She wrapped up her prep career as a three-time WDN all-area first team guard but no matter how fast and agile Jordan Cantrell is she could not get around to doing everything that she wanted to do while playing basketball at Randolph-Macon. Having fast baseline-to-baseline times may get you places quicker, but it does not put more time on the clock to allow you to enjoy the destination. It was with that in mind that the 20-year old Cantrell closed the door on her basketball career in favor of traveling down a new path that extends beyond the measured hardwood grid into a seemingly endless world of possibilities.
When Cantrell agreed to play basketball at Randolph-Macon two years ago she brought with her the same fire and intensity that allowed her to star in the classroom and on the basketball court for Terra Ceia up until her senior year when she transferred to Washington.
Never meeting a challenge she couldn’t overcome or say no to, Cantrell quickly found herself wearing many hats her freshman year at Randolph-Macon, a Div. III college located in Virginia, but with each hat came more weight on her shoulders.
“As soon as I got there my freshman year I just started getting really involved,” Cantrell said. “I applied to different clubs and positions. I was an RA my sophomore year and eventually I was selected to be a mentor RA. I did SAACK: Student Athletic Advisory Council. I participated in that, a leadership program and a little bit of Habitat for Humanity.”
Joining all those clubs, combined with the responsibilities of being a full-time student and eventual captain of a Div. III basketball team, began to put Cantrell in a daily full-court press. Like many freshman athletes, she quickly realized that playing college sports was a full-time job. It was at that point that the star guard began to have thoughts of hanging up her Nikes and transferring to UNC-Chapel Hill where she could enroll in its business program.
“Eventually my plate was full and I didn’t have time for anything else but basketball and school,” Cantrell said. “During my freshman year I questioned myself a little bit and at times when I was stressed out with myself and piled too much on my plate I would call home upset. My parents were like ‘You don’t have to do this Jordan.’ My mom (Gina Cantrell) was like ‘You don’t have to play basketball.’ But I was thinking in my head ‘You have always been a basketball player and always will be. I’m not going to ever transfer I’m going to play basketball, but if I feel this way my sophomore year then maybe I will consider it.”
While she could easily shake defenders on the court, Cantrell could not get past the thought of giving up the sport that has been a major part of her life since she was old enough to bounce a ball. Savvy on the court, Cantrell is also pretty smart off it and was clever enough to add some new strategies to her own personal game plan at the start of her sophomore year.
“I started to think about (transferring) early, around Thanksgiving, just to have an option incase the season went bad and I was unhappy,” Cantrell said. “After applying I played this season like it was my last even though it might not have been. Every game I just thought about it: ‘What if this is my last game?’
Cantrell tried to box out those thoughts as long as she could, but by the time the postseason came around she could no longer fight it off.
“I would start breaking down because I had so much on my plate. I put so much energy into being the best I could be. I was shooting on the gun (basketball machine that passes the ball back to you after a made shot) by myself everyday and that wasn’t even practice. I would just try to shoot over 500 shots a week … Besides that, I would just check on everybody and make sure the freshmen were on the right track academically because we had to miss so much school for the NCAAs and our ODAC (Old Dominion Athletic Conference) tournament. That was really challenging and it frustrated me then. Some of those small instances made me finalize my decision in my head that I would transfer because the practices were still three hours long.
“I was just thinking ‘Coach (Carroll) LaHaye could we practice a little bit shorter so we can do some homework? Instead of doing these silly drills can we just do the important stuff?’”
Cantrell, who was one of three captains on the team, says she had a great relationship with her coach but still could not muster up the courage to confess her thoughts on practice until after the season. Telling a coach her practices should be shorter is not exactly the easiest thing to do, especially for a sophomore.
“We have individual meetings after every season and you can say whatever you want and I told her that,” Cantrell said. “And she said ‘Well, Jordan why didn’t you come to me and say we’re tired.’ I said, ‘I guess I should have but I know you plan practice out minute by minute, and I don’t like when my plans get ruined.”
If having a discussion about the length of practice were difficult for the hoops star, how would she go about telling her coach she has decided to stop playing basketball? Even harder, how would she tell her friends and family? For Jordan, the daughter of former Terra Ceia girls’ basketball coach and WDN coach of the year Rod Cantrell, basketball is not just in her bloodlines, it’s a part of her identity.
Jordan played for her father during her time at Terra Ceia and also during the summer on her AAU team. Being on the court together strengthened their father-daughter bond and provided tons of enjoyment for Rod, a basketball lifer.
There was never any fear that her father would be upset at her, the elder Cantrell has always been supportive of his daughter’s actions. The real fear in Jordan’s eyes was far worse: What if it disappoints him?
“Dad was just like ‘Jordan this is your decision, I’m not making this decision for you. If this is what you want I will support you,” Cantrell said. “But deep down I feel like he is going to really miss me playing basketball and that made me really sad.”
Jordan’s talk with her father went well, as did her discussion with Coach LaHaye.
“She said ‘Jordan I cannot beg you to stay and play basketball and do something you do not want to do,’” Cantrell said. “But this is what kind of surprised me and made me feel very warm in my heart, she said, ‘The door is always open. If it doesn’t work out for you I want you to come right back here.’ It just made me so happy she said that.”
Cantrell is currently taking summer courses at UNC and feels comfortable with her decision.
“I’m very happy and so far I feel like everything is going smoothly,” Cantrell said. “Everything feels like it’s falling in place and so far I feel like I made the right decision. Hopefully as the year goes on I will get better acclimated because I feel like I’m about to step into a new world and I don’t really know what to expect … It’s exciting.”