Lasting Connection

Blaise Ffrench and Trinity Fields grew up in South Jamaica playing basketball together. The two entered Holy Cross with Sylven Landesberg four years ago as part of one of the top classes in the program’s history. They talked about winning city championships alongside one another and earning Division I scholarships.
It didn’t happen according to plan. Fields transferred into Cardozo following his sophomore year. The final two years of each other’s high school careers couldn’t have worked out any better, however.
Fields expanded his game at the Oakland Gardens school and landed a scholarship to Iona College. Fields’ decision to leave not only benefited him, but also Ffrench.
With Fields gone, Ffrench took advantage of an opening at the point guard position, moving over from shooting guard, his spot beforehand, to help the Knights to their first city championship in 40 years last month while averaging 13.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6 assists his senior season.
“Blaise could always do that,” Fields said. “He just didn’t have the opportunities. Blaise was always that type of player.”
He recently verbally committed to the University of Texas at El Paso, picking the Miners over Quinnipiac, Auburn, Manhattan, St. Francis, Long Island University and Central Connecticut. If not for his position change, Ffrench said, he may not be looking at such a future. Not many schools, after all, are interesting in 6-foot-1 shooting guards.
“I had to be a point guard in college,” he said.
The two have even more in common, having dealt with personal tragedy.
Fields lost his father, Tifford, January 15, 2002, when he was murdered. It was part of the reason he attended Holy Cross. His father, who went to Cardozo, wanted his son to gain a Catholic school education. But Fields wasn’t happy at the all-boys school. He wanted the freedom to diversify his game offensively and found it in Ron Naclerio’s run-and-gun system.
Ffrench lost his mother, Kym Irby, his sophomore year. After serving an integral role in the Knights’ freshmen team advancing to the city final, he barely played as a sophomore on the varsity. He wasn’t the same, the relentless work ethic missing. When he thought about quitting, the grief too much to take, Fields was always there to offer encouragement.
“When it happened, he really talked to me; he helped me,” Ffrench recalled. “He told me, ‘Stay strong,’ and just do what she would want me to do. It happened to him, so he knew how it felt.”
Ffrench won the Holy Cross starting point guard job as a junior and emerged this winter as one of the city’s best - and toughest - lead guards. He guided the Knights to the city championship game with a post-up basket in the waning seconds of a thrilling semifinal upset victory over Rice, and shut down Christ the King’s Erving Walker, the explosive Florida-bound guard, in the final.
“It shows they both can get through adversity,” said Fields’ brother, Tiff, who called Ffrench ‘another brother to us.’ “They’re bigger than what they can do on the court. How do you recover from [losing a parent]? They both are getting Division I scholarships. They both have good grades. They’re both going on with their lives in a positive manner.”
The likeness in their games - the two are both 6-foot-1 scoring point guards with friendly, easy going dispositions but fierce competitive fire raging within - are staggering.
But what would’ve happened if Fields never left? Would Holy Cross have won the city championship this year? Could they have won two in a row? Would the two have progressed on and off the court in this way?
It may not have worked out so well, Naclerio said. Fields may not have developed his scoring punch. French could have become a dynamic sixth man, but wouldn’t have excelled to this extent.
“It’s funny sometimes how somebody else’s move effects you negatively or positively,” Naclerio said.
It doesn’t matter, said Billy Turnage, now the coach at Wings Academy in the Bronx who was formerly an assistant at Holy Cross when the two were sophomores and has known them since they were sixth-graders.
“As a coach, your ultimate goal is to get kids into school,” he said. “How could it not have worked out?”
Fields and Ffrench no longer see each other every day, but have remained tight. They closely followed one another the last two seasons and will be in the same limousine for their senior prom.
Fields and Ffrench no longer see each other every day, but have remained tight. They closely followed one another the last two seasons and will be in the same limousine for their senior prom.
“We’re connected forever as friends,” Fields said.
Their playing days on the high school level aren’t done yet either. The two will represent the city team as teammates in the Jordan Brand Regional game at Madison Square Garden Saturday.
“It’s a real honor,” Ffrench said. “When I found out, I was real happy.”