Micah Octave started his senior season on a mission.
Back at his previous school, Olympic Heights, after spending one season at Grandview Prep, Octave made his presence known with a double-double (27 points and 10 rebounds) against Park Vista on opening night.
“It was nothing new” Olympic Heights coach Keith Mackrey said. “He was here for his first two years. I had him for one year, his sophomore year, so I knew the talent level that he had. We just knew that it was going to enhance what we had coming into the season. It wasn’t a shock.”
The game set the tone for the season, as the senior guard led the Lions to a 13-2 record — the team’s best winning percentage in more than 15 years — and the program’s second playoff berth since 2004. He is the Sun Sentinel’s Palm Beach County Class 7A-6A player of the year.
“I just wanted to do the best that I could do for my team to win,” Octave said. “We won a lot of games this year, and that’s all that mattered.”
Octave performed throughout the whole season, scoring double-digit points in all but two games. He scored 20 or more points in 10 of Heights’ 15 games. He finished the year averaging 20.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.5 steals per game.
“He does everything,” Mackrey said. “Defensively, he’s a monster. [He is] 6-4 with a 6-7 wingspan. He just disrupts everybody’s offense, and he turns that defense into his offense.”
Octave had his eye on a district title and a state championship, but Martin County and Dillard got in the way. The former handed the Lions a loss in the district title game, and the latter beat Heights in the first round of the playoffs. It was the Lions’ only two losses on the season.
“I really wanted to win state and win districts, but we came up short,” Octave said. “But we did still have a successful season, and we did do what people thought we weren’t going to do.”
