Head Of The Class
Jordan thrives in leadership role with Wildcats
(Editor's Note: This is the seventh in a series highlighting the finalists for NewsTimes Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The finalists will be honored and the winner announced at the News-Times ScholarAthlete Awards Banquet on May 31.)
During his basketball career at El Dorado, Kyle Jordan had a front-row seat for a plethora of highlight-reel plays.
Now he wants to have a front-row seat for the latest developments in the medical field.
El Dorado’s class valedictorian with a 4.38 grade-point average, Jordan is headed to Arkansas to study biomedical engineering before going on to medical school.
“I enjoy science,” Jordan said. “I took the AP science classes offered at the high school. I was talking to some college advisers, and they encouraged me because they saw how serious I was. It was going to be more challenging, but it was going to strengthen my résumé in the long run for interviews, so I chose to enroll in those courses so it would increase my chances of getting accepted.
“It’s constantly evolving. It combines my interest of physics, chemistry and biology. I enjoy doing a lot of research, forming conclusions, seeing what’s what and predicting what it will be in a certain time span and the limitations that come with it and how you would adapt to those situations.”
Jordan’s love for the subject became apparent when he started high school.
“I realized when I got to high school,” Jordan said. “I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I was younger. I took all kinds of AP classes to see which one I really enjoyed. I enjoyed the sciences more and went from there.”
But there is much more to Jordan than just his academic prowess.
Jordan was tabbed as Mr. EHS, an award that is voted on by teachers as the most outstanding male senior at El Dorado.
“It’s very special,” Jordan said. “Teachers see 100 to 200 kids a day, so to get that many votes from that many people, it means a lot.”
By networking, Jordan spoke with people in a wide variety of fields who offered him career advice.
“Through school, I networked with a lot of people,” Jordan said. “I networked with some who are in business, some who are doctors, some who work at Murphy USA, and they all just told me the same thing, ‘You can be what you want, just like the value of an education at the core, you can use it to go far.’”
As a junior, Jordan was part of a squad that reached the 6A state finals, and he said that the time spent with his teammates helped him relax whenever he needed a breather from school.
“I had a lot of fun with them,” Jordan said. “They helped me keep my mind off of the stresses that come with school. They helped me start to enjoy basketball more than I thought I would. The experiences with them, the wins, the losses, it made everything more interesting. It gave me something to look forward to every day.”
With the graduations of Daniel Gafford and Czar Perry last year, Jordan found himself thrust into a leadership role on a young team.
“It was a new experience and a new role,” Jordan said. “We lost Czar and Daniel, and they led for three, four years. The main thing was we knew it was going to be a learning experience. We knew it was going to be tougher that it had been because of the talent drop, but we all worked hard. For the seniors, it was a fun ride. They’re going to be nice next year. They’ve learned a lot, and I can’t wait to see how it goes for them.”
On the floor, Jordan’s assignments could change from one game to the next.
“It kind of varied depending on the opponent,” Jordan said. “In a nutshell, my role was simple: Play defense, hit open shots, give it to open teammates, keep the energy going. Coach (Dawson) Yates was real big on energy.
“He was like, ‘If somebody has bad energy, you can transfer it.’ You could see that at times during the season. One little play would
spark the whole team, and it seemed we would become a different team.
“That’s the way it’s been for the past three or four years, especially with Czar and Daniel. When Czar left, coach (Gary) Simmons needed somebody to bring that energy to keep the team in check.”
A three-year member of the National Honor Society as well as an Arkansas Scholar and AP Scholar, Jordan spent time working in the community, and he found it as a way to not only connect with residents, but also relaxing.
“It keeps you in touch with the community,” Jordan said.
“It keeps you sane because school can get tough. Doing those activities clears your mind and you keep in touch with people. It’s worth it. A lot of communities, especially older communities, look towards people my age to carry on and continue to represent El Dorado.”
When asked how he would like his career at El Dorado to be remembered, Jordan said as a student-athlete, but with more attention on the former.
“I would probably say just student-athlete with emphasis on the student,” Jordan said.
“I put more time in the classroom than I did on the court, and I spent a lot of time on the court. I learned how to balance it. It was tough, but I managed to balance it and it paid off.”