If the West Michigan Officials Association had been picking a boys basketball Student-Athlete of the Year based on basketball accomplishments alone, Reeths-Puffer’s Jaxson Whitaker would have been a very strong candidate.
After all, he averaged 18.6 points, 5.6 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in the recently completed season and was a frequently mentioned candidate for the state’s Mr. Basketball award.
Along the way the four-year starter set new school records for career points, three-pointers in a season, three-pointers in a game and points in a quarter.
Whitaker was a major force for the Rockets, who finished with a 19-4 record and won a share of the O-K Green conference championship.
But the WMOA, an organization of high school football and basketball game officials in the area, looks for something more in their Student-Athlete of the Year winners - outstanding players who also have excellent academic records, exhibit personal character traits and have a history of community involvement.
As it turned out, Whitaker was a slam dunk with the other criteria mixed in, as well.
Whitaker accepts his award at the banquet.
Whitaker’s application for the award stood out for a special committee that sorted through about 30 outstanding applicants and narrowed it down to a final three. He then beat out the other two finalists in a vote of the 430 members of the WMOA.
The R-P senior was presented with a plaque and scholarship check for $1,500 earlier this week at the WMOA’s annual awards banquet in Grand Rapids.
Whitaker was one of three Student-Athlete of the Year recipients, along with Rockford’s Ryan Ahern for football and Hamilton’s Bethany Rehnke for girls basketball.
“I thought I had a decent chance (of winning the award),” Whitaker said. “It was pretty cool to get it over a lot of other people who applied.
“The banquet was really cool. I got to meet the two other students who won and got to talk to a lot of officials who worked our games, and some who hadn’t but had heard about our team.”
Whitaker’s biggest selling points, beyond his basketball skills, were his amazing 4.1 grade point average, which will put him in the top 20 of his graduating class, and his long record of service to others, particularly younger students.
Whitaker in action this season.
Among other things, he has been involved in a peer-assisted learning program in school, has volunteered to be a mentor at the R-P elementary schools and middle school, and has been a youth coach in the K-6 basketball program.
R-P boys basketball coach Nate Aardema was not at all surprised that Whitaker won the award and said he was highly deserving.
“He shows high character in everything he does and is a fantastic example of what a student-athlete should be,” Aardema said. “Everything that he’s gotten has been earned through hard work and dedication.
“The Officials Association looks at character, on-court ability, contributions to the community, sportsmanship and the work done in the classroom. Jaxson excels in all of those areas. I am very happy that the West Michigan Officials Association chose Jaxson as their recipient, and I am proud of him."