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01/25/2017 11:00 PMWhen Jordan Moran was in 6th grade, he moved to Essex and started playing for the John Winthrop Middle School basketball team. Two years later, Valley Regional boys’ hoops Head Coach Kevin Woods saw Jordan play and immediately recognized his potential. Woods invited Jordan to play on his summer league team, thus beginning what Jordan describes as “a great relationship” between player and coach. Now a senior, Jordan is leading the way as both a captain and a point guard for Coach Woods and the Warriors.
“We went to watch those guys play back when Chris Jean-Pierre and David Bradbury were juniors and we were a pretty good team at that time,” Woods says. “What we saw from Jordan, even at a young age, is that he brought an extreme passion to the game of basketball and he really has a lot of fire in him...He’s just a kid that loves the game of basketball, so right away, we knew we were going to have something pretty special from him.”
Jordan was a full-time starter for Valley’s JV team during his freshman and sophomore years. He also played a reserve role on varsity squad that reached back-to-back Class S State Tournament finals. One of Jordan’s fondest memories came in his sophomore year, when Valley defeated Old Lyme by a 66-55 score in overtime to win the Shoreline Conference Tournament championship.
“That feeling when we beat Old Lyme in the Shorelines, that was a great feeling. I had so much fun,” says Jordan. “I just took on that role of being that energy coming from the bench and just making sure my guys who were on the court heard me and knew I had their backs and I was rooting for them.”
After a couple of seasons filled with extensive playoff success, the Warriors struggled through most of last year. The team was able to reach the Shoreline Conference and State tournaments, but lost in the opening round of both, and finished with a record of 8-14. According to Coach Woods, the 2015-’16 campaign was a turning point in Jordan’s high school basketball career. While he had been improving as a player with each season, Jordan knew that Woods was relying on him to be prepared and emerge as a leader in his senior year. During the offseason, Jordan worked tirelessly to improve his skills by practicing and playing pickup games at both the YMCA and an outdoor court down the street from his house.
“After we lost last year in our first states game, I just remember thinking to myself in the locker room, ‘I’m not going to let that happen again in my senior year,’” Jordan says. “I ran, I went to the weight room...I did pretty much everything I could that I thought would make me better...I knew that senior year, it was going to be on my shoulders.”
As a result of his extra effort, Jordan is having a breakout season with the Warriors this winter. Jordan is averaging 17.9 points with 4.4 assists per game and has had a couple of contests where he’s dished out more than 10 assists for Coach Woods’s club.
“He’s playing at a very high level,” says Woods. “He’s getting better as a teammate, as well as his individual game. He has a passion for the game and he’s definitely a ‘basketball first’ guy. He plays every single day.”
The Warriors are 5-6 this year and Jordan feels confident that they can finish the season strong. Valley has dropped a few close contests and Jordan knows that closing out games will be key to any success the team has the rest of the way.
Valley Regional’s most recent game was at North Branford and the Warriors recorded a 44-39 victory. The game was a defensive battle and, as the Warriors hoped, they won a tight one by playing well down the stretch. Jordan finished the night with 12 points, including six free throws that sealed the win.
“It’s really about closing games and trusting each other. It’s a learning process and I have no doubt in my mind that when we get to the Shorelines, we’re going to make a run...It’s about bringing in these younger kids and just putting them in and seeing how we can mix together and how our chemistry is going to be and learning to jell with each other and have fun,” says Jordan. “I know that sometimes we get down a little too fast on each other, but we just have to keep pushing forward because we’re going to face adversity in almost every game.”