No denying Westerkamp's numbers
It should come as absolutely no surprise that the first pass Jordan Westerkamp caught in organized football, he ran it the length of the field for a touchdown.
A third-grader, he lined up at tight end for the Lombard Falcons 80-pound Silver team, directed by current Montini offensive coordinator Lewis Borsellino. Westerkamp caught a quick pop pass and away he went.
“I caught it and ran for like 90 yards. It was crazy,” Westerkamp said. “There's nothing better than to score a touchdown.”
More than any high school receiver who has ever played in Illinois, he should know.
Westerkamp, the Nebraska-bound senior and captain of the Daily Herald 2011 DuPage County All-Area Football Team, set career marks for touchdown receptions, receiving yardage and receptions that establish him as the most productive receiver in state history.
Montini's 33-year head coach, Chris Andriano, may be biased, but to him there's no argument.
“Talent-wise, his ball-catching ability, his route-running, his ability to readjust a route according to the defense, his football intelligence, his heart — he's got the heart of a champion — it all adds up to the best receiver that Illinois has ever seen. He's the best football player that we've ever had at Montini and a terrific competitor.”
That is a bold statement even when confined to a Montini program, fresh off its third consecutive Class 5A championship, that produced three Division I recruits in 2008 alone.
Westerkamp's astronomical numbers back up the claim.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Glen Ellyn resident didn't squeak past the existing record of touchdowns by a receiver, 43. He smashed it. Westerkamp's 5 touchdown catches in the Broncos' 70-45 win over Joliet Catholic on Saturday gave him 68 career touchdown receptions, including 29 this year, which ranks 17th over a single season.
Yardage? Westerkamp's 331 yards receiving in the title game sent him to 4,526 over his four years on the varsity. That's more than 1,000 yards past the 2001 standard of Riverside-Brookfield's Tom Guardi. His season totals of 1,673 yards receiving in 2011 and 1,631 last season rank second and third on the IHSA list.
Sitting on 223 receptions for a career and 78 this season, Westerkamp entered the 5A final needing 12 catches to break the state record of 234. Although IHSA statistics credited him with 11 to tie the mark, two sets of independent play-by-play notes showed Westerkamp catching 12 passes, a number since confirmed in separate game film reviews by Andriano and by Westerkamp's parents, Bob and Kim.
Let's just say he's got that record, too. His father's used to that sort of thing.
Like father, like son
Jordan, who still welcomes advice from his brother, former Broncos receiver Christian Westerkamp — he scored the last touchdown and caught the winning 2-point conversion pass from their cousin, Matt, to beat Joliet Catholic in the 2009 title game — broke all of 1983 Montini graduate Bob Westerkamp's program receiving records. Dad can continue to boast about his 13 interceptions in 1982 and 27 for a career, second all-time in state history.
As for the others, well ...
“People are always, uh-oh, he broke another,” said Bob Westerkamp, who after tearing knee ligaments as an Illinois freshmen went on to become a two-time All-America at Benedictine, earning tryouts with six NFL teams.
“When he came in as a freshman I knew he was going to wave bye-bye to many of my records,” Bob Westerkamp said. “We knew coming into Montini he was going to be something special. I don't think we knew to this extent.”
As Andriano noted, the reasons for Jordan's success are many, starting with but not limited to genetics. Westerkamp has been hand-timed at 4.48 seconds in the 40-yard dash. He's a basketball dunker with a 40-inch vertical leap.
Westerkamp has uncanny body control, total focus and thrives under pressure. He knows where he is on the field at all times. He catches footballs with his hands, not his body, to make eye-popping grabs: Willie Mays-at-the-Polo Grounds basket jobs; one-handed snags; sharp-angled, toe-touching leaners; and one of his favorites, the over-the-defender pluck.
Westerkamp has also bench-pressed 225 pounds 15 times, so his strength makes it exceedingly difficult to knock him off a route or off his feet should a defender even catch up.
Asked what he likes about Westerkamp, St. Francis coach Greg Purnell said: “Nothing.”
But seriously, folks, that's the dry humor of a man who relishes the graduation of the two-time Illinois High School Football Coaches Association All-State wideout.
Purnell admires Westerkamp's ability to make catches in traffic, to overcome the constant double- and triple-team coverage applied in desperation. Purnell called Westerkamp one of the most dominating players he's coached against in a 43-year career.
“I know Coach Andriano very, very well, and when Coach Andriano gives him the accolades that he's the best receiver he's ever coached, I don't doubt it,” Purnell said.
Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly is likewise glad to have Westerkamp trundle off to Nebraska, whose scholarship he accepted out of 24 Division I offers, with two more coming after his verbal commitment May 6.
Montini and Westerkamp have eliminated Fedderly's Knights in the 5A semifinals the past two seasons. On Nov. 19 Kaneland's triple coverage had Montini throwing elsewhere for three quarters. In the fourth Westerkamp caught 4 passes for 70 yards, including the game-winning touchdown with two minutes left, for a 35-31 victory.
“He was obviously one of the best ever in state history. I thought he was the player of the year for 5A,” Fedderly said.
“Watching him the two times that we played him, everybody talks about how he catches, but he tore it up blocking. He played every play hard. It looks like he takes pride in everything he does. He's just an unbelievable football player.”
“If the ball's going the other way, or if it's a run, I'm not going to stand there and do nothing,” Westerkamp explained.
Blocking ability, not just the records, is what separates Jordan from his father.
“He was definitely more physical than I ever was,” Bob Westerkamp said. “I was never the stick-your-nose-in-there, blocking type of guy. He takes so much pride in the blocking part of it ... I think that's the part that makes him that complete receiver.”
A complete competitor
Off the field, meanwhile, Jordan can be a complete wreck.
“When we're not in football season we always pray the football season gets here fast because he's just loaded with energy. He drives us crazy,” said his mother, the former Kim McDonald. She met her husband of 21 years through his sister, Anne, when all three were athletes at Benedictine.
Competition doesn't end on the gridiron. Jordan will battle brothers Christian and Aaron, a Montini junior, over the most mundane household activities.
“Everything's a competition,” Kim Westerkamp said. “Who eats dinner the fastest, who walks up the stairs the fastest.”
Jordan will teach himself pop songs he hears on the radio, playing them on a cheap piano and singing along. He's been known to take live requests on Facebook.
He's learned to compete academically as well. After a slow start in school, two straight semesters of A's have raised his grade-point average over 3.00 and put him on the dean's list. His father said Jordan earned a 3.9 GPA last semester.
“He's really become the complete student-athlete,” Andriano said.
“Kids from other teams like him,” the coach said. “How often does that happen when you have a kid with that kind of ability? He almost rips their hearts out, but they still like him.
“In school he's probably the most-liked kid in the whole school. He's just a great kid — polite, considerate. He opens doors for people.”
Westerkamp's football skills, honed since the third grade, have obviously opened doors. Before he goes off to play for Nebraska — which on Monday sent receivers coach Rich Fisher and offensive assistant John Garrison to the Westerkamps' for an official in-home visit — he'll play in the inaugural Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl on Jan. 3 in Phoenix.
That will be nice. But high school is a special time, and for this special player last Saturday in Champaign will be the memory that remains as long-standing as any of his receiving records.
“I have to say this third time being up on that podium, holding that trophy, looking at all the assistant coaches, family, the people in the stands, realizing this is it, you're a three-time state champion. I never thought I would get to my senior year and be holding a third state trophy,” Westerkamp said.
“Our coach always tells us you're always going to remember your last game of your senior year. I was fortunate to have that big game so I'll always remember that game, and the championship, and the whole process of coming in as a freshman and becoming a senior, how fast it is.
“My high school career has been so good to me with everything that's happened, and all the hard work I've put in for the past couple of years, it's paid off. It's made me so happy and thankful.”