SPRINGFIELD — Jake Lafferty sported a new look upon emerging from Sparta’s locker room at the Blue & Gold Tournament on Tuesday by wearing glasses.
The Trojans senior all-stater related sporting bifocals has become fashionable among among today’s youth.
“They’re just something I threw on,” Lafferty said. “(Glasses) are kind of a thing now.”
Lafferty’s vision is 20/20 and his stats line is the verge of being 2,000/1,000.
He’s fresh from collecting the 1,000th rebound of his career during Sparta’s loss last week to Lafayette County.
According to MSHSAA’s records book, Lafferty is only the 15th Missouri boys player to join the 1,000-rebound fraternity. Previously, the most recent player to get to 1,000 rebounds was 2020 Greenwood grad Aminu Mohammed, who had 1,266.
“I haven’t really put it into perspective,” Lafferty said of what he thought of his latest milestone. “I still can't wrap my finger around it. Looking back at my freshman year, the main thing I did was get rebounds. That's a lot of times I rebounded with the amount of games (93) I’ve played.”
The state’s all-time rebounds leader is 1973 Fair Grove grad Billy Presley, with 1,671. Former Arkansas and Notre Dame center Joe Kleine is second with 1,667 rebounds at Slater from 1977-1980.
Sparta coach Deric Link said Lafferty should be very proud of 1,000 rebounds and counting.
“To me, that's more impressive than 1,000 points,” Link said. “He's averaged over 10 rebounds a game his entire career. That's a testament to who he is and how hard he works. Not a lot of kids want to go and get a rebound. For him to start as a freshman and impact the game that way, that's been pretty awesome.”
Lafferty’s next milestone is due to be 2,000 career points. He’s in the neighborhood of 1,850, after scoring a dozen Tuesday.
MSHSAA documents 30 Missouri boys players with 2,000 points or more. The state’s record-holder is Wellsville-Middletown grad Fred Johnson, with 3,552. Former U.S. senator and NBA player Bill Bradley is third with 3,068.
One of Lafferty’s mentors, Seymour grad Josh Hume, is 13th with 2,786. Mohammed is 15th with 2,709.
