September 21, 2015 Dowling's 6-foot-6 forward John Waggoner has established himself as one of the state's better big-men in the 2018 class. Though he has no varsity experience due to the Maroons' depth, the talented sophomore has been successful on…
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Dowling's 6-foot-6 forward John Waggoner has established himself as one of the state's better big-men in the 2018 class.
Though he has no varsity experience due to the Maroons' depth, the talented sophomore has been successful on the grassroots circuit running with Iowa Elite the past two offseasons.
With plenty of time left to make his mark with Dowling, Waggoner – PHI's 15th-ranked 2018 – feels confident his recruitment will start soon.
“I haven't seen much recruitment yet, but the process should start soon enough,” said Waggoner. “I just gotta keep working.”
As he continues to develop his skill-set, it's his perimeter game that he's been working on lately.
“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.
“At this point, I don't know what my role will be in the program. Whatever it is, I'll own it and contribute to my team.”
“My goals are to keep improving my strength and speed, and also keep working my perimeter game.”
December 26, 2014
Since third-grade Dowling freshman John Waggoner has been with Iowa Elite, an AAU program he credits with lighting his passion for hoops.
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.
“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.”
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.
PHI’s 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.
“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.
“I’ve been definitely trying to build my guard skills too, so I can expand my game out to other positions. I'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.”
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.
“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.”
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