Jalen Suggs is an excellent basketball player. He’s a pretty good football player, too, and for now, he doesn’t have to choose between one or the other.
“I plan on playing all the way up till I’m a senior,” he said this week, “and then making the decision probably my senior year on if I’ll go … basketball or football (in college).”
He has time to change his mind, of course. Suggs, who hails from St. Paul, is only a freshman at Minnehaha Academy.
“He’s a dynamic player,” said Collin Quinn, Suggs’ coach with the SMB Wolfpack, a cooperative team comprised of players from St. Paul Academy, Minnehaha Academy and Blake.
Heading into Friday night’s game against New Life Academy, the Wolfpack (3-0) are averaging 53.3 points a game and have outscored opponents 160-7.
“He does a good job throwing the football (and) he’s nice with his feet,” Quinn said.
Suggs has passed for 360 yards and three touchdowns, and run for 90 yards and two scores. He is aware of what his strengths are — “moving out of the pocket” effectively and making the right reads, he said — but also of what he needs to improve.
“Three interceptions in three weeks, that’s not too good.” Suggs said, “so (I need) to cut down on those.”
He’ll get no argument from his coach.
“The biggest thing we have to do is protect the football,” Quinn said.
The Wolfpack’s success offensively might make it seem that Suggs was a shoo-in to start as a freshman. Not so, said Quinn, adding that there was only one plan heading into August practices.
“We just wanted to get the kid out there that gave the team the best opportunity to be successful; we feel like (Jalen) did that,” Quinn said, adding, “He has competed and he’s earned that, and the guys have responded well to his leadership.”
Suggs’ primary focus right now is football, but he practices his basketball skills year-round. He has scholarship offers from the likes of Baylor, Iowa State and, one he just received on Thursday, Minnesota.
Blessed to have received an offer from the home town state🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/l3ZoMlAGLb
— Jalen Suggs (@jalensuggs) September 22, 2016
He said his basketball coaches have told him to have fun playing football but want him “to play basketball at the end,” Suggs said.
That will have to wait for now. SMB is off to a great start and doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon.
“Definitely the goal is go to state,” Suggs said. “I think we have the talent, we just have to work hard in practice and continue to grow as a team.”
