Hay! This kid's pretty good

STANWOOD - Scoring 1,000 points in your high school basketball career might be considered pretty cool, but for North Cedar's Jordan Hay, it was almost a relief.

The 6-foot-6 junior accomplished his milestone a week and a half ago, just following a family tradition.

“It really means a lot to me because both my grandpa and my dad did it,” Hay said. “I'm the third member of my family to do it, and it feels great.”

Grandpa Bernard and dad Glenn scored more than 1,000 points each for Olin. Jordan Hay went to school there as well until fourth grade, when Glenn took a job at a bank in Stanwood.

Consider North Cedar Coach Scott Jackson the lucky one. He's gotten to coach a well-rounded player who has started since his freshman year.

“That's the key word with him, versatility,” Jackson said.

“He's versatile, athletic, does a lot of everything: scoring, rebounding, passing. And he needs to do everything for us to win.”

Hay played more of a wing position last season but is at point guard this season.

That goes back to that versatility thing.

He leads North Cedar (12-2) in scoring (23.7), rebounding (8.3) and steals, His assist-to-turnover ratio nearly is two to one.

“All I do is run the point, get my layups,” Hay said. “It's all about the fast break.”

Well, and with that height, he can post up most opposing players, too. Hay has played AAU ball since seventh grade and has a huge summer ahead of him with the Barnstormers.

He has the attention of NCAA Division II programs and could start to attract D-I schools.

He's closing in on North Cedar's school record for points, which is 1,159 by Ryan Kedley.

“I remember seeing him for the first time in fourth grade,” Jackson said. “He was head and shoulders above everyone else.”

He still is.

This and that

---- District and substate pairings for Class 1A and 2A will be released Monday by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.

Each team in a district or substate is given a seed based on how they performed in games five through 15, with the draw determined from there.

Substate pairings for Class 3A and 4A will be released Feb. 7 by the IHSAA.

---- Cedar Rapids Jefferson's Jarrod Uthoff leads the state in scoring at 26.0 points per game, according to QuikStats. Hay is sixth at 23.7.

---- It's down to eight unbeaten teams in the state, including area teams Linn-Mar (14-0), Iowa Mennonite (14-0) and Sumner-Fredericksburg (15-0).