The sports accolades have been plenty for Shady Spring senior Eli Jordan.
Now he is looking forward to starting a new list of accomplishments in college.
Thursday afternoon outside of Dave Wills Gym at Shady Spring High, surrounded by family, coaches, teammates and friends, Jordan signed a National Letter of Intent to run cross-country in the fall for WVU Tech.
“It is a very exciting day for me. I woke up this morning pumped,” Jordan said, with a big smile. “It was the first day going back to school for a full day, so I was pumped either way.”
After running for the Tigers as a freshman with his older brother Sam, Jordan did not compete as a sophomore, but found out he could not stay gone from roaming the trails.
“(Shady Spring head) coach (Eric) Lawson really. I love that dude to death,” Jordan said in regards to why he came back. “He is the best person that I have had around me in high school. He urged me to come back and run. I figured running wouldn’t hurt, so I came back to run.”
The return also paid some unforeseen dividends for the Tiger harrier.
“I really didn’t think I would ever run in college. I thought I would just go to college, get my degree and go to work. It turned out to be a very good decision. It has helped me with my future now since I am getting to go to college and run. I’m very happy about that,” Jordan explained. “Where WVU Tech is a local school, they come to the meets and watch us run, but it also works out really well for me with academics. WVU Tech is one of the best engineering schools, that is where my major is and that was where I wanted to go.”
The Shady Spring coach talked about Jordan and the work ethic that has led to his success on and off of the cross-country trails.
“He is just a great kid that has turned into a great adult. He is everything that you would want your child to be,” Lawson said. “Eli is the guy that you would want your daughter to date. He is an outstanding guy that has been great to have around the program or a business. Any aspect that you can think of, he is going to exceed expectations.”
“His work ethic is crazy,” Lawson went on to say. “He owns the business with his brother Sam where they cut over 100-and-some yards, plus do other work, and he still comes out and is a state champion in basketball and a multi state qualifier in cross-country.”
His list of high school accomplishments include playing on the AAA state championship basketball team last year and running on the three highly successful cross-country teams.
“The three years that he ran, his team was Coalfield Conference champions,” Lawson said. “Two of the three times his teams were regional champs. They were regional runner-up the other year. “He is an excellent leader.”
While all athletes have room to grow at the next level, being a member of an extremely successful high school program has Jordan already ahead of the curve at the next level.
“Every year I ran, we were at the state meet. Cross-country has been a really successful sport here at Shady Spring and I am really proud of that,” Jordan said. “Running here preps us a lot for college. Just within our team, practice days are really intense. We are all really hitting it. There are guys that have gotten a lot better, so you have to step it up. It definitely helps.”
Lawson echoed Jordan’s words.
“The competition in-house is really nice. The healthy competition makes you better,” Lawson said. “The runners are typically ready to go by the time they get to college because our stuff is formulated off of the programs that successful colleges use. Eli definitely has the motor for the college level athletics.”