The Caleb Houstan Blog: Switching to 2021, Recruitment and More
Caleb Houstan is an SI All-American nominee and one of the top shooting guards in the country, regardless of class. This season, the 6-foot-7 sophomore was an intricate part of what some were saying could be the best high school team ever; Monteverde (Fla.) Academy finished No. 1 in the country and undefeated. Houstan led the U16 Canadian National Team last summer, averaging 22.8 points a game, and has everyone from Gonzaga to Oregon to Virginia, among many others all giving chase. Now, he’s agreed to give SI All-American exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a blog.
What’s going on guys, it’s Caleb Houstan back at you with another blog!
By now a lot of you probably know that I reclassified from 2022 to 2021.
I’m excited about the decision.
It’s something that my family and I have been talking about for a while. I feel like it’s the best move for me, and I’ve worked really hard to get the school part lined up so I’d be able to do it.
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It really just came down to me feeling like I was ready.
I’ve worked on my game a lot throughout the quarantine and I feel like I’ve grown in a lot of ways. I feel like I’m mature enough to make the jump.
I’m really excited about this season. I want to be a leader both on and off the court and show people all aspects of my game. A lot of people saw my shooting last season; but this is the year that I am going to be able to showcase everything I can do.
Unfortunately, we’re not playing this summer no National Team or AAU, so I’m really looking forward to the high school season.
I report back to Montverde on August 24.
As for my recruitment, it hasn’t really affected me at all. All of the coaches were very happy that they would be able to get me on campus a year earlier. I’ve done a few Zoom calls with Michigan, Oregon, Arkansas, Arizona and Texas and I would say that they’ve all been coming hard along with Virginia, Duke and North Carolina.
The Zooms are cool because you get to learn more about the schools and see photos. I have been on calls with coaches who actually walk around campus and show me the school, which is pretty cool too.
Virginia did something different, which I liked; they showed highlights from me scoring and then they showed a clip of their guys scoring the same way. They were just showing me how easily I would fit into their system. I thought that was cool. I hadn’t seen that before.
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The next step for me is just getting more information and building relationships. I’ll be talking more to my family about when to cut things down, but there’s no rush for me.
Other than working out, I’ve been watching “A Day in the Life” videos with JaVale McGee and a couple other players there in the NBA bubble! Those are interesting.
I don’t know what it would be like to have to be confined to that space, but I think after a while it wouldn’t be too bad.
I’m really excited about the NBA starting back up too! I’ve got the Raptors winning it all of course! We’re still the champs until someone else wins. People are sleeping on us, but they will see!
OK guys, that’s all I’ve got; I just wanted to talk to you about why I decided to make the move.
Check back soon for my next blog and stay safe out there.