Keota’s Stout: 1 milestone down, more to go

KEOTA - When one has been playing basketball competitively since the first grade, he develops certain ideas about his game, ideas that have become goals.

Keota High School's JD Stout recently achieved one of those goals when he scored his 1,000th career point.

'I have to give a lot of credit to everybody I played with,” Stout said. 'Anybody that I've played with helped to get me open so I could score.”

There are other milestones ahead that he intends to reach:

' Become the school's career scoring leader.

' Have the school's best career free throw percentage.

' Make the most 3-pointers in school history.

' Win conference.

' The most coveted goal is to make it to the state tournament.

Luke Hammen, a cousin and one of Stout's better friends, gave the assist on the 1,000th point.

'He is a really good shooter,” Hammen said. 'He is good at passing. He can drive the ball. He's a really good defender, too. He will guard the best guy while he is putting up the most points. Scoring is the best part. He has a lot of strengths, but scoring is the strongest.”

Hammen mentioned another trait of Stout's that only 10 percent of the population has, he is left-handed.

'I think it's his left hand that gives him an advantage,” Hammen said. 'He's quick, he's tall, but he's got the left-hand.”

Stout, who plays point guard, is listed at 6-foot, 190 pounds.

What's the best part about playing with him? 'Winning,” Hammen said.

The Eagles were 17-6 during Stout's freshman season, when he was the first man in off the bench. He scored 191 points for an 8.3 average.

The Eagles were 15-7 last season when he produced 519 points for a 23.6 average.

The Eagles are 6-5 this year with Stout scoring 305 points for a 27.7 average.

He has 113 career 3-pointers. His older brother Cole has the season record of 91 and career record of 149.

His 3-point percentage was at 33 percent after his sophomore season. It is currently at 45.2.

'I don't know if I am getting more open looks, but I know I am shooting it a lot better,” Stout said. 'I have worked really hard in the off season on getting my 3-point shot to go in.”

Stout has developed his abilities while also playing baseball and football.

'I like playing all sports,” he said. 'I like being around the guys, but at the end of the day, basketball is my favorite.”

He does have weaknesses in his game.

'Scoring is the strongest part of my game, I can't say that it's not, but I would like to get my assist to turnover ratio up,” Stout said. 'One thing I have been working on is speeding up my release point. I spent a lot of time doing that this summer and it seems to be working right now.”

That is something a coach would want out of his star athlete and Stout's coach is very famaliar with his game since the Eagles coach is Dan Stout, JD's father.

'It is a neat experience (to coach a child),” Dan Stout said. He coached Cole and has two more coming up.'It is a neat relationship to be able to go home and watch game film with him. We can talk about stuff together and sometimes Cole sits in there with us and watches film too. He gives a lot of his own insight to JD. I know JD admires Cole for the shooter that he was. Cole has the record for most 3-pointers in a game with 10. JD emulates some of the things that Cole did, but he has a different game where he can slash to the basket.”

There have been two teams from Keota that made it to the state tournament, one in 2014 and the 1989 team that won state.

'I think the 2014 team is very similar to us this year,” JD Stout said. 'I don't think they were one of the better teams that stepped onto this court, but they got a good draw and they started jelling at the right time. I was always around that team since my dad was the coach. Kolton Greiner and Luke Lyle both scored 1,000 and to have two people on the same team both reach 1,000 is pretty cool.”

Although the scoring is the strength of JD's game, he doesn't neglect working on other aspects.

'JD has put in a lot of time, a lot of effort all the way through,” Coach Stout said. 'He can handle the ball because he works on his ball handling all the time. He works on different drills every day shooting and dribbling. I think this year, he has helped the team out by going down there and rebounding. He knew coming into the year that with our size, he would have to help out a lot.”

Opponents have thrown a lot of junk defenses at the Eagles in an effort to limit Stout's scoring.

'I think opponents guard me pretty good,” he said. 'They try to anyway. It seems like they throw everything at me, but my teammates do a good job of helping me. There are 8 minutes in every quarter, so there are a lot of opportunities for me to score the ball.”

'People can't key on just one thing,” Coach Stout said. 'He is a very dynamic player. He is a good all-around player. The nice thing is he wants to get better every day.”

If he continues to improve, college basketball is in his future.

'He wants to continue to play after high school,” Coach Stout said. 'He has to get better to do that. It's going to depend on how he finishes things out.”

'Right now, our main goal is making it to state,” JD Stout said.

One goal down, many more yet to achieve.