Catawba Ridge’s Victoria Jordan aspires to affect basketball program ‘while I’m here’
Victoria Jordan understands giving in to the anticipation of what the Catawba Ridge girls basketball program could one day become.
She does it herself, sometimes. After all, it’s hard to resist extrapolating with this team — especially after the scene in her team’s state-of-the-art arena Monday, when the majority-underclassmen Copperheads beat Great Falls, 63-16, to win the eighth game of their inaugural season.
But the 6-foot, soft-spoken guard doesn’t want her mind wandering too far into the future.
Because she wants to win now.
“The future, to me, is tomorrow,” Jordan said after Monday’s game. “When people tell me I’m starting to build a program, I want to build it strong for the girls of tomorrow.
“But I also want to make an impact while I’m here.”
Jordan scored 21 points against Great Falls in what was one of several 20-plus-point performances on the season for the junior — and it’s not the only game she has outscored her collective opponent.
Jordan’s game is special because she’s dynamic. She takes the opening tip; she brings the ball up the court in some lineups; she can finish and handle the ball with both hands; and she’s quick and bold enough to collect a defensive rebound and power her own fast break.
“You don’t get to coach an athlete like that and a kid like that every year, so any time, as a coach, you get someone like that, you’re just kind of blessed for that situation,” Catawba Ridge coach Kate Edwards said. “And we’re continuing to build our relationship with her, and we’re excited that we have another year.”
Jordan expected to lead the Catawba Ridge basketball team
Jordan attended Nation Ford High School as a freshman and sophomore and played varsity basketball both seasons.
She transferred to Catawba Ridge when it opened this past fall, and Edwards, her coach, made the move, too. But several things changed when Jordan became a Copperhead.
Among them, it was no longer acceptable to be deferential. She was expected to lead.
“Obviously I haven’t had much experience as a leader…” she said. “I was expecting a lot of different things. Obviously, we’re young, so we’re going to make mistakes and not everything is going to be perfect. But seeing us coming together as a group, starting to finally score more (and) getting to understand the game is really exciting.”
And so far, according to Edwards, Jordan’s leadership has been good.
“First of all, she’s a great kid. That’s No. 1,” Edwards said. “She’s very coachable. She’s a good leader because she’s positive with the young ones.
“She knows there are going to be some mistakes that are made because they are ninth graders, but she does a good job of leading them and setting a good example of how we want them to be the next few years.”
Jordan said she and her team are optimistic about how they’ll fare in region play and how far they’ll go in the state playoffs.
But that — at least when it comes to this basketball team’s future — is as far as she’s willing to look.
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