Prospect Spotlight: Jaden Rogers (2021)
Fern Creek is in the midst of a youth movement this season. After graduating 10 Seniors last season, the tigers are looking to reload as opposed to rebuild. Enter Sophomore point guard Jaden Rogers. After Anthony Wales ran the Fern Creek offense for 3 years, the keys have been handed to Rogers. Jaden saw playing time last year as a freshman and spent his 15u AAU season on one of the higher ranked teams in the country while battling top competition every weekend. Jaden has been working for the opportunity to run the Tiger offense. He told me, “This off-season I’ve worked on my jump shot a lot to try to get more consistent on knocking down shots. I focused on weightlifting and gaining weight to be strong against older opponents. I’ve also been working on the vertimax to increase my vertical.”
Multiple colleges have already expressed interest in Rogers and he has attended a few elite camps on college campuses. Jaden told me, “I’ve had some coaches come to practices and I’ve been invited to some campuses. Basically just building relationships at this point but no offers as of right now.” But along with his increased role this season, Jaden is hoping to show fans and critics alike what he can do,” I would like to show more of my game. Most people know the passing and distributing part of my game, that will never change. But I also hope to show my ability to score this season.” One thing Rogers has on his mind is getting his team back to Rupp Arena for a third straight season, “As a team we lost 10 seniors, so we are a pretty young team. But I feel good about what we’re working with. To be honest I want to make it back to State and finish what we started last year. Young team or not, I believe as long as we show up when it’s time to play, we’ll be alright.”
Playing for a top team comes with some pressure alone but Jaden Rogers is also the second highest ranked point guard in the 2021 class and sits at number six overall in our class rankings. However, the pressure of being ranked has minimal effect on the Sophomore floor general, “As I mentioned before, my goal is to finish what we started so the pressure is already there. Coach Schooler is always saying “They did what they had to do; What are y’all going to do?” The team last year made history for Fern Creek, now we have our history to make, and we’re ready.” Jaden is already a fairly widely known name in the state of Kentucky but he has a chance to be one of the best point guards to come through Louisville since Rajon Rondo nearly 15 years ago. Keep an eye on Rogers and the young, talented group at Fern Creek this season.