SHEPHERDSTOWN — Shepherd has been blessed with modern-day Hall of Fame basketball players from Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, but it has only one such all-time great from Arapahoe, North Carolina.

The tiny town in coastal North Carolina near New Bern sent Larry Boomer to Shepherdstown when the most-distanced players came from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle.

As an inside player in coach Bob Starkey’s fast-paced era, Boomer excelled at only six-foot-three and was a four-year starter with the high-scoring and mostly-winning Rams.

His first season was in 1972-1973 and his fourth season as a Ram was the well-documented 1975-1976 season when Shepherd had a record-shattering 33-3 record, won the NCAA Division II Mid-Atlantic Regional and was finally eliminated by eventual national champion Scranton.

Boomer was a captain of that now-legendary 1975-1976 team.

When he was finished his 124-game career at Sara Cree Hall, Boomer had scored 1,403 points (10th all-time on the Shepherd scoring list) and claimed 1,039 rebounds (third all-time for the Rams).

Shepherd’s record in Boomer’s four-year stand was 103-21.

He was surrounded by Dave Russell, Rodney Sewell, Mike Philippi and Vic Holmes — all in the Athletic Hall of Fame with Boomer.

After earning his degree from the School of Education, Boomer stayed in Shepherdstown and found employment in Virginia, teaching and coaching basketball at Broad Run High School in Ashburn.

He commuted to Ashburn from his home in Mecklinburg Heights, just west of town.

While coaching the varsity boy’s basketball team from 2005-2006 to 2008-2009 at Broad Run, Boomer’s teams had a combined record of 66-34.

Arapahoe is quite a distance from Shepherdstown and Boomer was hours and hours away from his closest relatives when he was a freshman beginning the 1972-1973 season.

But he thrived in Starkey’s up-tempo style of play. And the Rams thrived with him as a four-year starter.