The Times 2023 Player of the Year: Being a leader is in Jordan Woods' DNA

Hammond Central's Jordan Woods is the Times 2023 Player of the Year.

HAMMOND — When asked about what he was most proud of during his time at Hammond Central, Jordan Woods didn’t mention the points he scored or the awards he earned or even the important wins. He talked about the ways he tried to get others seen by college scouts.

“This year was serious but I had fun doing it,” he said. “I made a better teammate out of myself. I did more for the team. That made me proud.”

Shooters like Kenneth Grant and Vynce Overshown each had well over 100 3-point shot attempts. Posts Davion Doty, Danny Garza and Amauri Moore got plenty of chances, too.

It was obvious to anyone watching that Woods is what made the Wolves flow. That’s why he was named All-State by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association and is the Times Player of the Year.

Coach Larry Moore Jr. said he was an ideal point guard, an extension of his coach on the floor.

“If your coach can’t trust you and you’re the point guard, it’s going to be hard. The communication will be way off. You won’t win close games,” Woods said. “We won a lot of close games and all those we pulled out because we trust each other. I believe in what he said and he trusted what I was saying.”

Hammond Central’s Jordan Woods hugs head coach Larry Moore as the Wolves celebrated their Class 4A sectional title this season.

Hammond Central adjusted its offense to suit Woods’s strengths this season. It used a little more pick-and-roll action, added a little more movement and spacing to try to get Woods going downhill and into the paint where he could either score or create those looks for others.

Sometimes he took dribble handoffs and curved around a screen at the elbow. Other times he was isolated against slower-footed players.

One exception to that was the Valparaiso game. The Vikings took away some of those actions and slowed the Wolves’ offense at times. Eventually, Woods figured things out and began finding teammates with passes from the outside. Some were under the bucket for layups, others were around the 3-point line.

Hammond Central won 64-59.

“That comes from him playing with these guys since middle school. He knew the spots they wanted the ball in,” Moore said. “When people sagged off, he knew how to manipulate our defense to get our shooters in spots, to get the ball to the bigs. His court awareness, his basketball IQ is off the charts.”

Woods said he always looked for teammates’ shots before his own, especially this season. His scoring average actually dropped from 17.4 to 13.5 points per game between his junior and senior seasons.

“He always came in with energy and always wanted to share the ball. A lot of kids nowadays don’t pass,” Moore said. “He’s a pass-first guard and that’s a quality that you can’t coach.”

Woods was on the bench in the regional game against Mishawaka for most of the third quarter after picking up his third foul. Hammond Central led by 20 points at halftime. It did not score at all in the nine minutes after and the Cavemen shrunk the lead to 12.

Hammond Central’s Jordan Woods (3) goes up for the dunk against West Side this season.

“That was the worst quarter of my life in basketball,” Moore said. “It speaks volumes to (Woods). Without him on the floor, we were just in disarray. When you take the pilot out of the plane, that’s what happens.”

Woods returned for the fourth quarter and promptly dunked to regain the momentum. It was a fitting metaphor for the spark he provided all season.

Woods is done with organized basketball, though. Also a wide receiver, he’ll play college football at Eastern Illinois. These days, many college football players forgo other sports during their senior years of high school to avoid injury and prepare for the gridiron.

Hammond Central's Jordan Woods looks for room to run last football season.

There was one reason Woods didn’t do that.

“Because of my brothers,” he said. “I’ve been playing with this team since I was in fourth or fifth grade. Coach Moore’s been with me since I was in fifth grade. I couldn’t just not play my last year.”

Basketball has never been the primary sport for Woods, though. He said he never really played much until he was about 12, not even with friends in the park. He started playing football when he was seven years old and it was always No. 1.

“I used to play (basketball) with my big brother (Harold) and he would destroy me,” Woods said. “I used to just be his test dummy.”

Harold Woods is currently a Division I basketball player at Northeastern. There are a couple of younger brothers on the way who also have the athletic DNA, by all accounts. The Woods family is an athletic one.

Early mornings at the Hammond YMCA when they were all young were critical to developing that.

“(My dad) used to push us to be great,” Jordan Woods said. “He didn’t go for sorriness. None of that. You had to push yourself to your limits and know what you could do.”

His family, Moore’s family and assistant coach Jermaine Boyette are all inspiration for Woods.

Boyette was inducted into the Hammond Sports Hall of Fame last year. He was the 1998 Times Player of Year before having an All-American career at Weber State and then playing professionally overseas for 10 years.

“It’s great having somebody like that around,” Woods said. “I look up to him like that. I be telling him I’m trying to be the next hall of famer out here.”

He’s already working on the public relations campaign.

Several times after games this season, Woods signed autographs and took pictures with kids from around the Region. At Valparaiso, he traded some shoes for a plastic Viking helmet and then wore it for pictures with a few beaming Porter County youngsters.

“Some kids look up to me. I’m on the mini verge of being famous so I’m gonna text every kid back,” Woods said. “I ain’t going to not give them something. If they want something, I got them. I just got to be a role model and lead them in the right way.”

That’s just the kind of guy Woods is, always smiling and laughing and sharing a joke or a story. That personality goes a long way toward why the rest of the Wolves had so much confidence in him.

“All the kids gravitate to him in the building, on the floor, on the football field. He’s just a natural leader,” Moore said. “Jordan is just a leader, man. He just wants to win. He doesn’t care if he scores six or if he scores 20. He just wants to win. That’s part of that leadership quality that you just can’t teach.”

It’s a quality that the Wolves and Region basketball are now lesser without. Woods will likely never play organized basketball again, though he does hope to get into pickup games and maybe a men’s league at some point.

He finishes his career as the area’s best player.

“Everything has to come to an end one day. I don’t reminisce on it,” Woods said. “I’m very proud of (this season). First regional in a long time and that’s something to be proud of.”