Bunker Hill Community College Alumnus to play NCAA Division I Basketball for Alabama State University
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) announces 2017 alumnus and 2016 All-American Fredens Deneus to sign a letter of intent to play for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Alabama State University (ASU) Hornets for the 2017-2018 season.
The signing will take place on Monday, August 14, at 3 p.m., in BHCC’s Gymnasium.
The 6'7” 230 lb. power forward graduated from BHCC in 2017 where he led the Men’s Basketball team to 35 overall wins, with 30 of those being conference wins, during his two years playing for the National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association (NJCAA) team. In 2016, Deneus led the Men's Basketball program to the NJCAA Division III Nationals for their first time in 11 years.
In his second season at BHCC, Deneus averaged 14 points per game, pulling in the same number of rebounds while shooting 67%, improving his field goal percentage by six percentage points from his freshman campaign, earning him a top three finish nationally among NJCAA Division III colleges. He finished his BHCC career having played 44 games earning 673 points and 684 rebounds.
“Fredens is a tremendous person with great drive,” said BHCC Men’s Basketball Coach Nkrumah Jones. A former athlete and BHCC alumnus, Coach Jones is in his seventh year at the helm of the College’s Men’s Basketball program. “He came to BHCC to accomplish two very important goals—to obtain his associate degree and to earn a Division 1 scholarship—both of which he achieved while being a model student-athlete.”
Coach Jones has coached Deneus since the 6th grade when he played for the Greater Boston Lions (GBL) Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) program. “Playing for ASU was a long time plan for Fredens,” he continued. “To see it come to such a successful end is bittersweet for me. Fredens has elevated the BHCC Men's Basketball program to national recognition. He's on his way to continuing his great quest for excellence in academics and athletics, and BHCC will be forever grateful for his choosing of our college along his journey.”
Deneus is very appreciative of the opportunities he’s had at BHCC. “It's a blessing to receive a D1 scholarship,” he said. “And I have been waiting for this moment for a long time. All of the hard work and patience has paid off.” For Deneus, he chose BHCC because of the College’s commitment to preparing students to excel academically, and to be part of the supportive culture of BHCC Athletics. “The basketball program is like a big family,” he said. “Coach Jones is a great coach who gets the best out of his players and wants all of his players to succeed. My teammates brought that winning attitude and grit to every game, and to me, that's the key to success.”
A graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, MA, Deneus graduated from BHCC in 2017 with an Associate of Arts in General Concentration. He plans to major in Psychology at ASU. The power forward is only the third Men's Basketball transfer from BHCC to a Division I institution in the team’s 38 year history, and the first in 13 years. He is also the first Division I transfer for current BHCC Men’s Basketball Coach Jones.
Bunker Hill Community College is the largest community college in Massachusetts. The College enrolls more than 14,000 students on two campuses and at three satellite locations. BHCC is one of the most diverse institutions of higher education in Massachusetts. Sixty-four percent of the students are people of color and more than half of BHCC's students are women. The College also enrolls nearly 1000 international students who come from 107 countries and speak more than 75 languages.
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About Bunker Hill Community College
With more than 50 years of academic excellence, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is Massachusetts' largest community college, annually welcoming a diverse community of around 16,000 students. With campuses in Charlestown and Chelsea, BHCC extends its reach across several locations in Greater Boston. The College offers associate degrees and certificates, early college and dual enrollment, community education, corporate training, and industry-specific training programs. BHCC is celebrated for its diversity, boasting a student body where 65% identify as people of color and more than half are women. The College also embraces a global perspective, with over 600 international students representing 90 countries and conversing in more than 65 languages. Our commitment to diversity is further reflected in BHCC's designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI).