Recruiting Report: John Waggoner (2018)

<h2>September 21, 2015</h2><p>Dowling&#39;s 6-foot-6 forward <strong>John Waggoner</strong> has established himself as one of the state&#39;s better big-men in the 2018 class. </p> <p>Though he has no varsity experience due to the Maroons&#39; depth, the talented sophomore has been successful on the grassroots circuit running with Iowa Elite the past two offseasons. </p> <p>With plenty of time left to make his mark with Dowling, Waggoner - <em>PHI&#39;s</em> 15th-ranked 2018 - feels confident his recruitment will start soon. </p> <p><span style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:12.8px">"I haven&#39;t seen much recruitment yet, but the process should start soon enough," said Waggoner. "I just gotta keep working."</span></p> <p><span style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:12.8px">As he continues to develop his skill-set, it&#39;s his perimeter game that he&#39;s been working on lately.</span></p> <p><span style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:12.8px">"I think my game on the perimeter improved this off-season. Mostly with my mid-range jump shot," said Waggoner, who says whichever level he plays at this season with the Maroons, the goal is to keep improving. </span></p> <p><span style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:12.8px">"At this point, I don&#39;t know what my role will be in the program. Whatever it is, I&#39;ll own it and contribute to my team."</span></p> <p><span style="color:rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:12.8px">"My goals are to keep improving my strength and speed, and also keep working my perimeter game."</span></p> <h2>December 26, 2014</h2><p>Since third-grade Dowling freshman <strong>John Waggoner</strong> has been with Iowa Elite, an AAU program he credits with lighting his passion for hoops.</p> <p>Now that the 2018 post has the desire to excel at the sport, it’s  improvements to his game he’s been focusing on lately.</p> <p>“I’ve been trying to improve my shot a bunch lately,” said Waggoner. “I’ve been doing a lot of workouts with my (AAU) coach Larry Mason, just a lot of circle-shooting -- that’s where you go around the horseshoe -- and stuff like that.”</p> <p>Waggoner is a 6-foot-5 power forward, and his dad, a doctor, is projecting him to be between 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-8 before he’s done growing.</p> <p><em>PHI’s</em> 13th-ranked 2018, Waggoner considers himself a post-player, but is constantly working to improve on the perimeter so he can be a more diverse player, and consequently more appealing to college coaches when the time comes for him to be recruited.</p> <p>“I’m more of a post player, I like to bang guys a little bit, so I’ll score most of my points in the post and get all the rebounds,” said Waggoner.</p> <p>“I’ve been definitely trying to build my guard skills too, so I can expand my game out to other positions. I&#39;ve just been getting my handles up and getting my shot up, so I can get out more on the wing, because if I want to play in college I’d be an undersized power forward, so it’d be helpful to expand my game out.”</p> <p>He’s currently the starting center with Dowling’s freshman team, and says he will be shuffled between the three and five positions -- there’s a chance though he’ll be moved up before season’s end.</p> <p>“They (Dowling coaches) said they’ll see how it goes and to just be ready for if and whenever my name is called,” said Waggoner. “But I’d say it’s kind of a long shot for varsity, I could see sophomores maybe.”</p>