KELAN PAYNE-MHS
For Muskogee High senior basketball player Kelan Payne, basketball is his life.
“I have an older brother, Mekeaion, who played and I used to watch him and think that was for me and so I started playing as soon as I could. Basketball is like life to me, and I just like doing it because I’ve been doing it since I was little,” said Payne.
So, were you and your brother pretty competitive growing up?
“As the little brother, I always talked noise because I thought I was better than him and he’d get mad. But since he was bigger, he usually always won. But now that I’ve grown bigger, I sometimes win,” Kelan laughed.
The Roughers have a new coach this year in Lenny Bert who comes to Muskogee after starting a successful coaching career at Midwest City where coached several D-1 players. He spent some time in Washington D.C. where he got to know Kevin Durant while he was growing up and then Bert came back to Oklahoma and reconnected with Durant when he was with the Thunder. He went on to have a highly successful 14 year run at Putnam City West where he won a state championship in 2016.
“I like this new coach because he keeps us going and he’s changed the offense from last year and has shown us the importance of moving without the ball,” said Payne. And the new coach talked about the importance and potential he sees in the two-year starter.
“Everything will revolve around Kelan. He’s very talented, quick, fast and explosive and it’s hard for people to stay in front of him,” said Bert. “He just needs to believe in himself more. I told him ’ I’m going to put you through it’ and he’s starting to take that to heart. At a recent multi-team scrimmage session we had, he was the best point guard on the floor, and I think he’s starting to understand that, and he sees he can be even better. He needs to work on his defensive skills more to be a complete player. His job will be to dictate the pace of the game for us.”
As a senior leader this year, Kelan knows that it’s his time to step up and take charge.
“I plan to bring energy to practice every day and keep my group rolling and I know I’ve got to have a better year than last season. I’m not a very talkative guy, so I’ll have to lead by the example I set.”
Kelan goes back to his sophomore year to talk about a highlight game for him as a Rougher.
“We were playing Jenks, and I started the game with a ‘plus one’ and went on to score 15 points and had eight assists and those are the numbers that I have for a goal for myself this year and to help the team get at least 18 wins.”
Keland says if the opportunity comes up, he’s like to continue playing basketball at the next level.
