By Jim Fenton, Enterprise Staff Writer
Brockton, Mass. - The point guard rivalry began when they were
eighth-graders living on opposite sides of Brockton.
Bobby Montrond was playing for West Junior High School and
Darius Yarrell was at East Junior High School nearly a decade ago.
It was a rivalry that continued whenever they met on the
playground for pickup games or in a summer league, and it was
present even when they became teammates at Brockton High School.
"It was one of those things,'' said Yarrell. "Growing up,
everybody talked about who was the best point guard, and we took
that seriously. It was really competitive.''
"It would always be hyped,'' recalled Montrond. "It was more
like a personal battle between us as well as a team battle.
Sometimes we'd gloat more about our stats than wanting to win.
"We'd always try to have something on each other. If I beat him
by 20, he'd say, ‘Well, I had 25 points.' But I'd say,
‘But I beat you.' ‘'
More often than not, the rivalry was intense, and it wasn't
until the latter stages of their stays at Brockton High when the
teammates started to become friends while working together in the
same backcourt for Coach Vic Ortiz.
Tonight in Beverly, Montrond, a senior at Endicott College, and
Yarrell, a senior at Framingham State College, will be reunited and
go head-to-head from the point guard position, just like the old
days in Brockton.
Unlike the time early in their relationship when they weren't on
the friendliest of terms, Yarrell and Montrond are now pals who
spend time together in the summer and keep in touch when they are
at school.
"It's going to be really exciting,'' said Yarrell, who averaged
9.6 points, 5.1 assists and 1.6 steals as a junior for the Rams.
"We're going to have some friends from Brockton there. The
atmosphere will be good.
"It's a chance to renew an old rivalry and bring the best out of
one other, especially at the college level. We can show people what
it was like in Brockton.
"I think the first couple of minutes, we'll have that energy
real high going into it. After that, we'll put that individual
matchup aside and the team will come first.''
Said Montrond: "I'm looking pretty forward to this. I'm really
excited. There's going to be that personal battle. I'll probably do
a little trash talking to get a little smile on his face like old
times.
"But it's a team concept, so we're going to be playing to see
who has the ‘W' at the end. We've each got to do things for
our team.''
Yarrell and Montrond credit each other with helping develop
their respective games, thanks to the intensity that was apparent
whenever they squared off on the court as youngsters.
"Arguments at times got pretty heated, but I'd say it was never
nasty and there were no fistfights or anything like that,'' said
Montrond. "We always brought each other a competitive edge and we
couldn't take plays off. It kept us on our game.
"Every day in high school, I had to come to practice prepared. I
knew that somebody was coming at me and it was the same for him. It
made the games easier, I'd say.''
Said Yarrell: "We didn't like each other when we first played
against each other. But over the time, we became good friends. You
could definitely see (playing against each other) helped us. He
always brought the best out of me.
"The rivalry is always going to be there. He knows that he's
going to get my best, and I know that I'm going to get his best.
Whether we're playing pickup, anything. I think we're both a lot
better from playing against each other.''
Montrond and Yarrell were teammates on the varsity as juniors,
and there wasn't a smooth transition.
"There were some negative vibes,'' admits Yarrell. "We were so
worried about going at each other and it kind of hurt the team that
year. That summer after, we both had a little talk during a summer
league game and decide to put it aside for the good of the team.''
The two helped the Boxers go 15-5 as seniors in the 2004-05
season, and the rivals started becoming friends.
"We put the team first and we went 15-5,'' said Yarrell. "A lot
of people fed off of us. That year was good. It turned around my
game as a whole that year. It helped me now in college.
"We're real good friends now. We've got a tight circle of
friends now and he's one of my good friends.''
Ortiz remembers the on-court battles between the two as "very
intense. They both had a lot of self-confidence and they went at
it. There was such a competitiveness in both of them.''
Montrond went to New England College after leaving Brockton and
started 19 games as a freshman in 2005-06, averaging 12.2 points,
4.4 rebounds and 3.6 steals (second in the country).
He wanted to get closer to home and left the New Hampshire
school for Endicott, averaging 8.1 points, 3.3 assists and 2.6
steals as a sophomore and 7.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and
three steals (to rank among the national leaders) last season.
Yarrell, a captain at Framingham State, led the MASCAC in
assists last season and was among the national leaders.
They went their separate ways, basketball-wise, after Brockton
High, but the point guards who first went at each other in junior
high will be back together at the college level this evening.
"I kept asking my coach to schedule this game, and sure enough,
he surprised me with game number one of the season,'' said Yarrell.
"It's going to be fun. We're definitely going to have some fun and
they'll be some trash talking. It wouldn't be right without it.''
