On the Radar: Waggoner is 3-sport standout

It takes a rare athlete to draw serious recruiting attention from Division I colleges in even one sport.

There are even those few that pick up interest in two sports.

And then there's Douglas High senior-to-be Jessica Waggoner.

Not only has she been receiving interest in all three of the sports she plays, her goal is to end up playing two of them in college.

Ambitious? Maybe not so much.

Since Waggoner began playing the club circuit in volleyball and basketball, her family can count about two full days off without practice, travel, tournaments or games.

But juggling such a stiff schedule hasn't done her any harm on the court.

The 6-foot, 2-inch Waggoner has earned one first-team All-Sierra League mention in volleyball and will be one of the top returning players in the region this fall. In basketball, she has compiled 987 points in her three seasons starting for the Lady Tigers, which ranks her No. 5 in the NIAA State Record Book for points in a career.

Just for kicks, she took up track & field this past spring and broke a pair of 17-year-old school records in the shot put (38-8) and the discus (129-11). She qualified for state in both events.

"She's a rare athlete," Douglas girls' basketball coach Werner Christen said. "She'll get some feelers as a thrower, the interest is already there in volleyball, and if she comes into her own this year, she'll get some attention in basketball. She'll definitely have plenty of options."

Indeed, options seems to be the name of the game for Waggoner. She's already garnered two scholarship offers in volleyball (Army and Southern Utah). Arizona and Arizona State have both taken a look at her in track & field and in total she's heard from over 70 colleges since the summer before her sophomore year.

"I didn't think it would happen that early," Waggoner said. "It was mostly for volleyball at first, which was funny because I'd only been playing for two years at that point, where for basketball I'd been playing since I was little."

Her passion, though, is basketball.

"I've played it competitively since I was in third grade," She said. "I love the sport so much and I decided heading into my senior year that I'd focus on that since the interest was already there in the other sports."

She's been working with the Nevada Basketball Academy tournament team in Reno this summer. The team is coached by Jason Glover, the director of basketball operations for the as-yet-to-be-named NBA D-League team in Reno, and former Nevada Wolf Pack standout Eathan O'Bryant.

The team has been in Oregon all week, competing in the End of the Oregon Trail All-Star Tournament, which draws 208 teams and more than 300 college coaches. The tournament is invitation-only and showcases some of the top incoming seniors in the western United States.

The team won three games and lost two at the tournament.

"I've gone to some big tournaments in basketball before, but nothing like this with the recruiters and things," Waggoner said. "I've only heard from a couple schools for basketball, and I'm really hoping that will change after this tournament. This tournament will pretty much decide if I'm going to be able to play basketball in college."

Several schools had asked for Waggoner's tournament schedule this summer and Army, Portland and Oregon State in particular had planned on watching her at the Oregon tournament.

While the basketball showcase environment is new to Waggoner, she said she was used to the atmosphere through the many club tournaments she played in with the Capital City Volleyball Club.

"There is a lot more pressure as a club player," Waggoner said. "You get more connected with your high school team. You can just go play and depend on your friends to pick you up if you're not doing well.

"Club play, so much of it depends on how you do individually, you make friends but you don't make the same connection. It's something you kind of have to do to get noticed by colleges."

Waggoner said ideally she'd like to play two sports, with track in the spring and either basketball or volleyball as her main sport.

"I really just want to keep as many opportunities open as possible," she said. "I want to play dual sports and see how it goes. I would love to go to the Olympics some day in track, but that would be something to work toward and see if I have the potential to get there."