Westside basketball has a family affair on the court. The Warrior’s London Dada is the son of Tola Dada, a Westside assistant principal and former first team all-state center at Burke, who went on to play at UNO. As a sophomore all talk of London being labeled as Tola’s son is out the window. The 6’7” guard has gained significant traction under his own name after getting his first varsity start and shooting lights out with 13 three-pointers on a state high 57 percent shooting from downtown. London reflects on his start to his first start on varsity.
“I came out of the locker room and the coach said I was going to start,” London said. “I was kind of nervous but I was just going to go out and try to play my best. As for the start of the season it’s pretty good. I’ve shot the ball really well and my rebounding is pretty good. I’ve been working on my defense a lot.”
Before coming to Westside, London had just one coach up until middle school, which was his dad. London said it was challenging to have his dad as his coach, but he’s grateful for what he was able to learn. Tola has a similar perspective as his son when it comes to being his coach. Looking back, Tola is extremely grateful for his time as his son’s coach but admits he may have been hard on London at times.
“Looking back at it now it was tough,” Tola said. “But it’s fun and I’m grateful for that. It was stressful because parent coaches are usually too hard or too soft for their own kid. I wanted to be able to give him the best experience, along with the team. I will admit there are a lot of times I was too tough on him, but it was just extremely fun to be able to help with a little of his development.”
London started his high school career as a leader on junior varsity. Just a year later he has played in all four wins for the Warriors this season. The Westside guard started the season as the sixth man on the team, but has jumped into a starting role early in the season. London is second on the team averaging 12.8 points per game shooting 62% from the field. It’s safe to say London is exceeding expectations to start the season.
“Coming into the year we had a lot of transfers, so I didn’t really know what my role would be,” London said. “I took every workout seriously and played hard in practice. I felt like I put myself in a good opportunity to play this season.”
To some it may be a surprise to see London flourishing in high school as just a sophomore, but to his inner circle it’s not much of a surprise. London has been practicing for countless hours on his journey to middle school and now high school. London got his first in-game dunk as an eighth grader and has never looked back.
“He’ll tell you, it’s a lot of time put in,” Tola said. “Out of school days, probably two or three hours a day, we do a lot of shooting, a lot of footwork. Every day in the summer there’s workouts we’re gonna do. He’ll do some stuff on his own, we’ll do some stuff together, you know. But in order to be successful in Class A in Nebraska, you really have to put the time in. He’s willing to do that, so you’ll see it pay off. I’m just excited just to see where his career progresses.”
London and his teammates are looking forward to the Metro Holiday Tournament at Bellevue West High school, where the Warriors are the number one seed. The tourney begins Saturday, Dec. 28th
