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BOYS BASKETBALL: Negoshian family name and outstanding reputation stays alive on North Farmington bench
FARMINGTON HILLS – The legacy lives on.
Two years ago, longtime North Farmington head boys basketball coach Tom Negoshian turned over the reins to the Raiders program to his son, Todd.
The transition has been as smooth as silk.
Last season, North Farmington finished 14-8.
This winter, the younger Negoshian, has his squad off to a scorching-hot 7-2 record, with a perfect 3-0 mark so far in the ever-rugged Oakland Activities Association Red Division.
“Since I was a little boy following my dad around in this gym, I always wanted to be the head basketball coach at North Farmington,” he said. “It’s been a dream come true.”
Tom Negoshian took over on the Raiders bench in 1982. When he retired in 2011, he had accumulated more than 300 wins and raised several league and district title banners.
Todd was an all-state point guard in high school at Walled Lake Central. In the late 1990s, he was one of the area’s most prolific presences in the backcourt. At the college level, he won a NAIA Division II National Championship with Cornerstone College out in Grand Rapids.
His current team plays like he did – fast, furious and in-your-face.
The 2013 North Farmington squad is spearheaded by a tantalizing trifecta of playmakers in seniors Caleb Hogans and Sterling Sharp and super sophomore Jeron (Buddha) Rogers.
Hogans, a three-year starter signed to play his college ball at Spring Arbor, is a pace-setting floor general that can also score in bunches. Sharp, signed with Eastern Michigan for baseball, is a spy, satiny-stroking wing that can just as easily dunk over a defender on the break as drain a long-range 3-bomb from the corner.
Rogers, a 6-foot-6 forward, is considered a premiere college recruit in the state’s Class of 2015. His father is former NBA vet Carlos Rogers.
Like their head coach, three more of the Raiders starters this season come from high-quality hoop stock. Besides Rogers, freshman guard Jacob Joubert and senior center Cameron Darden and his brother, fab frosh, Alex Darden, have deep hardwood lineages.
Joubert’s father is MHSAA legend and former University of Michigan player Antonie Joubert, currently the head coach at Oakland Community College. The Darden’s grandfather is former UofM star and ABA pro hoopster Oliver Darden, who helped lead the Wolverines to back-to-back NCAA Final Fours in the 1960s.
“We’ve got a nice mix of players this season and we’re making strides quicker than I thought we were going to, since we’re using a lot of kids without much experience,” said Negoshian of his team. “It’s great to see them competing at the level we’ve been playing at and meeting all the challenges we’ve faced so far head-on.”
Although no longer holding the clipboard, Todd’s father Tom remains on the bench at his son’s side as a valued assistant coach.
Ryan Negoshian, Todd’s older brother and Tom’s eldest son, played in high school at Walled Lake Central in the mid 1990s and has spent time as an assistant coach and referee in the Metro Detroit area over the past decade.
