
The 5-foot-9 Jackson, who is from San Jacinto (Riverside County), played in 28 games, with 13 starts, and averaged 8.6 points per game on 33.2 percent shooting from the field, 32.7 percent from 3-point distance, and 80.0 percent from the free-throw line. He averaged 20.8 minutes per game.
He also averaged 1.8 rebounds per game
Jackson had 242 total points and 50 total rebounds. He also had 64 3-pointers.
He scored a season-high 22 points against Yuba College-Marysville in the final game of the regular season for the Storm.
He scored in double figures in 12 games.
Signal The Light Basketball named Shakir Odunewu of West Valley College-Saratoga as its Northern California Freshman of the Year.
Signal The Light Basketball's Northern California Freshman first team:
* Achilles Woodson, Skyline College-San Bruno, guard.
* Jalen Cunningham, Cabrillo College-Aptos, guard.
* Rashaud Bradley, Columbia College-Sonora, guard.
* James Nichols, West Hills College Lemoore, forward.
* Shakir Odunewu, West Valley College-Saratoga, center.
Signal The Light Basketball's Northern California Freshman second team:
* Sidney Duplessis, Sacramento City College, guard.
* Jalen Robertson, Los Medanos College-Pittsburg, guard.
* Marcellus Edwards, Chabot College-Hayward, guard.
* Jaden Haire, College of the Sequoias-Visalia, forward.
* Trey Booker-Lowery, West Hills College Lemoore, forward.
* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.