Jordan Roberts doing his thing for Christian
August 23, 2007
By John Sahly Staff Writer
The star quarterback. The one with visions of Notre Dame or Southern Cal in his head. The one with all the statistics and the one that has everyone taking notice of his skills. The one that, when it's all said and done and he's moved on, might break records.
Jordan Roberts just turned 16-years-old about a month ago, and while he enters his junior year and his third year as the starting quarterback at Aurora Christian, the quiet leader can barely contain his optimistic anticipation about this season.
"It's going to be exciting," Roberts said. "Last year, we weren't bad but we graduated only four guys. It'll be exciting at the skill positions."
His coach, Don Beebe, is already thinking of big things for Roberts' final two seasons.
"If he keeps going the way he's going right now, as far as staying healthy and putting up the numbers he did last year even, he'll break the all-time records for the IHSA in touchdowns and yardage," Beebe said. "He's that good of a quarterback."
Roberts runs a 4.7 40-yard-dash, stands 6-feet, 1-inch tall and weighs 200 pounds and, considering his age, isn't quite done growing yet.
He's also a student of the game, something that Beebe loves about his quarterback.
"He loves to study film," Beebe said. "He just has a passion for football. This is what he wants to do for a living and he's just got those kinds of dreams. That in itself is his biggest asset besides his talent."
But there's one area he still needs to improve on: His voice.
"Over the past years I wasn't really vocal," Roberts said. "This year I'm kind of getting better at it. Usually I just try to lead by example but we've got some guys that are real vocal out there so it makes it easier."
Leadership has been a point of emphasis from Beebe and the coaching staff to Roberts during the offseason. As a junior, he no longer can rely on older teammates to be the vocal leaders on the team.
In the eyes of his teammates, it's already paying dividends.
"There's no definite route on any play," said running back John Smith. "Anything can change. With Jordan, he's like a Peyton Manning out there. He's changing stuff up all the time and making plays work and reading the defense."
And big-time college programs are starting to take notice. Roberts has already taken unofficial visits, unofficial because he hadn't even started his junior year, to Notre Dame, Southern Cal, UCLA and UNLV.
"It was great," said Roberts of his trip to Notre Dame. "It was awesome. It's a nice school."
If Roberts improves on his first two seasons, not only will that alone be enough reason to watch Aurora Christian, it might put him on the Saturday afternoon television schedule in the future.
