Bol Garang’s path to Division I has been built on family, coaching and a move that could change everything.
The Syracuse native is headed to The Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, where he’ll finish his high school career after rising through a basketball journey that has already put him on the radar. Entering his junior season, Garang already has a D-I offer from Le Moyne, and now he’s taking the next step at a prep school known for exposing players to tougher competition.
At 6-foot-5, Garang brings the kind of size that makes him hard to handle on the perimeter. Nottingham High School head coach Lamar Kearse Jr., who previously coached him, said Garang’s strongest traits are his ability to handle the ball and create his own shot.
He also uses his length well on defense, where he can switch across multiple positions and create steals and deflections. Last season at Nottingham, he averaged 15.5 points and 2.6 steals per game.
Garang’s rise has been shaped by the people around him, starting with his brothers. His parents never played basketball, but he and his brothers - Garang Garang and Deng Garang - gravitated to the sport early.
Deng, the oldest, is now a junior guard at Illinois State after two seasons at Le Moyne. Garang, a sophomore guard, plays at Onondaga Community College.
Bol is now aiming to become the third college basketball player in the family.
The road there started with limited resources. The Garang brothers grew up playing on a modified mini hoop set at a nonregulation height, since the family didn’t have a driveway hoop. Then a neighbor stepped in.
“Our neighbors are the first ones to give us our first actual rim that we can shoot on,” Garang said.
That simple gift helped turn a childhood pastime into something bigger. Watching Deng carve out a college career showed Bol and Garang what was possible if they kept working.
“We’ve seen the older one doing it,” Garang said. “We just had to follow pursuit.”
Kearse has been part of that climb for years. He first got to know the Garang family while training Deng, and when he later saw Bol play in a local church game as a middle schooler, he began tracking his development more closely. Kearse put him on Bishop Grimes’ Freshman B team as a seventh grader and moved him up to junior varsity in eighth grade.
Back then, Bol was still raw.
“At the time, he wasn’t really skillful,” Kearse said. “He could only dribble with one hand, but it was one of those things where it basically pushed him to his limits.”
The growth came fast after that. Kearse moved to Nottingham in 2024, and Garang followed him to the school in 2025. Once there, he became the Bulldogs’ featured guard and helped lead a 21-3 season that ended with Nottingham’s first Section III Class AA championship in more than 20 years.
“I really started to see it,” Kearse said. “Even other coaches in the program started to say, ‘In the future, he’s gonna be a problem.’ And he’s still growing.”
Garang opened last season in emphatic fashion, scoring 27 points in a 100-50 win over Fowler High School. Kearse said the atmosphere was a new one for him, especially coming from a smaller Bishop Grimes setting and facing a packed crowd. Garang handled it without issue.
“It was effortless,” Kearse said.
As his profile grew around Syracuse, prep school became the logical next move. Kearse supported the decision, understanding how much it could help Garang’s recruitment and development against stronger competition.
“People (are) like, ‘Yo, you’re letting that happen?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, you gotta do what’s best for the kids,’” Kearse said. “He has a window of opportunity.”
That window now runs through Peddie, where Garang will play under head coach Joe Rulewich. Rulewich said what stood out immediately was Garang’s appreciation for the chance to grow academically and athletically.
In just five months at the school, Garang has already added 12 pounds of muscle, a sign that the work ethic built through years with his brothers and Kearse has carried over.
“It’s a tribute to our program,” Rulewich said. “But really, a tribute to his work ethic.”
Now Garang is hundreds of miles from home, adjusting to a new setting and a higher level of competition. It’s a leap, but one that could pay off in a big way for his college future.
“He’s going to get noticed, just based on our league play and our nonconference play,” Rulewich said. “I anticipate him being one of the more impactful guards in a league that sends guys to every level.”
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