Western
Nebraska Community College men's basketball coach Russ Beck added one more big
man to the roster after signing 6-foot-5 Jordan Darger to a letter of intent on
Friday.
Darger
comes to WNCC from Orem High School out of Orem, Utah. Beck said Darger has the
potential to come in and be a key player this year.
"He
was a very successful athlete during his high school days at Orem High, winning
a state championship his junior year and was the 4A favorite during his senior
year before an injury," Beck said. "He is fully recovered from his
injury and we are really looking forward to what he can do here for us at
Western Nebraska. He is a high character kid. a great athlete and we think he
will have an high impact for us on the floor."
Darger,
who averaged around 15 points a game for Orem, is exited for the opportunity to
play college basketball.
"I
am real excited about playing college basketball. I have always dreamed about
coming to college and getting a good opportunity and a good education," he
said. "I have been going around the campus and checking it out and it made
it better for me to see what I will be coming to. I really liked it here when I
took a tour."
Darger
is also hoping to follow in his older brother's footsteps in playing Division I
basketball. His older brother, Joe, played for UNLV from 2005-2009. Darger's
other brother, Jason, played at the College of Eastern Utah.
Beck
said that he feels fortunate to land someone as talented as Darger is because
he was heavily recruited before his shoulder injury.
"The
one thing about Jordan is that he was being heavily recruited up until he had
his injury and that affected his recruitment a little bit," he said. Things
happen for a reason and we feel it is a blessing in disguise that maybe it
occurred. We are certainly excited to get him and I think his best basketball
is ahead of him. He comes from a very sport-oriented family and they will be cheering
him on to have success."
Darger,
the youngest of seven siblings, said the shoulder injury that sidelined him for
the last half of his senior season, is completely healed and he is ready to go.
"I
feel completely ready to go," he said. "I was suppose to get surgery
on my arm after it, but the doctor said that if I sit out for three or four
months I would have a good chance of it recovering. i decided to go that route
and it worked out best."
What
Drager is really looking forward to is playing with many of the players that he
played against or watched play in high school. Darger is the eighth Utahn to
sign with WNCC. The others include Mountain Crest's Tyler Crosbie, Northridge's Preston Christensen, Syracuse's Diante
Mitchell, Bingham's Brandon Morley, South Sevier's Austin Clark, Cedar's Joel
Einfeldt and Timpanogos' Tanner Lebaron.
"I
now most of the kids that will be coming," Darger said. "I know the
Utah kids are high quality and have good characteristics, so we should get along
good on and off the court."
Beck
said he is excited about this year's team.
"I
am really excited about the roster. The kids have been texting me and they are
very excited to get here and get to work. A lot of them have seen each other
play and they all have really good basketball pedigrees," he said. "Most
of them came from winning teams and I think our chemistry will be a lot better
and we will be really competitive. In junior college you can win a lot of games
with high-character guys that will work hard every day and the right things on
and off the floor. i think that is what we have.
"We
got back to our blueprint to what we had a lot of success with. I feel like we
got everybody that we wanted. We didn't swing and miss on any kid that we
targeted this season There are a lot of junior colleges that are unhappy that
we signed all the kids that we did, but we got them all."
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