Photos via Warwick Warriors Boys Basketball Facebook
Elijah Feather Jr. was 28 points from 1,000, heading into Warwick’s district matchup with Benson County on Jan. 24.
He knew the stats. He knew the significance of it. And yet he wasn’t perturbed.
“We talked about it, and we just went with it,” Feather Jr. said.
He went on to put up exactly 28 in an 83-59 victory. It earned the Warriors their first district win of the season — but, on a larger scale, it put Feather Jr. in an exclusive club of 1,000-point scorers in North Dakota.
“To me, it felt great,” he said. “It felt awesome because none of my family members got to reach that milestone, so I had the chance to take it. So I took it.”
As one of two seniors on this year’s Warwick team, Feather Jr. has taken a more central leadership position. He’s a quiet leader, as head coach Ryan Brown explained, but he’s one who leads by example.
And now he has tangible proof of the success that hard work can bring.
“We all know on any given night, if he’s got an opportunity to score early, he’s gonna have a good chance to put more than 28 if we need it,” Brown said. “Elijah has been a really good distributor this year of his team as well. Fitting that leadership role changes every season, and he’s taken a step every season, every level, every game. But yeah, it was really good to see him get rid of it, in a way. Get over that hump — that way you don’t have to worry about it going forward.”
Feather Jr. lives and grew up in Tokio, a town on the Spirit Lake Reservation. It’s about 10 miles northwest of Warwick and 14 miles east of Fort Totten.
It’s a small community, with a population of around 300. But it’s home to numerous players from both Warwick and the nearby Four Winds program.
“It’s pretty good because most of the people around Tokio play basketball in the wellness center close to it,” Feather Jr. said. “And we all go up there and have games, have fun.”
Warwick’s population is just 50, as of the 2023 census. But many kids, including Feather Jr., come from some of the surrounding towns and areas.
Brown grew up in St. Michael and graduated from Devils Lake High School in 2011. He’s now in his ninth year coaching for Warwick. Third-grade Feather Jr. was in one of the very first groups that Brown coached.
“I knew he was special dating back to third and fourth grade, having a lot of success early on, understanding the game and wanting to play the game,” Brown said. “That’s been Elijah’s forte for almost a decade.”
Feather Jr. credited his coaches and teammates for believing in him. He explained that he shares a mutual belief in them, which has made him and the team stronger in the long run. Feather Jr. has spent many hours practicing, working out in the gym and focusing on particular areas of his game that need improvement.
“Part of it is mentality. The mentality you want to have on the floor comes within the players,” Brown said. “It makes my job easier as a coach. But the will to want to be here every day, the will to want to show up every day, work hard, get better — and not only get himself better, but get his teammates better — that’s the type of person that Elijah’s been his whole career. You might see him out there scoring, leading us in scoring, but he’s leading us in all the other categories as well. And just really happy to see that leader he has become.”
Feather Jr. shares an equal trust in his coach. Brown, who’s seen him grow from a young elementary-schooler to a 1,000-point scorer, has been a central figure and leader in his life.
“He’s been pretty good to us,” Feather Jr. said. “He pushes us to be better, and he tells us what to do, off and on the ball, off and on the court. He tells us, senior-wise, we had to be leaders and show the other guys how to accomplish things even bigger.”
Feather Jr. had another 20-plus-point game on Jan. 27 against May-Port-C-G, fueling Warwick to a second district win. That was despite the Patriots double-teaming him at times and putting extra focus on guarding him.
He’s become a complete player, one who can drive and find the rim but can also lock down three-balls from any direction.
Brown said a large portion of his success stems from off the court.
“He’s pretty quiet at times. He just lets his game show for himself,” Brown said. “But off the court, he leads by example. In the classroom, he makes sure he puts accountability on his players, and his teammates make sure they’re there. And that’s the same mentality you’ve gotta have off the floor as well. You’ve gotta work hard as a student, so you get a chance to work harder as a player. And that’s been a blessing for me with him.”
Feather Jr. was part of the historic Warwick team that went to state in 2023. That ended a 27-year drought of state tournament appearances.
The program has produced successful players within that span, though. Warwick has one Mr. Basketball winner: Melvin Langstaff in 2012. Rob Lawrence was also a Mr. Basketball finalist in 2000 and recently had his number retired.
The program has all odds stacked against it in terms of population. Most schools of Warwick’s size will simply co-op with others to play sports. But the tradition of Warwick boys’ basketball holds strong, and it’s players like Feather Jr. who are helping to continue it.
“It makes it more prideful knowing you come from a smaller school,” Brown said. “Even when we went to state two years ago, we had a population of 66 kids in our high school. We were by far the smallest school at that state tournament that year when we earned it. Actually, Elijah Feather was a reason why we were on the ropes, and then putting the pressure on No. 1-rated Central Cass at that time, where he hit three threes in the end of the third quarter, one of them being NBA range. That’s just one thing about the kid: When he’s got confidence in him[self], you never know. He can pull up anywhere, and I’ll have that confidence back in him.”
The Warriors are currently competing in a District 4 that’s loaded with quality teams. They missed out on state last year after making it there in 2023. But they’re on the right track, winning a couple of important games to start the district season and showing they can keep up with a variety of opponents.
However the rest of this season unfolds, Feather Jr. will ride off into the sunset on his high school career. As for the next step, he’s yet to lock anything in place. He said he wants to play basketball somewhere, but he hasn’t nailed down a school.
In the future, he said he might even want to take on Brown’s role.
“Maybe being a coach to help inspire other people to play basketball,” Feather Jr. said. He added that he wouldn’t mind coaching for Warwick if the opportunity presented itself.
For now, he’ll just get to soak in the rest of his time in a Warriors uniform. He’s already surpassed the highly coveted 1,000-point threshold, one that high schoolers all over the country work towards.
But he still has a handful of games to continue padding his total. With every basket he scores, he’s only establishing himself as a bigger name to remember in the longstanding lore of Warwick basketball.
