Blazing a trail: Sarasota Christian senior is one of top scorers in state

When you're young, there isn’t much to do in Hesston, Kansas, a town of about 4,000 people.

It’s about 45 minutes from Wichita, but for young kids bored on a random Tuesday, this is no help. So kids find ways to have fun by themselves. For one bored kid in particular, this meant shooting hoops.

The basketball hoop in the Litwiller family's front yard was given to the family by neighbors. Jordan Litwiller would use it every day, even in the frozen tundra that is the Midwest plains in winter.

“I’d put on a pair of gloves and shoot until my hands fell off, even if it was icy.” Litwiller said. “I remember I would come inside with cracks all over my hands. That’s how I fell in love with the game.”

Litwiller and his family moved to Sarasota when he was 12. As the weather around him heated up, so did his game. He became an outside threat. He played in recreation leagues until he reached high school and tried out for the Sarasota Christian School varsity team.

He didn’t make it.

He thought then, and still thinks now, he should have. But instead of quitting, Litwiller decided to use the setback as motivation to work harder. His father, Larry Litwiller, works at the school, so during the summers he would come and practice his shot nearly every day. When Kevin Landrum became the Blazers’ head coach during Litwiller’s sophomore year, he didn’t know quite what he had with him.

“When I got the job, a lot of kids had transferred out,” Landrum said. “There wasn’t much experience (on the roster). Within a few days of practice, I could tell he was someone I’d need to rely on.”

Over the past two years, Litwiller’s trajectory has been steady, but his senior season has seen him take a leap to the elite. Prior to Jan. 9, he was averaging 25.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.6 steals a game. He holds the ninth-highest scoring average in the state, according to MaxPreps. The Blazers are 6-6 and average 56.5 points a game, so almost half their points come from Litwiller. In two games he missed with injury to start the year, they scored 37 and 43 points, respectively.  

Raw numbers alone can tell most of the story, but not all of it. They can’t tell people anything about Litwiller’s clutch gene, which was on full display in a road game against Cardinal Mooney in December. Litwiller calmly held the ball in the final seconds of regulation and sank a 3-pointer to send the game to overtime, stunning the Cougar crowd and earning silent admiration for the shot.

The 6-foot-3 guard did it again in OT.

The Blazers would fall in the second overtime, to no fault of Litwiller’s. He finished with 34 points.

The difference in his game this season has been confidence, Litwiller said. The last two years, he’d take opportunities when presented to him, but he wouldn’t take control and make opportunities for himself, he said. Now carrying an aggressive mindset, Litwiller knows it’s his time to show what he can do. Landrum said Litwiller took between 10,000-15,000 shots over the summer to prepare for his senior year. Hitting the weight room has helped Litwiller muscle through defenses, too. He’s an all-around player, Landrum said, who is next-to-impossible to guard when he plays aggressively.

“The way he’s playing now and the freedom he has, he doesn’t realize he had that last year,” Landrum said.

If you think these types of numbers would have Litwiller raking in offers from big-time colleges, you’d be mistaken. He never played AAU ball, and in today's recruiting scene, that's how most kids get exposure. He’s talking to a few programs, but they’re of the relatively unknown variety, and Litwiller’s OK with that.

When you attend a school of approximately 400 students, most any college is going to seem like a big environmental change. Landrum is still sending out tape every day, but if Litwiller ends up at the University of North Carolina-Pembroke or Hesston College, in his hometown, the senior is content. As long as he gets to keep playing basketball, he said, he's in a good spot. 

“Other people would love to be in my position,” Litwiller said. “I just want to help a program develop, no matter its size.”