Earlier this month, Mt. Hebron senior Odell Dickerson was voted Howard County Boys Basketball Player of the Month for December. The award comes after an efficient start to the season, averaging 22.6 points per game, 8.6 rebounds per game, and 1.6 assists per game, according to Hudl, the team’s statistics application. Dickerson is averaging 1 steal per game and 0.5 blocks per game.

Dickerson was the winner of four candidates, which included Daeshawn Eaton of Oakland Mills, Marc Marshall of Wilde Lake, and Jaylen Wiggins of Hammond. Dickerson won with 47.76% of the votes, and received more than two times the number of votes than any other participant, with 809.

Mt. Hebron social studies teacher and men’s varsity basketball coach Jared Ettinger was pleased with Dickerson’s acquisition of the award.

“I, probably like most people, saw that Odell won player of the month when the poll closed and he had a sizeable advantage. My reaction was that it was very well deserved and I’m very happy for him and our team.”   

The team was off to an victorious start, winning four and losing one, but have since tapered off a bit, sitting at 6-8 overall, and 3-6 in the county. Nonetheless, the team currently believes that they can rally behind the Chapelgate transfer, and establish Mt. Hebron’s basketball program as a force throughout the county.

Dickerson winning player of the month in the first month of the season, “lets the rest of Howard County know that Mount Hebron basketball is here, and it doesn’t plan on going anywhere,” according to Ettinger.

For the month of December, Senior guard Brandon Prox led the team in both steals and blocks, averaging 2.5 steals per game, and 1 block per game. Prox is the only player on the team averaging more than one steal and one block per game. Ettinger has taken notice to this weakness, and hopes to work on this issue before the end of the season.

“Our whole team is working on elevating our play on the defensive end, and [Dickerson] is included there… once we figure that end of the court out, which we’re coming off of a nice win versus High Point where we did figure it out defensively, we’re looking forward to a really great season.”  

The Vikings are coming off of a loss against the one-loss Wilde Lake Wildcats, who are undefeated in county play. The score was 64-60, as Dickerson had a rare game where he was not one of the team’s top contributors.

It is apparent that the success of the Vikings goes hand-in-hand with the success of Dickerson, especially on the offensive end.