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Jordan Walker of Muskegon Mona Shores is named Miss Basketball
Detroit – Jordan Walker of Muskegon Mona Shores was named the recipient of the 2017 Miss Basketball Award on at the Detroit Free Press building on Monday.
That makes two in a row for the state’s west side. Last year Kysre Gondrezick of Benton Harbor won the award. Gondrezick is now playing for Michigan.
The award is sponsored by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan and the Free Press. Voting is limited to BCAM members and candidates must be a senior.
Walker is the first student-athlete from Muskegon to win the award as she edged out Kierra Fletcher of Warren Cousino. Walker had 2,482 points (points are tabulated on a 5-3-1 basis, five awarded for first place votes). Fletcher had 2,382.
The other finalists are Destiny Pitts (1,814 points) of Detroit Country Day, Deja Church (1,338) of Southfield for the Arts and Technology and Kamaria McDaniel (1,191) of Dearborn Heights Robichaud.
Walker is a 5-8 guard who started for four seasons for coach Brad Kurth. Her senior season Walker averaged 22 points, nine rebounds, six steals and 4.5 assists. Mona Shores won the O-K Conference Black Division title all four seasons and captured a Class A district title each of the past three seasons.
Walker, who signed with Western Michigan, overcame a serious knee injury following her sophomore season to become one of the state’s best the last two seasons. She tore the ACL in her left knee and spent five months in rehabilitation.
“She didn’t miss a game in four years,” Kurth said. “After the surgery the doctors said it would be six months, minimum, before she could play. It took her four months and 28 days.”
Kurth said a big reason for Walker’s quick recovery was the fact that she did not have a lot of swelling on the knee.
“It’s the swelling that limits your mobility,” he said.
Walker wore a brace her junior season then played without it this past season.
“Once I started rehab, I knew I had to start working hard,” she said. “I didn’t notice (the brace) too much. It did limit my movement sideways. Playing without it was a pretty smooth transition. I definitely felt more free, a little bit faster.”
Walker comes from a basketball family. Her older sister, Jazmyn, is a freshman at Western. She was redshirted this past season and her brother Jarvis, Jr., is a freshman at Mona Shores who led the varsity in scoring this past season. Walker’s parents, Jarvis and Danielle, played collegiately at Ferris State. Her father graduated from Dearborn Heights Robichaud in 1985 and played in Germany for 10 years after leaving Ferris State.
Jarvis Walker said he and his wife bought a miniature hoop for their daughters when they were young and that their interested in the sport took off from there.
“My wife was the freshmen coach at Mona at the time,” Jarvis Walker said. “We told them once you start something, you have to finish it. (Jordan) has always been a feisty player.”
Now she’s the 36th recipient of the Miss Basketball award.
