New Northside Christian girls basketball coach Jordan Leath’s journey to his job started when he was 14. 

Leath was attending a camp at Clemson with some of the state’s best players. He was matched up against future overseas pro Gabe Devoe and came to a sudden realization. 

“I realized real quick, I wasn’t going to go play in the NBA,” Leath said. “Between that and just God’s blessing with certain abilities to be able to communicate, motivate and just teach the game of basketball, I think is a blessing and is a gift.”

Since then, Leath has coached at the AAU level, served as a personal trainer, college assistant and high school girls assistant. Now, he is in charge of his own program and looking to turn things around at Northside. 

Many people helped Leath get to his position, His former high school basketball coach at Oakbrook Prep, Clay Keim, was extremely influential, and the pair still talk almost every day. 

 Leath’s time as an assistant at Columbia International University and Lexington High were also important stops on the path that have prepared him for a head coaching role. Now that he’s in the lead role, Leath said he is more than ready. 

“Everything on the court feels natural, feels simple, it’s been an easy transition,” Leath said. “Our group’s been committed, and when we have a captain leader that, I mean, I tell her what we need and she goes and gets it done. Everything on the floor is pretty easy for me.”

When Leath arrived at Northside, he made sure to reach out to the team’s returning veterans early, including senior captain Natalie Walke. 

“I can really see the program and just his passion for it,” Walke said. “I’m really glad that like he’s going to be my last high school coach.”

The team jumped out of the gates quickly this year and sat at 5-2 entering this week of play. Under Leath, Northside is experiencing early season success the program has rarely seen. 

Leath said this team has the capabilities to compete at a high level, but it doesn’t matter that they did it in November, it has to continue throughout the entire season.  

“In January, we want to start looking like we know what we’re doing, but February is the goal when we want to look like we know how to play basketball,” Leath said. “The success we’re having early really is icing on top right now, but for us, it’s still a journey. We’re still developing. The expectations are super high, and we’re just going to see how the season, how the journey continues to play out.”

The journey started in the summer when Leath started working with the team. The group is a mashup of girls ranging from seniors to seventh graders. 

“I was a little nervous for it, just because how many different ages we are,” Walke said. “ I was like, ‘how are we going to relate to each other? How am I going to be able to communicate with a 7th grader?’ But here we are.”

The players have gelled together despite their age gap. Starting point guard and seventh grader, Campbell Childers, said it leads to a better product on the court. 

“Over the summer, we started practice and it was different because when people are older than you, it could be intimidating. But once you actually start talking to them, we built a relationship, so it’s not, it’s normal now,” Childers said. 

Childers and Walke credited Leath as being a large motivator in getting the group together. His commitment on and off the court showed he was different than other coaches, and that’s allowed the team to buy in. 

“We have a relationship off the court as well, and he’s checking in on me at work, and then with each of the grades, like our schooling, how we are with different relationships, our parents,” Walke said. “That’d be the biggest thing on and off the court, he has a relationship with each of us, and it exists outside of basketball.”

With region play beginning in January, the Crusaders have a few more games to fine-tune all of the minor errors. The team is aware region play can make or break a season, so they have to approach that with the same mindset they had to start the year.

“A big thing that coach says is to handle our success,” Walke said. “We’ve had a really good start to the season, and I don’t think that we need to slow up on the hard work or the  accountability that each of us has for each other.” 

The Northside program has not had success historically in the region and SCISA post-season tournament. Leath and his group this year feel like they can be the team to change that. 

“Invite anybody out to come watch us play,” Leath said. “We’re here to make a statement in the girls basketball world, here in Columbia where some of the best girls basketball in the state is.”