March 28, 2024

Connor Gholson becomes Newton’s all-time scorer

Nets Top Scoring Spot

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Watching, waiting and working.

Connor Gholson watched the Newton High School basketball players when he was younger. He was just waiting until it was his turn for the Cardinals, and he went to work.

“When I was younger, Trey (Vanderlaan) and I along with a lot of our AAU teammates would watch all the high school games. We sat behind the bench during games then go home and pretend we were the varsity players,” Gholson said.

Gholson’s work with his teammates paid off in many ways on the basketball court. After playing four years of varsity basketball for Newton High, Gholson became the Cardinals’ all-time leading scorer with 1,395 points. He wrote his name in the NHS basketball record book in several categories.

But his proudest moment came when the 2016-17 Newton team earned the program’s first trip to a state basketball tournament in 25 years at the end of February. The Cardinals played in the 2017 Class 4A state tournament on March 8 at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“That was our goal to get to the state tournament and win a state championship. We believed in each other and in that goal,” Gholson said. “Coach (Bill) Liley kept telling us our goal was to win a state championship. We said we’re going to do this and we about did.”

With Gholson leading the way, the Cardinals went 19-6 this season, which was the best record by a Newton team since the 1964 state championship run of 23-3. The Cardinals pushed the eventual 4A champion Iowa City West the hardest at the state tournament, losing 57-51 in the opening round game.

“I remember coming home when we beat Johnston in the substate final to the pep rally here at our gym. It was surreal,” Gholson said. “It finally sunk in after that — we were going to state and all the work we put in for two years is paying off.”

Newton fell short of its ultimate goal as a team with four seniors and one junior on the court. Gholson is leaving the basketball court as one of three Newton High School basketball players to score more than 1,000 points in his career.

Gholson took over the top spot in career scoring from Tyler Wood, who had 1,076 points (2014-17) and also passed Curt Greeley, who scored 1,020 points (2003-2006). Gholson moved pass Wood as the most prolific shooter from 3-point field goal range in Newton history.

The 6-foot-3 inch guard drained 79-of-204 3-point field goals his senior season, which led Class 4A and put him atop of the NHS most 3-point field goals made in a season list. He also holds the No. 4 spot on that list with 67 made 3-pointers as a junior in 2016. Wood hit 75 threes in 2014 and 71 in 2015.

Gholson is No. 1 in career 3-point field goals made for Newton with 229 to Wood’s 223. Gholson hit 229-of-635 for his career for 36 percent from outside the 3-point arc.

“The spring of my eighth-grade year, Coach (Nick) Wilkins sat me down and told me I’d be getting a lot of varsity time as a freshman. He told me I had the opportunity to be one of the best players to come through Newton, if I worked at it,” Gholson said.

He worked at it going to a lot of the NHS varsity basketball camps during the summer. Gholson said he spent a lot of time in the gym working on getting himself ready to play varsity basketball as a freshman.

Gholson said in that same meeting, former NHS head coach Nick Wilkins told him to really work on his shooting range.

“I was slight of build and as a freshman I wasn’t going to be going into the paint and banging around with any body. I was always a pretty good shooter in middle school. I worked on shooting a lot that spring and summer to get ready to shoot a lot of threes,” Gholson said.

“I just keep moving back,” Gholson said about his shooting range. “I’m really comfortable shooting from about eight to nine feet behind the 3-point line (19 feet, 9 inches). I play around shooting a regular jumper from half-court. I can get it there.”

Gholson, who has been playing basketball competitively since third grade, needed 118 points to reach 1,000 and 194 points to tie Wood as he went into his senior season this year. It took seven games for him to reach the 1,000-point plateau.

“Coming into the season, I was pretty confident I was going to get the record. The biggest thing was to get to 1,000 points and then I figured it would be smooth sailing from there,” Gholson said.

Gholson was within 17 points of 1,000 when he took the court at home on Jan. 3, 2017 against Little Hawkeye Conference rival Grinnell. He scored 20 points in a win over the Tigers.

“I tried not to think about the career record too much. We were in a bit of a slump as a team then. I was focused on winning games and getting us back on track,” Gholson said.

The career scoring record came to Gholson on the road at Pella Christian in a 65-63 loss to another LHC rival on Jan. 13, 2017.

Gholson needed nine points to tie the NHS career-scoring record of Wood. Gholson played two years with Wood for the Cardinals and watched Wood take over the top NHS all-time scoring mark as a senior.

On a 3-pointer late in the second quarter, Gholson took the top spot on the NHS list as he had 11 points in the first half.

“It’s a pretty cool honor to have. There was a little bit of pressure on me, but I always keep team first and focus on winning games,” Gholson said after scoring 23 points that Friday. “Being teammates with him was great because of the type of player he was. It was always nice to have that motivation, and he always pushed me in practices. So, to go past him is pretty cool.”

Wood, who is a student athlete at William Penn playing football, came to Newton’s next home game to pass the scoring mantle to Gholson.

“I knew if we had team success, it would mean I’d have personal success along the way. It means a lot to have my name in the record book. I’ll be able to look back at that and have fond memories of what these past seasons really meant — us getting to the state tournament and all the friendships I have because of basketball. These guys are like brothers to me,” Gholson said.

Gholson, Vanderlaan, Morgan Maher and Josh Ventling are all seniors and Garrett Sturz is a junior. Sturtz is sitting at No. 4 on the all-time leading scoring list with 982 points.

“I put it out there for him to chase. I didn’t make it easy, but I’m sure Garrett will pass me next year. He is a tremendous player,” Gholson said.

Gholson has had the personal success on the basketball court. He has earned All-Little Hawkeye Conference honors, Class 3A state honors as a junior and Class 4A state honors as a senior. He played in a senior all-star game.

He began playing basketball when he was 3-years old. Gholson said he played a lot of baseball when he was younger and it was around middle school age, he realized it was easier to work on basketball.

“You can work on it year around and by yourself. With baseball, you can’t do a lot by yourself and it’s tough to work on it inside. Basketball — I could shoot by myself and I just fell in love with the game,” he said.

Newton High head coach Bill Liley said Gholson is one of the hardest working kids he has had the opportunity to coach in high school. Liley has been guiding the Cardinals the past two seasons.

“Connor has dedicated himself to being a highly successful player at his grade level in Iowa and in the entire game,” Liley said. “He is one of the best shooters I’ve coached. It takes a lot of time and work to build the skills he has. Connor is an outstanding student-athlete with a high GPA and high test scores.”

Gholson has the athletic genes as his mother, Karla was a high jumper and basketball player at Newton High and his father, Troyt, was a state track qualifier at New London High School. His two older sisters, Kelsey and Erin, were athletic, graduating from Newton and Coe College.

“I was athletic. I was better at baseball early on, so no one expected me to use basketball as my path,” Gholson said. “But I developed the love and passion for basketball.”

Gholson said he is competing in track as a long jumper and sprinter this spring. He has one more summer season for high school baseball playing for Newton.

There really wasn’t a tough decision to be made about which sport he wanted to pursue to the college level. He knew basketball was it.

“I’ve made a few visits to colleges and I have a few more to make. I plan to make a decision in a week or so,” Gholson said.

One of the frontrunners is Drake University for two reasons, Gholson said. Gholson plans to major in business and Drake has a strong business curriculum and of course, Drake is an NCAA Division I basketball program.

“Playing Division I basketball has always been a dream of mine,” Gholson said.

“I see myself more as scorer than a shooter. I can score the ball in many ways — driving to the hoop, hitting the tough pull-up jumper, shoot off the dribble and catch and shoot. If you leave me open, I’m going to shoot the 3.”

I’m also a better passer than people give me credit for. I play decent defense, but it is the big thing I need to work on going forward.”

Liley said Gholson’s overall floor game and understanding of what it takes to make not only himself better but how to play to make his teammates better has grown in the past two years. He said Gholson’s willingness to pass the ball made Newton an outstanding passing team the past two years.

“I’ve enjoyed coaching Connor these past two seasons. I can’t wait to see the great things the future has in store for him. He is going to be an outstanding player for whichever college he decides to go to,” Liley said.

Speaking to younger players, Gholson said, “work hard and stay together. Our group stayed together all through the years and we knew each other very well on and off the court. We’re friends and teammates.

“Working during the off-season is where you get better. The season is about winning games. For us, we played for each other.”

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com