Wakefield basketball team honors the life and memory of teammate Messiah Pitt

By Pat Welter

At Wakefield high school the goals are hanging on the walls. State Championship Banners from the 2004 and 2006 basketball teams serve as reminder of what this year's goal is.

"Everybody wants the championship," senior guard Jaxon Brown said. "I feel like this year we've got a real hunger to get it."

Their head coach knows what it takes. He was on the team in 2004.

"We feel like we have a lot of talent, a lot of depth and then that part we were missing last was that experience," Garrett Stevens said.

If the banners are a reminder, the initials "M-P" painted onto the court are their inspiration.

"[Us] knowing his mindset," junior guard Ellijah Preddy said. "That gives us a bigger reason to why we need to go as hard as we can."

"M-P" stands for Messiah Pitt.

"He was a dog," Brown said. "He always played hard, always gave it his all."

Wakefield wears Pitt's number 4 and his initials proudly on their warm up jerseys. His picture is hanging in the locker room.  During games they will drape his jersey at the end of the bench.

"There's times you look down at the bench and you expect to see him there," Stevens said.

Pitt should have been a senior at Wakefield this season. His life was taken June 19, 2021. It was just after midnight, Pitt was attending a graduation pool party in Garner. According to Garner police, gun shots broke out in the parking lot.  Pitt was an unintended target.  He was taken to the hospital where he died.  The team found out that morning on their way to a summer tournament game.

"I just had a whole bunch of emotions, I started breaking down," Brown said. "I don't know it just really hurt me a lot."

"I didn't have the answers that day, I didn't know what was right or wrong for them" Stevens said. "We did end up going to play that day. A couple parents came together and said these kids love to play."

"We came together as a family that day," Preddy said. "We chose to play basketball because that's what he wanted."

Preddy is one of several players on the team that's gotten Pitt's initials and number tattooed. The team has made it their mission to honor Pitt's memory every where they go. Their efforts haven't gone unnoticed.

"I really appreciate how the teams, not just Wakefield, but other schools have honored him," Pitt's mother, Latrice Austin said. "I just feel like it speaks to his character a lot."

The pain is something Austin has learned to live with daily. She can smile as she goes through old photos while sitting at the kitchen table of her apartment. She flips through his birth announcement, a picture of him in his argyle sweater that he refused to wear as a little kid, then there's a photo of him dunking on his toy basketball hoop.

"He loved the game of ball," Austin said. "That was just life for him. He would not miss anything for basketball."

Four men have been arrested and charged in Pitt's case. Garner police said a second vehicle left the crime scene that night and the investigation is still on going. In the meantime the Wakefield basketball team will continue to do Pitt's memory justice.

"When I say our team is a family, we are together every day," Preddy said. "He was with us every day so it always feels like he's with us."