MMA’s very own Frank Mason opens up to the Northern Virginia Daily in a recent article and reflects upon his time spent at MMA in our postgraduate basketball program. Frank Mason is currently a standout player for the Kansas University Jayhawks. Although prior to his collegiate career, he was playing at our very school.
Mason is a native of Petersburg, Virginia, which is about 25 miles south of Richmond with population of around 30,000. Self admittedly, Mason never thought he would one day find himself attending a military school but life has a funny way of playing out. At the same time our postgraduate basketball team was quickly becoming a prep powerhouse with the guidance of head coach Chad Myers, Mason entered a series of events which would lead him to our very campus.
In 2012, Mason led his high school team, Petersburg High, to a runner up finish in the Virginia High School league Group AAA state championship game. He was lightly recruited out of high school and eventually earned a scholarship and signed on to play at Towson University. About two weeks prior to graduation though, Mason learned he had narrowly failed a government class – making him academically ineligible to begin college in the Fall of 2012 like he had planned.
This turn of events completely changed his course – but perhaps, for the best. Mason found out he would need to spend a year at prep school if he wanted to follow his basketball aspirations of playing on the collegiate level. As fate would have it, a roster spot for Mason’s position – point guard – opened right up as Corban Collins committed to LSU and passed on MMA.
MMA was “the only option for me,” Mason said. By the time basketball season was in full swing, Mason was playing regularly and gaining interest from major NCAA Division I programs. By November of 2012, after catching the eye of Bill Self, the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks, Mason committed to KU. Shortly after that commitment, Mason went on to lead MMA to its first ever No. 1 national ranking title and its second straight stint in the invitation-only National Prep Championship Elite 8.
Frank Mason graduated from MMA in 2013 and went on to Kansas to play basketball. He always vowed to return back to Woodstock and our campus. On Friday, that is just what happened as we celebrated his homecoming with a ceremony to honor the retirement of his No. 3 Colonels jersey. This ceremony was followed by a Q&A and autograph sessions inside of MMA’s Memorial Gymnasium.
While MMA and the postgraduate year was never part of Mason’s plan, he certainly knows it put him in the right position to be where he is today. “It’s just an unbelievable feeling. It’s something I can look back on and (can) really be proud of,” Mason told the Northern Virginia Daily.
Learn more about Massanutten Military Academy and our postgraduate program here.