Horston stays grounded as her game soars
Malika Horston tells strange-but-true stories about how a 16-year-old girl in her home often hands over the cellphone and asks her to finish the conversation because she feels overwhelmed.
That’s a horror story for any wireless carrier, but the anxiety extends to social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
Jordan Horston is trying her hardest to go about her business as a high school junior, but just about every women’s college basketball program in the country is trying to get a few minutes of her time.
The ESPN rating service HoopGurlz, for one, lists Horston as the sixth-best player nationally in the class of 2019 and gives her a grade of 98, tied for the highest in the country.
Horston, a 6-foot-1 point guard, averages 18.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists for Africentric (19-2), which will play Northland (19-2) in the City League championship game at 2 p.m. Saturday at South.
Should the Nubians win a third consecutive City title and 10th in all, don’t expect Horston to revel in the accomplishment on social media.
“What keeps Jordan humble is that she never believes the hype,” Malika Horston said. “People will tell her how good she is, what she can do, and she doesn’t pay attention. She always has been a kid who gets along with people, but she doesn’t like me talking about her to people who have seen her name in the paper or magazine. She says, ‘Mom, please don’t do that.’ ”
Malika and her husband, Leigh, have run interference for Jordan since she became a star at Impact Middle School. Malika takes care of social media and she and Leigh handle the calls, mail and email from recruiters.
Jordan Horston is planning official visits to North Carolina, Duke and South Carolina and an unofficial visit to Louisville. She also is being pursued by most major programs, including Connecticut and Ohio State.
“I’ll start by saying that it’s truly a blessing,” Horston said. “But it does get overwhelming and I’ve been taking my time with it. I just want to ride the wave of playing high school basketball and going to school.”
UConn assistant Shea Ralph came to town last week to watch Horston and told Africentric coach Will McKinney afterward that she appreciated Horston for reasons other than basketball.
“Coach Ralph was impressed with how she supported her teammates and didn’t get down when she was on the bench with fouls,” McKinney said.
Ralph no doubt also observed how hard Horston took the Nubians’ loss to Newark.
“She takes losing really hard,” McKinney said. “She takes it as her fault. If you are a good player and a good competitor, that’s the mind-set that you have to have.”
Malika Horston said her daughter was “devastated” after a Division III state semifinal loss to Gates Mills Gilmour Academy last March.
“Coach McKinney’s standards are high and we don’t want to let down the Nubian family,” Jordan said. “It starts in practice — grinding it out — and having a hungry mind-set.”
Horston led the Nubians to a state title as a freshman as well as the state tournament last season. Last summer, she started as Team USA won the gold medal in the under-16 FIBA Americas tournament in Argentina.
“Going to Colorado (for pre-tournament camp) was the first time I’ve been on a plane and going to Argentina was the first time I was out of the country,” she said. “It was stressful, but it enabled me to mature a lot. It was an experience just trying to make the team.”
Leigh Horston, an assistant coach on Northland boys teams that won a state championship in 2009 and finished runner-up in ’11, coached his daughter through the seventh grade in summer ball.
“We’ve always told Jordan to keep a level head no matter the situation — move on to the next play and then the next one,” he said. “The worst time to get excited is in big games. If the game is won, she’ll celebrate with her teammates. She just wants to play basketball and go to school and get an education.”