Chasing hoop dreams in Iowa

The cornfields of Iowa are the last place Zach Lofton thought he ever would call home.

Last spring, Lofton was fresh from leading Columbia Heights to its first boys' basketball state tournament appearance since 1930, guiding the Hylanders to the Class 3A championship game before losing to Orono. The leading scorer in the metro, the 6-3 swingman knew he would be playing basketball after high school. Where, however, was the big question.

Lofton scored a 21 on his ACT, high enough to qualify him to play in college, but he had not filled the core curriculum required by the NCAA.

"I was thinking junior college for Zach," Columbia Heights coach Willie Braziel said. "All the big JUCOS knew about him."

As he was weighing his options, however, he took notice of the path of a friend, former Brooklyn Center guard Freddy Young.

Young had left high school after his junior year in 2010, looking to get away to improve his grades, his game and his life without the pitfalls of home. He found Quakerdale Prep, a 160-year-old prep school based in New Providence, Iowa, that had just begun a basketball program.

"They recruited me to come here," Young said. "Coach [Stan Hughes] had seen me play in the summer in Las Vegas. My GPA wasn't that high. I [saw] it as an opportunity to get my grades up and become more mature."

In the first year of Quakerdale's basketball program, the Eagles -- a team of primarily inner-city players from around the country, many looking for a chance to rectify high school mistakes -- won the National Prep/Post Grad tournament in Indiana, one of the most prestigious prep school tournaments in the country.

"I saw the improvement Freddy made," Lofton said. "Coach came up to me and had a good plan for me, taking it one step at a time. So I came straight here."

Lofton was not alone. The lure of another chance, along with the commitments of Lofton and Young, helped to create something of a metro- area pipeline to Quakerdale.

Minneapolis North's Malik El-Amin (the nephew of former North star Khalid El-Amin), Minnesota Transitions' Rodney Owens, Bloomington Kennedy's Cullen Russo and Cooper's Raheem Tyner all have enrolled there this fall. It's Quakerdale's Minnesota Connection.

Farm country

New Providence is a stereoptypical Iowa farming community with a little more than 200 people about 65 miles north of Des Moines. Farm fields surround the town's eight streets on all sides. It's not exactly a place one would expect to see six young black men from the Minneapolis area settling in.

"It was an adjustment," El-Amin said. "It's still an adjustment. A lot of people wanted me to go to junior college. But, after talking with my father and my uncle, we decided this was the best place for me."

According to Quakerdale Prep executive director Rob Talbot, the school specializes in helping students who had difficulty succeeding in traditional school settings.

"Our academy is designed as a haven for students who prefer a nontraditional, hands-on educational experience," Talbot wrote in an e-mail to the Star Tribune. "We have very successful students, and some have dropped behind in their grades and they need to learn study skills to succeed to the level they desire."

Adding basketball to the Quakerdale system seemed like a natural progression, Talbot said.

"We are developing programs that are of interest to [potential students] instead of just what the state demands of them," he wrote. "Obviously, athletics are appealing in our culture."

With an online-based curriculum and a pastoral setting that practically eliminates outside distractions, the school appears well-suited to helping its basketball players prepare for a life in a post-high school setting.

Opportunity knocks

It was just such an opportunity that attracted Hughes, a longtime AAU basketball coach from the Washington D.C. area, to the Iowa cornfields.

"I try to offer these kids an opportunity," Hughes said. "Not about basketball, but about life. My mission is to help these young men grow spiritually, academically, physically and emotionally. I want them to understand what it takes to succeed in college as a student and as an athlete."

With the success of the team in its first season and the performance of Young, a third team all-tournament team selection, Hughes recognized the potential of Iowa's neighbor to the north.

"Before Freddy, the only Minnesota basketball player I'd heard of was Malik's uncle," admitted Hughes. "But Freddy went home for Christmas break last year and then over the summer, his friends saw a change in him. They saw a difference in his attitude. They thought, 'That's what I need in my life.' That's what brought them here."

None of the Minnesota players believe it will be easy. The team begins each day with 4:30 a.m. practices, focuses on academics from 8 to 3 p.m. and ends its day with 8 p.m. practices.

"It's different," Lofton said. "My closest neighbors are cows. But it's been pretty smooth. I have my mind focused. It's grades first, then basketball. There's not too much time to do anything else. When I go to college, I'll be strong in both areas."