Sealing the Deal: Jordan Seele
REID HARMAN | THE HARBINGER
EAST PEORIA — Flashback eight years and imagine seeing a 5’9 skinny kid dribbling a basketball inside Chillicothe Junior High School’s Gymnasium. Dreaming of one day being able to soar above the rim and slam one home at the collegiate level. Well with the combination of a huge growth spurt of 11 inches and an extreme amount of athletic ability, all of those dreams came true for Illinois Central College Sophomore basketball player, Jordan Seele.
Seele first found his passion back in the fourth grade by playing recreational league basketball in his hometown of Chillicothe. That was just the starting block for Seele. He continued to play all the way through junior high school for the Illinois Valley Central Grey Ghosts and all four years for the Grey Ghosts high school team.
“My dad is my inspiration, he was the one who really stressed sports on me when I was younger, but not forcefully. He is very laid back and just taught me to be self-motivated,” Seele said.
During his senior season with the Grey Ghosts, Seele was awarded with First Team All-Conference honors. Coach Tony Wysinger along with the rest of his coaching staff took notice of his talents and decided to offer Seele with a full- ride scholarship. Seele accepted the offer and signed his commitment to Coach Wysinger and the Cougars.
“I had a few Division three and Division two offers. But I wanted to come to ICC so I could play two years here and then attempt to transfer to a Division one college,” Seele said.
Seele is one of the leading scorers and rebounders for the Cougars this far in the season. He also gets to the foul-line more than anybody on the team, which he uses to his advantage when he gets inside the lane.
“I love the competitiveness of the game and team aspects. I tried other individual sports like tennis and golf but I didn’t feel the same passion as I do with basketball,” Seele said.
After his final semester this spring, Seele plans to transfer to a college that will benefit him the most. He plans to pursue a career in either physical education or sports management. Seele has yet to communicate with college recruits because of Coach Wysinger’s policy on waiting until after the season to contact them.