When Darryle Wiggins ’14 tore his meniscus this basketball off-season, the doctors told him he was done. They told him he was looking at a three-month recuperation period. They told him he would spend the better half of the Staples season on the cold, hard bench.

Wiggins told them “No”.

Now, after a month’s rest and intensive physical therapy, Wiggins is back. And he means business.

“He was a huge factor in our opening day win against Danbury,” head coach Colin Devine said. “He was coming right off the injury and still played great.”

Wiggins provided eight points, six rebounds and two blocks for the Wreckers that night. However, according to him, just playing “great” isn’t good enough. Even with his mean defense and his 16 points per game before his injury this past fall season, he says it takes more than just one player to lead a team.

“What I am hoping for this season is to just enjoy these moments with my teammates,” Wiggins said. “After this season, basketball could be done for some of us, and we want to go out as a team to remember.”

Though this will be Wiggins’s last season with the Wreckers, this is certainly not his first, as he is one of very few Staples athletes to have been a varsity player his entire four-year high school career. As far as basketball on the whole goes for Darryle, however, it dates back a bit before freshman year.

“For my seventh birthday, my grandfather got me a hoop in the backyard and I always played on it,” Wiggins said. “Then my mom thought it would be a good sport to get me into.”

Ten years later, standing 6 feet 3 inches as the starting forward and captain of the Staples team, Wiggins is happy with his mother’s decision. And so is the rest of the team.

“D and I always joke around,” teammate Todd Goldstein ’14 said. “But he is really a very passionate, skilled player. We all expect a lot from him.”

And these expectations come on top of an already challenging routine. Despite the fact that he says he feels a part of the “Staples basketball family,” Wiggins comes to the school through the Open Choice program, which takes students from Bridgeport into the Westport Public School system.

What this means for Wiggins is, on top of his seven-hours-a-week practice schedule, he has to make a near half-hour drive just to get to the court on time. However, according to Devine, if he didn’t already know Wiggins had to make the long trek, he could never tell.

“He has to get up super early and make the commute, but you’ll never hear him complain,” Devine said. “He’s an always-happy kid.”

In fact, Wiggins thinks his situation is ultimately beneficial.

“Coming from Bridgeport, I actually think it helped me become a better basketball player just because there are two different styles of play between Bridgeport pick-up basketball and Westport pick-up basketball,” Wiggins said. “Having played in both has made me tougher because I know how aggressive some guys can play.”

And, according to Devine, it’s exactly this positive outlook that makes Wiggins such a good leader and so crucial to the team dynamic.

“He’s a bright kid, and he takes advantage of all the opportunities he has,” Devine said. “He’s going to be very successful in whatever he does.”