Country Day basketball standout Kellen Brewer has grown in more ways than one during his junior year.
Brewer now stands at 6-foot-6, growing three inches from last year after playing a key part on Country Day's state championship-winning basketball team as a sophomore. He’s taken on an even larger role for the Cajuns this season as the team’s leading scorer, averaging nearly 20 points per game.
The son of former NBA player and current New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach Corey Brewer, Kellen has started for Country Day since his freshman year.
“(Kellen Brewer) plays at such a high level,” Country Day coach Mike McGuire said. “He’s done everything. Rebounding, guarding the other team’s best player, and he’s our leading scorer on top of that. He just has a better understanding of the game.”
Brewer’s averaging 19.7 points per game this season. He’s thrown down several impressive dunks while improving as a shooter from 3-point range.
“This year, I’ve been shooting way better,” Brewer said. “Hitting two or three 3’s a game, and that’s just really spaced the floor out for me. People can’t just back up and pack the paint anymore.”
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Country Day coach Mike McGuire and Country Day's Kellen Brewer (5) react to a three pointer against De La Salle. David Grunfeld
Brewer has Division I recruiting attention from LSU and other SEC schools. He’s shown that he’s more than a scorer, averaging 8.5 rebounds per game this year with five assists and three steals.
Corey Brewer has trained Kellen since a young age, and the pair work out regularly at the Pelicans’ practice facility. The elder Brewer began noticing his son’s basketball potential in middle school.
“(Kellen) has always loved basketball,” Corey Brewer said. “Around the sixth grade is when he really started taking it serious. I started to realize in the eighth grade that he was going to be pretty good, and he now has a chance to be a really good basketball player.”
Kellen also played football for Country Day this past fall. It was his first year playing football at the varsity level, which was also the case for Cajuns senior basketball standout Hermon Dyson.
Brewer and the 6-foot-3 Dyson had success as wide receivers. Country Day has won its last 11 basketball games with Brewer, Dyson and 6-foot-4 sophomore Curtis McAllister fully back from football.
"It’s a different conditioning for football than basketball,” Dyson said. “Coming back, I was a little slow, but I got back up to my normal speed. I feel like we’re finally becoming the team we were last year.”
The son of legendary Saints running back Deuce McAllister, Curtis scored 21 points in the Cajuns’ most recent win over Newman, which was second to Brewer's 24 points.
Born in Seattle, Brewer lived in several places growing up with his dad having played in the NBA for 13 seasons for eight different teams.
“(My dad) has a really big impact,” Kellen Brewer said. “I don’t have any other trainers. He helps me a lot with scoring and what to think on defense while creating passing lanes and stuff like that.”
The Brewers have lived in New Orleans for the past six years with Corey serving on the Pelicans coaching staff since 2020. Kellen has attended Country Day ever since.
"It was the people at Country Day that made it the right fit,” Corey Brewer said. “Mike (McGuire) is a great coach. I wanted (Kellen) to be coached hard and have him work to get better.”
Country Day had a first-round bye last week as the No. 3 seed in the Division III select boys basketball playoffs. The Cajuns begin their quest for back-to-back state titles on Tuesday against No. 14-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas in a second-round playoff matchup at Country Day.
“Coach (Raymone) Andrews does a really nice job at St. Thomas Aquinas,” McGuire said. “The whole bracket is really tough. I think our guys will be ready.”