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‘I perform for her to make her happy’: Depina cracks Eastern Nazarene roster in honor of late grandmother

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Joey Depina’s late grandmother molded him into the man he is today. 

“She raised me,” he said. “My mother was extremely young when she had me and my gram took care of all us and held the family down. She was more than a grandmother.” 

She passed away in November of 2019, but the values she instilled in him live on. 

“She always taught me to work hard in something you love,” he said.

That’s just what the Whitman native did. After months of training, Depina made the Eastern Nazarene men’s basketball team as a walk-on.

“This is for her like everything I do, whether it is in the classroom or basketball, I perform for her to make her happy,” said Depina, a former captain of the W-H boys’ basketball team. “I know she is always looking down on me, so I always want to work hard in life to make her proud. Making the team this year is definitely an achievement I did for her.”

Depina, a sophomore at ENC, spent most of his freshman year on the junior varsity squad, but when the pandemic began and players returned home, the varsity squad called him up. Depina said he knew if he put in the work during the offseason, he could earn another call-up. 

“The quarantine really helped coming into this year,” Depina explained. “I would lift at my house every day and also play basketball in my backyard, like working on my handles, shooting, footwork and different moves with my friends, Samuel Rodguies and Nyron Dunnamanio. Focusing on myself as a basketball player really helped me get better.”

About a month after school began this year, the varsity squad gave him another chance. He never looked back.

“Coach [Sean] Foley (assistant coach) brought me into his office and asked if I would take the opportunity to workout with the varsity because they are low because of injuries and I am the type of player they can rely on,” Depina explained. “I told the coach that I would take the offer.

“After the afternoon practice, coach said that he wanted to attend media day and smiled at me. When I left the meeting, I was extremely happy and ready to work even harder to get better in my craft for the team.”

Depina and the Lions will likely tip off their season sometime in January.

“My goals before hitting the court are still learning different moves and players with the team,” Depina said. “I want to keep getting better with this group of players, I call my brothers to end up with a ring when the season starts. I am extremely excited about entering this season because it is a new experience for me.”

Welcome to the club: Josh Rice joins his dad in Eastern Nazarene’s 1,000-point club

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Josh Rice (left) and his father Jon after the game. / Courtesy photo

Josh and Jon Rice become the first father-son duo in Eastern Nazarene College history to both score 1,000 points.

There was already plenty to celebrate.

Friday, Nov. 22 was both Jon Rice and his wife Nancy’s birthday. Their son Josh gave them a memorable present — at the place they first met.

Josh, a senior swingman on Eastern Nazarene’s men’s basketball team and 2016 Whitman-Hanson Regional High graduate, entered his game that night against Worcester Polytechnic Institute on the verge of school history. He needed 14 points to join his dad in the college’s 1,000-point club — and to become the first father-son duo in program history to do it.

After hitting four quick 3-pointers, Josh was just two points away. Then, with 5:17 left in the first half, he got a screen, a pass from his teammate Noah Cheney, spotted up from the top of the key and connected on another one from beyond the arc. This one, pushed him over the 1,000-point mark.

“I definitely don’t think I could have asked for a better present,” said his father Jon, who ranks 18th all-time on Eastern Nazarene men’s basketball’s scoring list with 1,226 points that he scored from 1986-90. “And to do it at my alma mater — I’m so proud of Josh.”

Said Josh: “I’m definitely proud of it, especially since it’s the same school that my dad went to. He’s a big reason I went here. It‘s nice for us to have and be able to share that forever together. It was a great feeling — especially for him to be there.”

And it was appropriate for Josh, a Hanson native, to reach the milestone with a 3-pointer. He’s connected on 199 of them so far during his college career.

Josh said his father molded him into the shooter he is today.

“He didn’t let me shoot threes until I was in high school,” Josh said. “He taught me how to shoot, the form, everything.”

Jon coached his son in town and AAU basketball from fourth grade until his sophomore year of high school. Josh credits his father for helping foster him with a love for the game.

“My dad loves sports, especially basketball,” Josh said. “His history at ENC and his passion and his love and knowledge of the game really grew that passion in me.”

It began when Josh was in elementary school and his father Jon was the head boys’ basketball coach at Hingham High.

“I would bring him with me to practices and games,” the elder Rice said. “There was one time, I remember coaching a game in Weymouth and we had just enough seats for everybody on the team and the last seat was for the water cooler. Josh was in second or third grade at the time. There was one of those big, heavy water coolers, and he was like, ‘Well, dad said I could sit on the bench this game, so I’m just going to move this water cooler.’

“So, he attempts to move the water cooler and it falls over and it floods the court, so that was certainly an everlasting memory.”

Jon eventually gave up his spot on the Hingham bench so he could coach his son.

“It was one of the toughest decisions I had to make,” Jon said. “It was hard, but I don’t regret a second of it. I cherish the memories I have coaching Josh and my other two boys, as well.”

But the memories that stick out to Josh occurred in the driveway, where he and his younger brother Tyler, a former starter on the W-H basketball team, who graduated in 2018, played against their youngest brother Ben, who is a senior on the Panthers now, and their father.

“I just remember how intense those games would be going down the stretch, being like 20-20 and the first to 21 wins,” Josh recalled. “Losing to my brother and my dad motivated me to work even harder.”

It’s what happened after the game when no one was watching that defines Josh’s work ethic.

“The next day, I’d be out working on the shot I missed in those games,” Josh said. “Those games were so valuable growing up. We all wanted to win so badly.”

Josh entered this season just 40 points away from the 1,000-point mark. His offseason was rigorous, but typical. 

“I would work out wherever I could,” Josh explained. “When Whitman-Hanson was open, I’d get in there when I could, I’d drive up some nights to ENC. I also work at the YMCA in Hanover, as a camp counselor, so I’d go early and get a workout in, and then after my shift was up I’d get shots up.”

His drive, determination, and prowess on the court are a few aspects of Josh that stick out to ENC head men’s basketball coach Scott Polsgrove. They explain why he’s a captain for the Lions.

“He’s a great leader for us,” Polsgrove said. “His teammates all know that he cares about them, and he’s a fun, loving, player who has an infectious attitude and energy about him that draws people to him. We rely on him heavily.”

While Josh finishes his ENC career, he’ll forever have a memory in the college both he and his father called home.

“I’ll be able to take my kids to an ENC game one day and say, ‘That’s your grandfather and that’s me,’” Josh said.