One year and a state championship later, Pine Bluff High School senior Randy Emerson Jr. is moving on to continue pursuing his basketball dreams.
Emerson signed Thursday with Ohio Urban Renaissance Prep Academy for men’s basketball at PBHS’ McFadden Gym.
“I’m just glad to have the time to just come out and just express something that I love to do and just see the people that come out that just support me,” Emerson said. “I just want to thank everyone that came out today, and I just want to thank everyone that’s going to forever be there.”
Emerson transferred to Pine Bluff from White Hall for his senior season and helped the Zebras win a second straight Class 5A state championship. He led the Zebras with 12 points in a 53-50 win against Van Buren in the first round of the state tournament.
He went on to score 15 points in the second round against Jacksonville and 13 points in Pine Bluff’s 85-82 double overtime win against Lake Hamilton in the state semifinals.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
PBHS coach Billy Dixon said he and his players were excited to have Emerson join the team.
“We played against him for the past three years from the ninth grade through 11th grade,” Dixon said. “To have a talent like that to come and respect your program enough to want to be a part of it, and to help us be able to go back-to-back, yeah, that was extremely important. He was a threat the moment he stepped on the court.”
OUR Prep Academy, based out of Youngstown, Ohio, aims to prepare students and student-athletes for college for their first year after graduating high school. According to the academy’s website, this year doesn’t count against an athlete’s eligibility.
Emerson said he found out about the academy when the coach reached out to him on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Me and the coach had been talking ever since,” Emerson said. “And the coach, he’s such a real guy. He’s a real dude. We’ve had real deep conversations, and we’ve talked a lot, and that’s how I knew it was just the place for me to go.”
The Goat Herd play in the Ohio Prep Conference against similar post-graduate programs. OUR reached the OPC semifinals this past season.
Dixon said OUR should offer Emerson a higher level of competition than if he went to a junior college.
“I think the options are open for him beyond that point,” Dixon said. “Hopefully, he can go and do what he does best, which is shoot the basketball. Learn and pickup and develop other phases of his game. I think the ceiling is very high for Randy. He’s long. He’s tall. He’s lanky. He shoots the deep ball extremely well.”
Before Emerson signed, Dixon allowed anyone who wanted to stand up and speak about Emerson. Person after person came forward to talk, and it took over 30 minutes to get through all the speakers. The speakers included coaches, teammates, friends and family members.
Dixon said that shows who Emerson is as a person more so than an athlete.
“When people get up and share and give back to these young people, I think that’s great,” Dixon said. “He probably doesn’t realize what that really means when something like that actually happens. I hope at some point it sinks in and he gets it, but yeah, that’s great to have that many people to actually get up.”