Quartz Hill’s Young Incites Fans to Frenzy

Basketball crowds in the high desert are notoriously raucous, especially on those wintry Friday nights when the mercury dips into the 20s and a good place to let off steam is in the local high school gymnasium.

Chris Young, a muscular 6-foot senior guard at Quartz Hill, knows that kind of crowd and he senses its energy. He also knows that it is his crowd.

Young is a quiet sort, not one to bark at the referees, to howl like those desert coyotes when a call doesn’t go his way.

Rather, he produces his own type of thunder, and none of it requires opening his mouth.

Take, for example, last Friday night, in a 59-57 win over rival Palmdale. With Quartz Hill clinging to a 43-42 lead with 5 minutes 45 seconds to play, a sense of anticipation seemed to pervade the gym.

Young sprung off a baseline pick, squared his shoulders and drilled a three-point shot, simultaneously increasing Quartz Hill’s lead and the decibel level in the gym.

After Palmdale tightened the score to 46-44, with 5:10 to play, Young freed himself again, took a pass, toed the three-point line and made another three-point shot.

Palmdale scored again to make it 49-46 but missed a shot a moment later. Soaring high over two imposing Palmdale front-line players, 6-5 Chris DeGlopper and 6-7 Jason Grimes, Young grabbed the rebound.

Off he went. Inspired by the increasing roar of the rowdies in the Rebel Roundhouse, Young weaved down court, twisted his body in midair to avoid Grimes, and dropped in a twine-tickling finger-roll that gave Quartz Hill a 51-46 lead. Crowd noise, should one wonder, rose sharply.

“I just get the crowd going,” a modest and polite Young said.

His final tally against Palmdale: 17 points, nine rebounds, two blocks, five steals and three assists.

Young, who averages a team-high 21.4 points and 8.9 rebounds, also leads players in the region with 4.8 steals a game. Little wonder that five Division I schools are actively recruiting him.

Young combines athleticism with basketball acumen. Despite the ability to take nearly every defender to the basket, he is not whistled for many charging calls. He keeps his game--and his mouth--under control.

“He’s a pretty quiet kid,” Quartz Hill Coach Don Moore said. “But his wheels are spinnin’ most of the time. He’s always looking for that break so he can go down and dunk. He’ll give them the riot act that way instead of hollering.”

Young seems to have cornered the market on big plays. He finished off Antelope Valley with a steal and a spectacular, reverse two-handed dunk in the waning seconds. With his team trailing by three at Saugus with two seconds left, a tightly defensed Young made a three-point shot at the buzzer to force overtime.

And last Tuesday against Saugus at home, he sparked a fourth-quarter rally with a steal and pass to teammate Danny Prince for a tying layin at the end of the third quarter. Quartz Hill went on to outscore Saugus, 19-8, in the final period. Young made eight of 10 free throws in that stretch. He finished with 17 points and six steals.

“I just get a rhythm going in the fourth quarter,” he explained.

Moore has danced to that beat all season. “He’s our go-to man,” he said. “I want the ball in his hands. . . . Hell, you got a stud, you may as well go to him.”

Young will take the challenge every time. He will look for the hidden angle, the unexpected steal, the pressure jump shot to fire up his burgeoning fan club.

“The dunks, especially, fire up our press,” Young said. “And the other teams don’t expect it from a 6-footer. . . . That makes it extra spectacular.”

Just ask the hometown crowds. They expect it of this 6-footer. And, you don’t have to listen too hard to hear their appreciation.