Dylan Jordan '16 Recruiting Profile

This is something one of my coaches wrote about me after my sophomore season: 

I first met Dylan "DJ" Jordan last summer during our school's summer basketball league. I was coaching the JV squad at Wilsonville, for which DJ played, and after the first couple of games you could tell he had a wealth of natural ability on the offensive end. While he could score the basketball quite well, he still had some tidying up to do in terms of technique and development. You could also see his love and passion for basketball. He would arrive early, play hard, and thank you on the way out. This hard work and dedication mixed with a touch of constructive self-criticism and confidence is the recipe to make a real fierce competitor, especially one who seeks to improve every facet of their game.
I also had the pleasure of coaching DJ during the regular basketball season. He swung primarily JV and played some minutes up at the Varsity level. Even during tryouts you could tell he had improved his game immensely. The shots that were once flat, hard and rimming out, were now loftier and sitting up on the rim, rolling around and eventually falling in. The rotation on the ball looked more natural and tight while his body remained relaxed, fluid and almost always square to the hoop. This new found greater confidence in his offensive game eventually lead to confidence all over the court. During the summer, a bad shooting night could turn into forced turnovers and frustration. Six months later, a bad shooting night was overtaken by his ability to keep himself mentally in the game and create an easier shot through improved ball handling, harder angles, and positivity. This helped create a rhythm that lead to his individual offensive success as well as the success of our team.
While there are still improvements to made, his success was seen explicitly on the statistics sheets. Over the course of our 21 game season DJ shot 50.0% from the field and 43.3% from behind the arc on 156 and 30 attempts, respectively. The fact that Dylan was a great catch and shoot player with a quick release initially helped him become our team's leading scorer (10.5 points per game in 3 or less quarters), but as the season progressed he become one of the best, if not the best, pull up jump shooter off the dribble. This led to a wide variety of shots from anywhere, and some games everywhere, on the court. Even though the six to eight foot shot was his bread and butter, a three pointer from the corner or a driving spin-move finished with a floater was a common occurrence.
Dylan has and will take every opportunity he gets to improve. Whether it was at practice, during warm-ups or a simple game of one-on-one, DJ was working on his game. The meticulous training and attention to detail has improved Dylan's work ethic greatly and in turn elevated his enthusiasm for the game, his individual skill and his commitment to the team and to the program. It was amazing to see a player improve so much over such a short period of a time. At this rate, I can't even imagine how much he could improve by next year. It has been, and always will be, a pleasure to coach and witness DJ's growth.
Regards,
Patrick Leitch
Wilsonville Boys JV Coach