Bishop Luers’ starting guard Jalen Causey committed to go to college at Manchester University. He announced his commitment via Twitter this afternoon. He plans to major in either Sports Management or Physical Therapy.
“Manchester was just a good fit for me,” Causey said. “The coaches, [Head] Coach [Nate] Conley, he reached out and talked to me throughout the whole season and showed a lot of love. And it’s not too far, not too close, it’s just the right [distance] for me, and it’s a family there.”
“I’m very excited, first and foremost, and that’s one of the things I told those guys when I came [to Luers] two years ago, that my goal is to make sure that they have an opportunity to go and get their academic career off and started as well as being able to have the opportunity to play,” Knights’ head coach Fonso White said. “So for Jalen, you know, it’s just been one of those things that we’ve been working on since the end of this season. And I’m very proud to see that it’s come to fruition for him and that he does have an opportunity to go on and play at the next level.”
Causey did not get a chance to visit Manchester, largely due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, he was able to do a virtual visit.
“I had a visit set up right before the whole virus started going on, like two weeks before, so I didn’t really get to go and look at it,” Causey said. “But I did a virtual visit on Zoom, and it was pretty cool.”
Causey has been a key contributor for Luers the last couple seasons. He was part of the Knights run to an SAC championship this past year. He averaged 12.8 points per game hitting 40% of his three pointers. He was also a double digit scorer in the 2018-2019 campaign, where he averaged 11.3 points per game. Throughout his high school career, Causey has seen a great deal of improvement in his game.
“Freshman year, I was just more of a spot up shooter. And then when I got to my senior year, I kind of had to run the team, be a leader, be more vocal than I was through the past years, and then just do what I had to do to get the W at the end of the day.”
White was Causey’s head coach for two years, having taken over the Knights in 2018. As Luers’ head coach, he saw plenty of growth in Causey as well.
“I think coming in with me as a new coach, he took it personal when I was being more demanding of him on the defensive side of the ball versus the offensive side of the ball, which all kids do that, and you know, he was one of those guys that I think took it more hard than the other guys did,” White said. “But you know at the end of the day, he buckled down for us, and that was part of our success this year is that he was able to play defense the way that we needed him to and get us in a position to win a championship in the SAC.”
There are multiple Fort Wayne athletes who have recently committed to Manchester. One of them is a former high school teammate of Causey’s. Knights’ front court man John Peterson announced his commitment in April. Causey looks forward to having Peterson as a teammate again in college.
“Me and John, we had a good bond in high school, so I’m looking forward to that,” Causey said. “He’ll probably be my roommate down in Manchester. We played together. And I think it’ll help in college, since we played in high school, to have a little bit more bonding experience.”
White’s advice to Causey as he heads off to Manchester would simply be this;
“Just enjoy the moment and enjoy the experience that he has for the next four years to be able to get his academic career off and going and being able to play the game that he loves to play and just enjoy each and every day and listen to what those coaches tell you,” White said.
