2025 SVM Boys Basketball Player of the Year: Dixon’s Darius Harrington

Even after making history in 2023-24, Darius Harrington wasn’t done.

As an encore to a stellar junior season when he scored more points than any Dixon player, the 6-foot-2 senior obliterated his own scoring record on his way to taking over the top spot on the Dukes’ all-time scoring list this past winter.

But even a couple of months after Harrington broke the career scoring record Feb. 4 against Oregon, his title as the best scorer in DHS history still hadn’t really sunk in.

“I’m kind of still lost for words about it,” he said. “It was more in the back of my mind; I wasn’t thinking about that, really, it wasn’t my main priority coming into the season. I didn’t really start thinking about it until last year, and then I thought, ‘All right, I’m definitely going to try and go for that,’ and I had the confidence to do that.

“I didn’t imagine it, but at the same time, I believed that I could do it. Now to think that I’m on top, it feels pretty good.”

Harrington scored 793 points this season, far surpassing his then-school-record 599 in his junior year. He finished his career with 1,826 points, 45 more than Beau Bailey’s 1,781 and 267 ahead of Jake Gaither, a volunteer assistant coach this season at Dixon.

Not afraid to work hard, Harrington points to all the time he put in on the court – and outside of practice – as the key to his success. The steady improvement throughout his career was evidence of that.

He had only 15 points his freshman season, before a 419-point sophomore campaign. He also improved as a rebounder, passer and defender throughout his career, and finished with 708 rebounds (6.1 per game), 197 assists (1.7 apg), 116 steals (1.0 spg) and 19 blocked shots.

In his three seasons as a starter, the numbers are even more impressive: 7.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.2 steals per game.

“I just had more to prove. I just wanted to take another big step from last year to this year. Honestly, it just meant something to me if I could prove that I’m getting better every single year,” Harrington said. “I don’t feel like a lot of people doubted me, but I wanted to prove the people that did doubt me wrong. It means a lot, because all the work I’ve put in outside of practice, just getting those extra reps in, that obviously helped me with all the scoring I did.”

Harrington finished the season averaging an area-best 27.3 points per game, team and career bests of 8.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game, and 2.3 assists per game. He was a unanimous all-Big Northern Conference selection, and was named second-team all-state by the Illinois Media and third-team all-state by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association.

But it was the way he was able to consistently carry the offense by scoring from every level – coming off screens or driving to the basket or backing down defenders into the post – and take the pressure off his teammates by being the focal point of the opposing defense, that really set Harrington apart this season.

“He’s done a really nice job of taking on a large load, a lot of the burden at different times during games, and he can do it in multiple ways,” Dixon coach Chris Harmann said. “Really, the thing that I thought he stood out in was leadership. He was more vocal in practices and just getting guys in spots where they needed to be.”

That leadership role was something Harrington grew into and it was because of the players who came before him. As a freshman he watched the way Gaither went about things. Playing with guys like Austin Hicks, Bryce Feit, Mason Weigle and Wyatt Wetzell the next two years, Harrington appreciated the examples the older players set.

“When I was an underclassman, I looked up to them for answers, and they helped guide me through everything. I think that really kind of shaped me into the leadership role I’ve had the last two years,” he said. “I felt comfortable, because they always had open arms and they helped me with anything I asked them, and that was a pretty big key for me.”

The stability those teams provided also proved beneficial. Playing with the same basic group of players for his sophomore and junior seasons helped Harrington grow into the player he is.

It also showed him how much fun the game can be when everybody on the team works together.

“I loved it, it was great. There was no part where people were arguing about different roles; everybody just meshed together. It made things way simpler,” Harrington said. “I think team chemistry definitely built from that, and we were all on the same page, which is a good thing. Developing the team we had last year, we had played together for two years, we just kept building more and more chemistry.”

Despite a few different pieces, this season was similar. Cullen Shaner was the only other returning starter, but classmate Eli Davidson, junior Brady Feit and sophomore Brody Nicklaus stepped in almost seamlessly, and Gabe Rowley led a solid group off the bench as the Dukes hardly missed a beat. They went 22-10 to mark the third straight season with at least 19 wins, and displayed the same close-knit chemistry and single-minded desire to win.

“Just being around the guys was great. Everybody was good with everybody. There was no beef, no drama, nothing. Everybody got along with each other, everybody knew each other outside of school, and we all enjoyed similar hobbies together, so that definitely helped,” Harrington said. “We all had the same mindset and wanted to win. Everybody was putting in the work after practice, after games. Sometimes we’d come in here to shoot around, shoot free throws, and we actually wanted to, it wasn’t forced upon us; we willingly came in and wanted to do that because we knew we could be a better team.”

Harmann saw the growth in Harrington’s game as his confidence grew year to year. As a result, he was able to take over games more easily and more often.

“I think when you even go back with that group [ahead of him], they each kind of knew their roles on those teams, and they gave him the ability to get a little bit of freedom. Defenses had to guard several spots on the floor, and with that, he’s able to get a lot more one-on-ones,” Harmann said. “This year, he saw double-teams, triple-teams, box-and-one, a little bit of everything – even some stuff that might not even have a name. I think the thing that’s impressive is he was able to continue to put up good numbers scoring-wise, and he did it pretty efficiently throughout the year.”

The toughest part for Harrington was the way the season ended. He injured his ankle in the third quarter of an overtime loss to Byron the game after breaking the record, and losing him proved to be too much to overcome.

The Dukes won their next game in overtime, but lost their final two regular-season games as Harrington worked hard to return for the regional semifinal against La Salle-Peru. He came back, but wasn’t 100% in Dixon’s 53-50 loss.

“The worst thing was having to sit there and watch them go out there without me, especially if they were struggling. I couldn’t even go out there and help them, and I hate seeing my team lose games and not being able to do anything about it,” he said. “Just even sitting for one game, I just couldn’t do it, and then I thought, ‘Man, this is going to suck, I’ve still got to do it for another two weeks.’ It felt like forever waiting to come back.”

“After he got the ankle injury, we talked and he said, ‘I haven’t ever really been hurt before,’ so it’s one of those things where that’s a mental hurdle that he’s seeing for the first time. It was just a little unfortunate, how the season ended,” Harmann said. “You can ask the guys on our team: He’s a pretty good ballplayer, and any time you take away a team’s guy like that, it makes things difficult. And I give our guys credit, they played hard throughout a couple of those games he was out, and you can’t take anything away from what this team and what Darius did this year.”

Although Harrington is not continuing his basketball career next year, he can look back fondly on the last four years.

He’ll mostly remember the success, and the fun he had with his teammates.

“Just the wins, and the way everybody here wanted to put in the work and wanted to win, I’ll definitely remember that,” Harrington said. “And the good times with the guys, and just having fun out there and making memories that will last for the rest of your life.”