Day by Day: Ethan Day’s persistent growth elevates Revere’s game

By Dom Nicastro

For Ethan Day, it’s all about growth.

The junior Revere High School basketball player ­led the team in scoring this season and was named a Greater Boston League all-star. He didn’t just get here; he worked. And he worked to the tune of nearly a 300% increase in scoring from last season to this winter.

Day got a few postseason minutes his freshman year. He averaged 7.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per game last season as a sophomore sixth man. This year? Nearly triple the points (18.5 points per game), more than double the rebounds (6.5 per game) and he tossed in 3.4 assists per game.

“He really worked on his game, got physically stronger and went from 10-15 minutes a game to 30 minutes,” Revere Head Coach David Leary said. “Ethan since Day 1 has always had an ability to score.”

Leary recalls a few seminal moments from Day’s early days as a Patriot. One minute into his career as a varsity player, Day went into a state tournament game at Scituate as a freshman in front of a packed house and scored his first varsity basket. He had a very solid sophomore season last year and made a huge layup plus the foul in Revere’s first-round tournament game at Plymouth South. He calmly sank the free throw to give Revere a one-point lead late and the game to help secure the victory.

And now this season: regular games in the 20s for points; consistently in double figures.

“We struggled as a team this year at times to score enough points to win games but Ethan was consistent throughout the season,” Leary said. “Ethan works extremely hard on his game, and he loves to play with his teammates. He is willing to do whatever it takes to win, and we look forward to seeing him grow as a leader and a player for his senior season next year.”

Day himself recalled this season as one in which he pretty much played the whole game almost every game. And that’s no easy task in a competitive GBL.

“The competition is tough,” Day said. “You play a lot of teams that pressure and trap you all game. Our coaches watch a lot of film on the teams we play. In practice we go over their defenses, the plays they run and who their best players are. Our coaches do a great job preparing us.”

Day’s still got one season left. It will cap off a school basketball run that began when he was in elementary school. In the off-season, he’s going to keep playing basketball, work out and get a job. And likely weave in some chicken wing binges, his favorite.

Revere finished 6-14 this season and missed the postseason. Clearly, team growth is on Day’s mind for next winter. “I think that next year we will definitely be able to make it back into the state tournament,” Day said. “We will be a smaller team, but we are going to have to play tough and fast.”