A lot of good it did Mary Watson to ask a favor of this reporter. “Don’t write this part,” she whispered during a brief interview at Boiling Springs High School Friday night, “but it’s probably best when you don’t get the headlines and nobody really knows about you. Then it’s easier to sneak up on teams.”

Mother was only trying to protect her son,

senior

. Only the cat’s long been released from the bag. No team prepares for coach Pat Dieter’s Bubblers without being fully aware of the lean 6-3 senior “center” who ranks among the midstate’s leaders with 17.3 points per game.

Watson scored 20 points Friday night in a 67-51 victory over Mid-Penn Colonial rival East Pennsboro, the win vaulting the Bubblers (13-4, 8-1) into a first-place tie with the Panthers (14-3, 8-1). He unleashes relatively quiet double-digit efforts on a regular basis, too, turning himself into the unassuming leader on an unassuming team.

“He won’t say a word sometimes,” Dieter said of Watson, a tri-captain by default along with classmates Colin Ruane and Luke Hetrick. “That’s the thing about him. He speaks up a little bit more now that he’s a senior, but he never gets angry at his teammates. Sometimes I’d like to see [him speak up]. If and when he does raise his voice everyone will be shocked, but I guarantee you everybody will listen to what he has to say.”

You would think a dude named Speed would be a bit more gregarious, maybe even a showman on the court. After all, it’s one of the coolest nicknames in the Mid-Penn Conference, is it not? Well, no, it isn’t. Speed, it turns out, is a given name.

His full name is Lucas Speed Eichhorn Watson. The Speed part comes from his uncle, Ted, who earned the nickname as a youngster. Mary and husband Deen liked it so much they added it to their youngest son’s name when he was born, and he’s gone by Speed ever since. “No one has called me Lucas since my second-grade teacher,” Speed said.

An honor roll student, Watson is still undecided about a college, but he would like to continue his basketball career. He also participates in track and field, focusing on the high jump and middle distances.

Because Boiling Springs doesn’t exactly have height to spare on the basketball floor, Watson generally lines up at center and competes against players several inches taller. He’s developed a variety of low-post moves to help his scoring numbers surge this season. The pump fake is his favorite. “I want to get my man in the air jumping for blocks,” he said.

Dieter admits he expected more out of Watson last season, and they worked on his strength a lot in the offseason. “At our team camp this summer, we played a lot of tough competition — guys from York High and Harrisburg, for example,” Dieter said. “And he played very well in those games. He’s carried that over into this season. He gives up a lot of size, but he makes a lot of plays around the basket while knowing he’s going to get hit a lot.”

As much as Dieter fantasizes about a ferocious, Hulk-like Watson showing up to seize control of the team, the veteran coach loves the kid’s work ethic and commitment to improving every day. “I just can’t say enough about how hard he works,” Dieter said. “What you see in games is what he does in practice every day. He just works his tail off.”