JORDAN WICKS

Conway pitcher aims to go deeper in state tournament

When he was 4, Jordan Wicks’ life changed one day in a Mr. Goodcents sandwich shop. A soccer player and the younger brother of a soccer player, Wicks and his family struck up a conversation with the sub shop’s owner, whose son, Jack Stroth, was a young baseball player. “My dad and his dad made a deal — if Jack would play on my soccer team, I would play on his baseball team,” Wicks recalled. Fourteen years later, Wicks and Stroth, along with Parker Gavazzi and Andrew Hreha — who’ve played together since they were teammates on the Coca-Cola Crushers T-ball team — are heading into their senior season for Conway’s Wampus Cats. Wicks and Stroth will both play college baseball next year. Wicks has signed with Kansas State University in Manhattan; Stroth will play for Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri. “Let’s just say my baseball career has gone better than his soccer career,” Wicks said, chuckling. As a junior, the 6-1 Wicks recorded an ERA of 0.61 in 57 innings pitched and a .977 fielding percentage and batted .422 with 35 hits, 23 RBIs, 1 home run and 15 runs scored. He is the River Valley & Ozark Edition Baseball Player to Watch in 2018. “Jordan Wicks is a fantastic young man,” Conway coach Noel Boucher said. “He contributed a lot as a freshman, and toward the end of the season, he started. He was a big part of the things we did during his freshman, sophomore and junior years. “You really miss quality kids, and he’s one we’re going to miss — and not just from a baseball stance. He’s a really good kid.” Until last year, Wicks’ Conway High School career was almost too easy. In 2015 and ’16 — his freshman and sophomore seasons — Conway went a combined 48-12 with a pair of Class 7A state runner-up finishes. With 10 starters returning, 2017 looked to be the year the Wampus Cats would earn their third state title, but a disappointing season ended 17-9 in the state quarterfinals. Wicks said the experience was a humbling lesson. “It really gave us a different perspective because when you look at what happened, you see after that year’s done, you’ve got one left,” he said. “There’s nobody above you, so it’s up to you to lead, to be that light. That’s your role as a senior. You can take that to a darker path or a lighter path.” He said a meeting of the 10 seniors helped set the tone for 2018. “We’ve still got high expectations as a team,” Wicks said. “We’ve got a lot of great pieces — not only the senior class, but some younger guys have made some great strides, some really great improvements. “We really think the experience the senior class has, along with the added talent, is really going to help us this year. Last year, we got a little complacent. We’d been to the state championship twice, and we kind of thought, ‘We’ll get there.’ After that happened, that was a wake-up call for us. “We’re hungrier than ever.” Wicks, who sports a 3.97 grade-point average, drew recruiting interest from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Wichita State University in Kansas and Kansas State. “I had several other bigger schools talking to me, but by the time they said something, I’d already decided [on KSU],” he said. He committed to the Wildcats in late July. He said he is looking forward to joining forces with Kasey Ford, a pitcher from Bentonville, which beat the Wampus Cats in the 2015 state final. “You talk to him about the experience, and he’s straight up with you,” Wicks said. “I’ve really enjoyed conversations about pitching with the pitching coach, [Tyler Kincaid].”

“You can tell he has a lot of the same analytical approach that [CHS pitching] coach [Barry] Lueders does. That’s something comfortable for me, and I understand it. “They don’t just make it one way: ‘This is what I say; do it.’ There’s a lot of two-way: ‘What are you seeing? Here’s what I’m seeing. Let’s come together and make a decision.’” As a seventh-grader, Wicks played football for Lueders. They’ve been close ever since. “He’s a hardworking young man,” Lueders said. “He studies his craft and is always looking to learn. He never backs down, and his competitiveness is relentless. He’s a great teammate, and he tops it off by being an honor student and great to be around.” Wicks, a manager at Dairy Queen and a weekend soccer official, said he is considering studying business management with a focus on sports at KSU. Of course, his dream is to have a professional baseball career. “I’m fortunate to have had great people around me in high school — teammates and coaches — who have helped me get to my first dream, which is to play college baseball,” Wicks said. “We’ll take it one step at a time and see how things go.” On the eve of his senior-season opener, Wicks said, he was itching to get going. “All the running we did throughout challenge week, all the running in the gym, has led to the next couple of months,” he said. “Looking at the schedule and knowing there are only about 30 more games, that makes you want to make each and every one count.” Boucher said Wicks is a special player. “The thing about Jordan is, he gets it,” Boucher said. “He understands that for him to do the things he needs to do, in baseball or in life, he needs to perform in the classroom; he needs the volunteer work and the performance on the field. He’s got a group of the younger baseball players he takes over to the weight room a couple of times a week at 6:30 a.m., and he leads them through the weights. “You just don’t see that in young men that much anymore. He’s been a real joy and a lot of fun. Other than being a Braves fan, he’s a pretty good guy.”