By Jadon Frank

After working hard the past two seasons to recover from major knee surgery, Lauren Jordan is excited to bring her basketball passion and ability to the hard-court in a regular season ACAC game.

After injuring her knee while playing ACAC pre-season basketball at the King’s University College during the 2011-12 season Jordan decided to transfer to Briercrest for the winter semester of the 2012-13 season. She chose to red-shirt with the women’s team for that semester so that she could become better acquainted with the team while she rehabbed her knee.

“One week before league games began and after a successful preseason I tore my ACL, LCL, and meniscus in practice and ended my season and consequently the season following,” Jordan explained. “After almost two years of surgery and rehab, a school transfer and getting integrated on two vastly different teams, I am now preparing to finally participate in my first official ACAC year of eligibility. I am excited to be a part of the Clipper program for years to come.”

Briercrest head coach Chad Romanuk is excited to see the progress Jordan has made.

“It was great to see progress in her recovery, as she was able to practice more and more as the semester went on,” Romanuk said. “She is a gym rat with a passion and work ethic to excel her game.  She will provide outside shooting for our team, and she also has the ability to drive and pull-up. I am looking forward to see how she develops as a player as well as a leader."

Jordan comes from a basketball pedigree where basketball was an important part of her family life. Her Aunt Maia played basketball at King’s while Lauren was in high school.

“I grew up in a very basketball oriented family,” Jordan said. “Basketball has been an important bond between many family members and myself and that was the main reason I began playing. I played one year of volleyball but later decided to focus solely on basketball and achieving my goals of playing post-secondary athletics. My coaches for all three years of high school were my father, Derek deKlerk, and grandfather, Dick deKlerk, along with the assistance of Curtis Plitt, a former Briercrest  basketball player who graduated and played alongside my father at Leduc Composite. I had the utmost privilege of being coached extremely well by these men who know more about basketball than anyone I have ever met.”

Jordan’s father watched her make amazing transitions to her game throughout her career.

“She started out as one of the taller kids on her community team so naturally we assumed she would grow to be about 6"6' and trained her as a post!” de Klerk said. “As it became more and more clear that her basketball career would be moving further and further from the paint, she decided after finishing Grade 9 that she should change positions from forward to guard. From then on she has played the two guard spot and some point.”

“Switching from post to guard she needed to work on her shooting range, her ball handling and how she viewed the game,” de Klerk continued. “A fairly comprehensive list of ‘to-do's!’ She set upon the task and was pretty lucky to have a really good player a year ahead of her to learn the trade from in Nicole Vlieg. You only grow as a player playing people better than you and Lauren used those practice sessions well and we had our most successful season in her Grade 11 year.”

Jordan worked hard on her skills throughout high school, not just from an athletic stand point, but holistically from a mental and spiritual perspective.

“I was definitely not very skilled when I began and it took a summer at NBC Camps between seventh and eighth grade to equip me with the tools to improve my game,” the 5’ 5” shooting guard explained. “It was that summer I decided that playing college basketball was going to be my goal.”

“My entire family has been so encouraging and have pushed me to be the best I can be and with those factors I spent a lot of time working in gyms by myself to get to where I am. Coming into high school (Leduc Composite High School) I made varsity in tenth grade and started most tournament games but wasn’t getting a lot of minutes in league games because I was a freshman. This pushed me even further and by Grade 11 I was a starting shooting guard on my team. It was in my eleventh grade season that my team was the strongest spiritually, physically and relationally which really revived my love for the game and showed me that basketball and Christ can coincide. I made some of my best friends that season and we finished the regular league season 14-0, made zone finals and finished the entire season 22-12. In my senior year I was captain and MVP and enjoyed being in a leadership position even though we didn’t quite achieve the heights we had the year previously.”

Jordan is studying a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with a history concentration.

“I am most excited to be returning to Briercrest after last semester to come back to all the great relationships I have found with the girls on my hall and our team.” Jordan said. “I am excited to be further challenged in every area of my life and continue to grow in my walk with God.”

2013-14 Briercrest College Women’s Basketball Recruiting Class

G Brooke Briscoe • 5-9 • 1^st • Kelowna, BC/Kelowna Secondary School

G Lauren Jordan • 5-5 • 1^st • Leduc, AB/The King’s University College (ACAC/CCAA)

P Marissa Burns • 5-10 • 1^st • Coquitlam, BC/Centennial Secondary School

P Mikayla Benner • 5-10 • 1^st • Calgary, AB/Dr. EP Scarlett

G Melissa Wallace • 5-7 • 1^st • Wilkie, SK/Caronport High School

G Randi Fehr • 5-8 • 1^st • Caronport, SK/Caronport High School

P Kenedee Charuk • 5-8 • 1^st • Caronport, SK/Caronport High School

G Katie Humphrey • 5-4 • 1^st • Vulcan, AB/Vulcan Raidars

G Christa Clearwater • 5-4 • 1^st • Estevan, SK/Caronport High School

G Shae-Lynn Tashiro • 5-4 • 1^st • Vauxhall, AB/Vauxhall High School