varsity.roanoke.com

KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Cave Spring senior guard Adam Hager, shown looking to pass around Salem's Seth Carroll (20), is "the most mature guy in the locker room — including me," according to Knights coach Billy Hicks.

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According to his teammates, he's "the responsible one."

What that means, exactly, depends on who you are. If you're a reader of the Cave Spring student newspaper, and you've got a beef with a sports story, that means Adam Hager is the guy to whom you complain. He's the sports editor.

If you're a Cave Spring basketball player with a forgetful streak, that means Hager is the one who calls or texts to remind you of that big team function you're about to miss. Hager's a captain. He's the one who saves your hide.

On the other hand, if you're 44 and have four kids and have been married 20 years, that probably means you think the so-called "responsible one" has a lot to learn about what it takes to be responsible.

Or maybe not.

"I'm 44," Cave Spring coach Billy Hicks said Monday. "I've got four kids. I've been married 20 years. It's still sometimes difficult for me to pull a kid in here and have a difficult conversation with him. I dread it.

"What I've learned over time is that sometimes conflict can be good, because it leads to resolution. [Hager], at 18, has already figured that out. His coping skills are just tremendous. ... He really has a whole different level of maturity than most 17- or 18-year-olds."

The archives are filled with stories of young boys who entered high school with no hope of becoming college-level athletes -- then somehow made it happen. Maybe they hit a growth spurt. Maybe they worked hard. Maybe their game blossomed.

Hager is the opposite. A senior shooting guard who ranks second in school history to J.J. Redick for career 3-pointers made, he easily could play college ball somewhere next year.

But in the eighth grade, Hager decided that he didn't want to play college basketball. Instead, he wanted to spend those college years helping out with Young Life, a Christian ministry that reaches out to high school students. The potential time conflict between his hoops and his heart would be too great, he figured.

So this is it for him. As the Knights defend their Group AA Division 3 title in Richmond -- starting today with a 1 p.m. tip against New Kent -- Hager knows that he is playing the last organized basketball of his life.

Not that this approach doesn't have its benefits.

"It's definitely been a freeing thing for me to not have that pressure like, 'I've really got to impress this guy from Hampden-Sydney tonight' or what-not," Hager said. "Definitely it's been freeing. Because I know that win, lose or draw -- if I score zero points or score 20 points, whatever -- it's fine. It's going to be all right."

Things have been all right for Cave Spring all season, largely because of Hager's efforts on the court and as a mediator between the coach and the team.

"If he were a senior on a group of juniors or sophomores, it would be easy for him to be a leader," Hicks said. "But he's a leader among his true peers, guys he's grown up with. ... He is a liasion. When something's going on on the team, he'll say, 'Hey, can we practice early?' He's not afraid to come knock on this door, sit down on the couch right there and have those man-to-man conversations with you. He's mature beyond his years."

His shooting isn't bad, either. Last year, Hager hit 91 percent of his free throws to break Redick's single-season school record. This year, he's nailed 52 shots from behind the arc, including 16 in the past four playoff games.

"He helps our offense work so well because he takes the pressure off the inside," said Cave Spring's leading scorer, Josh Henderson, a 6-11 Vanderbilt recruit. "They can't really double-down on me as much because they know he's out there."

Buoyed by his recent success, Hager has more faith in his jump shot than he ever has. But his spiritual faith? That's even more important to him.

"That's what makes me who I am, definitely," Hager said. "My personal goal here as a player here at Cave Spring isn't to be the best 3-point shooter or to get 10 points a game or to shut down the other guy. My goal is to focus on the relationships I have with my teammates and show God's love to them through the sport of basketball."

It's this big-picture perspective that has Hicks gushing that Hager -- who holds a 3.9 GPA -- is "the most mature guy in the locker room -- including me."

But when it comes to a desire for winning basketball games, they're on equal footing.

Before boarding a bus for Richmond on Monday, Hager conducted four interviews for his upcoming newspaper recap on Cave Spring winter sports. His piece will include girls basketball, indoor track, wrestling, all of it.

"I've actually yet to write the boys basketball story," the responsible one said. "I hope I won't get to until Sunday."