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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

His own coach calls him a “Swiss Army knife.” 

But listed at 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds, junior Jordan Tate is a boys basketball player at West Forsyth who can do almost everything on a court.  

And Tate, who has proven to be an integral piece to a team that currently sits at 9-1 overall and 2-0 in the Central Piedmont 4-A, has big aspirations this season with third-year Coach Marlon Brim.  

“I feel like I bring a lot of energy,” Tate said. “I can guard anybody on the court.” 

It all started for Tate as a freshman, who played on the JV team the entire season. However, while playing for Clemmons Middle School as an eighth-grader, Tate was playing AAU for CPC3 Select and he was playing at Reynolds Park. 

“It was kind of hard because I was coming off a broken leg,” Tate said. “I was like at a little tournament with my AAU team and I went up for a dunk and it just happened going up.” 

According to Tate, he was cleared by the doctors to play just before the start of his freshman season on JV for the Titans. 

“I learned a lot on JV,” he said. “…I was learning about the high school game and stuff. I feel like I still played good that year.” 

He was slated to play on JV last season, but he impressed so much that he was called up to varsity just before the season started.  

“He’s developed really well,” Brim said. “He’s gotten stronger, more athletic, can score the ball. He loves to do some intangible things that we need. So, I think he’s coming on really well for us.” 

Much of the way Tate plays on the court comes from his demeanor.  

“I think that’s just how he is,” Brim said. “He doesn’t get overhyped or he doesn’t get down when things don’t go well. But I think he has a great basketball IQ. I also think he can be a kid next year that can take another step.  

“He’s playing really well for us this year as a junior, and last year he came off the bench for us and gave us some good minutes. And this year we’re calling on him to be more consistent. And he’s doing that. He’s second in scoring behind Jacari (Brim, Marlon Brim’s son, who has signed to play at Appalachian State).” 

A perfect example of what Marlon Brim is talking about is two weeks ago in the Frank Spencer Holiday Classic in which West Forsyth was the No. 1 seed in the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Bracket.  

In the first-round game against No. 8 Northwest Guilford, Jacari Brim led West Forsyth with 24 to help it win 73-57. However, Tate added 15 points. In the semifinals against Reagan, Tate led all scorers for West Forsyth with 17 points.  

“I felt like we played pretty good,” Tate said. “Definitely played good.” 

It all came down to the championship against No. 2 Mount Tabor at Mount Tabor. Tate led West Forsyth with 14 points and Jacari Brim chipped in with 13, but Mount Tabor pummeled West Forsyth 71-51, sending West Forsyth to its 14th straight loss against Mount Tabor, dating all the way back to 2017.  

“The last game we just didn’t come out, but we’re going to see them again,” Tate said. 

In fact, that next time is Jan. 17 at West Forsyth in the first of two regular-season conference games.  

“We just weren’t locked in,” Tate said of the Frank Spencer loss against Mount Tabor. “I felt like we were a little bit nervous, about the stage or whatever, but I feel like we calmed a little bit now.” 

Some of it might be that the Spartans won their eighth Frank Spencer championship, all with Andy Muse as head coach.  

“I feel like we just didn’t come out and play hard,” Tate said. “We didn’t come out and play basketball we know how to play. They had more energy than us. We didn’t bring our energy that night.” 

As stated by Tate and Marlon Brim, it was sullen in the locker room after the loss against the Spartans. 

“It really shows that we’ve got to bring our ‘A’ game every time,” Tate said. “But we locked in and we’re going to finish out strong.” 

He’s right. Some teams took off the remainder of the long Christmas break after the Frank Spencer Holiday Classic. Not West Forsyth. It practiced the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas, took Christmas Day off and went and played in the Yellow Jacket Christmas Classic in Sanford. 

West Forsyth drove back and forth between Clemmons and Sanford, and it appears that strategy paid off. West Forsyth won all three games of the tournament, including the championship in which it defeated Cary Green Hope 72-44.  

In that championship game, Jacari Brim led the Titans with 20 points and was named tournament MVP. Tate added 18 points and was named all-tournament.  

“Once (Tate) gets going then Jacari and Kamauri (Manuel) get going,” Marlon Brim said. “So, sometimes (Tate) can take the pressure of Jacari to score the basketball, and that’s what we need.” 

In the first-round rout of St. Pauls, in which West Forsyth won 84-27, Tate scored 12 points for West Forsyth. In that game, Max Skillman led the team with 14 points and Arrington Kee chipped in with 13, showing that it’s not just Jacari Brim that can beat you. 

“I think they can play off each other,” Marlon Brim said of Jacari Brim and Tate playing with each other. “They played off each other last year and he played really well, and Jacari played really well. They played off each other very well, so I think he’s learning some things under Jacari. 

“But I also think Tate has enough basketball savvy to still to be really good. So, he knows he’s good. He’s just to learn how to play in varsity at a higher level. And that’s what it’s all about for him.” 

To illustrate that point, Tate continued to shine as West Forsyth marched through the Yellow Jacket Christmas Classic. Tate had 8 points and 12 rebounds as West Forsyth tripped Apex Middle Creek 53-42. 

“It meant a lot,” Tate said. “It meant that we could bounce back from a loss, get back on track and win.” 

In that game, Jacari Brim led the Titans with 13 points. But although Tate didn’t score in double figures, he had double figures in rebounds, showing another element to his diverse game. 

“It’s definitely good (to have Jacari Brim as a teammate and to have Marlon Brim as the head coach) because we get in the gym together,” Tate said. “Jacari, we just push each other to be good every day.” 

Tate did the double and made all-tournament in both the Frank Spencer and the Yellow Jacket Christmas Classic. 

“I was just going out there grinding, showing what I can do,” Tate said.  

Some of that leadership that has started to bud for Tate actually started shortly after last season ended. Tate also played football as a safety last year for the Titans, but he decided to give that up. 

“I just wanted to focus strictly on basketball, getting better,” Tate said. 

The home stretch of the season starts Friday night with a Central Piedmont 4-A game at Reagan, a rematch of the semifinals of the Frank Spencer Holiday Classic. Also, the West Forsyth boys have a nonconference game scheduled for Saturday night at High Point Andrews. 

“(Tate’s) our Swiss Army knife,” Brim said. “He can guard 1 through 3. He can guard 1 through 4 for us, so he can do a little bit of everything for us. And that’s what we talked to him about, not being one dimensional, being a well-rounded basketball player.  

“And that’s what, if you’re fortunate enough to play college basketball, that’s what they look for…He has those intangibles. He’s just got to continue getting better at it.” 

Tate plans on being a sponge on and off the court, learning to be the team leader once Jacari Brim graduates in May. 

“I’ve got to step up and take after him next year because he’s going to be gone,” Tate said. “So, somebody’s got to do it. I feel like I’ve got to step up and do it.” 

His head coach with the Titans agrees with that. 

“I think he’s taken on that responsibility or that role as being a team player,” Marlon Brim said. “And sometimes when we need him to score, he can do that. If he needs to make the right pass, he can do that. So, he has the tools to pass that down and sometimes we actually need some individual stuff.” 

West Forsyth should be in the mix for the conference championship this season, plus the conference tournament and NCHSAA Class 4-A tournament will soon follow. 

“Definitely go undefeated and get to the conference and win the conference championship,” Tate said.  

Although there is still plenty of this season still to play it is important to note that Tate still has one more year of eligibility remaining after this season. 

“Definitely just keep getting in the gym and stay focused,” he said.