Unsigned Series – Aaron Calixte

New England Recruiting Report | Wednesday, February 19th, 2014

The New England Recruiting Report’s “Unsigned Series” will profile some of the region’s top available prospects remaining in the class of 2014.  

Some of the best kept secrets in New England can often be found in the northern most points.  

In other words, sometimes places like Lee Academy have some of the best remaining talent late in the year, simply because college recruiters are more reluctant to make that long car ride north.  

This year is certainly no exception with guys like Petar Kutlesic, Dusan Majstorovic, and Mihailo Vasic all still on the board.

Most surprising though, is that Aaron Calixte is still available.

A native of Stoughton (MA), Calixte is in his second season at the Maine prep school.  He made an immediate impact last year, asserting himself as one of the team’s top players and most dependable guards.  

It was more of the same on the grassroots circuit, where he was a consistent staple of a New England Playaz squad that traveled the country from the northeast to Indianapolis to Las Vegas and all spots in between.

He earned division I scholarship offers from perennial NCAA caliber programs like Robert Morris and Iona this summer, but then fell somewhat off the radar after a deep laceration to his right hand kept him out of the line-up for a month-and-a-half this fall, making it impossible for any of those schools to come see him.  

He’s been on a tear since his return, albeit with fairly unique circumstances.  

This year’s Lee Academy team is made up almost entirely of international prospects, and the team’s style of play has reflected that.  Regardless, Calixte hasn’t missed a beat and asserted himself as a leader of this team from day one according to head coach Igor Vrzina.  

“Aaron has been great.  I couldn’t ask for more than he’s doing,” Vrzina said.  “We have a bunch of kids from different backgrounds and he took on that leadership role right away.  He’s high energy in practice every day.”

Not only is Calixte undeniably talented with all the intangibles, but he’s also got a proven learning curve.  As an underclassman, he was known as a driving guard, but by the time he was a junior he had already developed both a consistent pull-up game and three-point range, making himself a true three range scorer.  

This year, he’s more than proven that he’s capable of running the point on a full time basis.  In fact, Vrzina’s one criticism of his lead guard is that he could be more selfish from time to time because he’s such a dangerous scorer.  

Instead, Calixte is running the team first and looking for his individual offense second and his statistics reflect as much as he is averaging 14.1 points, 5.7 assists, and 4.3 rebounds since his return while also boasting a 3:1 assist to turnover ratio.  

On the recruiting front, he’s heard from local programs like Maine and Vermont, but is now hearing the most from the likes of Southern Illinois and Georgia State.

Vrzina, who has a long coaching background both in Europe as well as the college level, says he believes Calixte has the tools and talent to impact a variety of different places.  

“I think he could be a major asset to any program in the country,” Vrzina said.  “He’s a really really solid mid-major player.”

And certainly one of the best backcourt prospects left on the board.

---