Bucs’ guard Dimeco Childress has had to deal with a lot of changes throughout his senior season with the ETSU men’s basketball team.
Despite all the changes, including the loss of four-year teammate Cliff Decoster to illness, Childress and his teammates have kept sight of their goals.
“We’ve had to refocus and realize what our goals are, that is winning the (Southern) conference and getting to the (NCAA) tournament,” said Childress before last Thursday’s practice. “They (team’s goals) haven’t changed at all, we just have to adjust and keep playing and hopefully achieve all of them.”
Childress, who is averaging a team-high 15.6 points per game which ranks him eighth in the Southern Conference, has taken more responsibility not only on the offensive and defensive ends of the court, but has been more of a vocal leader as well with the loss of Decoster.
The Buccaneer senior and junior guard Ryan Lawson are the only two returning starters from last season’s squad that won the SoCon North Division.
Childress found it tough early in the season, dealing with more responsibility that was expected of him, but has gotten more comfortable as the season has progressed.
“It’s been more difficult at some times than others,” he said. “At first, right around Christmas, when Cliff left was the hardest time, adjusting to him not being there since I’ve been with him for the past three years.
“Recently things have lightened up, the team is coming together a lot. The younger guys are more experienced, we’ve had a half season together and we’re starting to gel together real good.”
The Bucs have won four in a row, including two on the road, a 96-77 victory over VMI and an 86-76 victory at Western Carolina. ETSU also got big home victories over Georgia Southern (100-65) and Davidson (85-78); with Childress recording career-highs in scoring in both home victories, 35 and 36 points, respectively.
Childress believes the team is peaking at the right time as the Bucs will be trying to improve their SoCon ranking in their final four regular season games.
“I think we are playing our best ball,” Childress said. “They’re big games (versus Davidson and UNC-Greensboro) and we have to have them to be where we want to be at (conference) tournament time.”
Childress has had numerous accolades throughout his career at ETSU. He was an All-Southern Conference honoree last season, a preseason all-conference selection this year and surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career on Jan. 7 versus the College of Charleston, scoring 15 points in the Bucs’ 62-56 loss.
“He’s (Childress) very important (to the team), he’s made big shots over his career and he’s played a lot of minutes,” said head coach Ed DeChellis. “He’s been one of the staple guys in our program the last four years.”
Childress became the 21st player in ETSU history to reach the 1,000-point plateau and first since Trazel Silvers, who scored 1,257 career points from 1991-94.
Since surpassing the mark, Childress has been climbing the all-time scoring ladder, moving to 14th all-time with 1,175 career points, ahead of Hal Morrison (1,171, 1951-54) and just six points behind Wes Stallings (1,181, 1983-86) for 13th on the list.
“I knew it was going to happen, I didn’t know when, but I knew it would,” Childress said. “I didn’t stress about it.
“I’m up there with elite company and nobody has done it since the early ’90s. It’s an honor to achieve that in my career.”
Childress scored, what was a career-high at the time, 35 points against Georgia Southern on Feb. 2. Georgia Southern ended ETSU’s season in the conference tournament last year, but Childress does not believe he or his team will have any less intensity if they face the Eagles in the tournament this year.
“When tournament time comes around every game could be my last,” he said. “I’m going to go at it full-hearted and leave everything on the court every game and hopefully the young guys will see me doing that and they’ll step up their game too.”
Off the court Childress will be graduating in May with a degree in sports management and hopes to be a coach some day after his playing career is over.
“Hopefully I can get a job in something with sports if not coaching then some other aspect,” Childress said. “Coaching is what I really want to do but I’ll have to see how it works out.”
DeChellis said: “He’s a credit to our program. He’s a great kid and a model student-athlete.

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