Tell most high school basketball fans that a game features three of the state’s top ten sophomore prospects, and they will assume it is a Simeon vs. Young matchup. Maybe Homewood-Flossmoor vs. Thornton or even Benet vs. DePaul Prep.
Not anymore. The talent base is shifting to the west, and the showdown of elite sophomores was Neuqua Valley at Yorkville.
Braydon Porter, a 6-5 guard, and 6-8 forward Joey Jakstys are the Yorkville sophomores. They are talented college prospects still learning how to impact the high school game.
Neuqua Valley’s Cole Kelly is already one of the state’s dominant players. The 6-7 guard opened the No. 20 Wildcats’ 79-60 win on Wednesday with two three pointers and went on to display his impressive all-around game, finishing with 33 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists. He was 13 of 17 shooting and 2-for-4 from three-point range with 2 dunks.
Porter had 13 points for the Foxes (4-2) and Jakstys, the younger brother of Illinois basketball player Jason Jakstys, finished with 14 points and four rebounds.
Kelly scored 12 in the first quarter and junior Mason Martin heated up in the second quarter with 14 points for Neuqua Valley (5-1). Martin made five three-pointers in the game and finished with 27 points.
“When we are clicking on all cylinders, we are a very hard team to beat and it is fun,” Kelly said.
Kelly and Martin have been the area’s best scoring combo over the first few weeks of the season.
“We didn’t offer much resistance to start the game,” Yorkville coach John Holakovsky said. “We allowed them to get really confident. They got in a pretty big rhythm to start. We started trying to go three for three with them, which is not what we want to do. Especially when they are super-hot.”
Kelly played youth basketball with Porter and currently plays club ball with Jakstys.
“It is a great feeling to see guys that I grew up with competing at a high level now,” Kelly said. “Those two guys deserve everything they get.”
Kelly is ranked 38th in the country in the sophomore class by 247Sports and enjoys a fairly high profile nationally. He has six college scholarship offers: Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Drake and DePaul. Expect that number to triple over the next few years and for the top programs in college basketball to come calling.
“It’s a great confidence booster, knowing the hard work I have put in is leading to what I’ve always wanted,” Kelly said. “But there is obviously still work to be done and a long way to go.”
Jakstys and Porter aren’t the only highly ranked sophomore prospects in the Southwest Suburban Prairie. Bolingbrook’s Brady Pettigrew is one of the top sophomores in the country.
“Our conference is loaded,” Holakovsky said. “It is cool. Our kids really like it. Brayden and Joey are the talk of the town. I teach Driver’s Ed, and I have random kids asking me what it is like to coach Brayden and Joey. It’s funny, to high school kids they are the coolest thing ever.”