Etowah’s Jaxon Etter hit a big career milestone last month, when he reached 1,000 points for his career.

The senior guard hit the mark Dec. 15 in a loss to West Forsyth, but the team waited until ending a four-game slide with a 76-64 win over Dacula last week to make an announcement.

“I knew I was getting pretty close before I hit it,” Etter said. “I never looked at it as too much of a big deal. I was just worried about winning games again. The main concern was always winning.”

Etter, who currently sits at 1,078 points for his career, became the first Etowah player to hit the mark since Destin Porche and Jack Shaughnessy each did it during the 2013-14 season.

Coming up as a point guard, Etter said he never envisioned scoring 1,000 points in his high school career.

However, when he joined the varsity team as a sophomore, his role changed to more of an off-the-ball player.

“The biggest difference was reading the defense,” he said. “If I’m being overplayed, I have to read that and get open for our point guard. As a point guard, you’re trying to read everybody else’s defender. Now, I’m just reading mine and getting used to moving without the ball.”

Etter’s rise to scoring prominence also helped spark one of the most successful runs in Etowah history.

The Eagles have won both Region 4AAAAAAA titles – the first two in program history – since Etter joined the team, and his consistent scoring has been a major reason why.

“I told our guys that scoring 1,000 points is rare,” Etowah coach Jason Dasinger said. “It’s tough to do. It gives us confidence. When things aren’t going well, we can get him the ball, and he can come through for us. It has been a huge help to our offense.”

Etter has also benefitted from a quick rise to the varsity level.

He said coming through the program he figured he would have to wait until his junior season to play varsity, but when coach Allen Whitehart arrived before his sophomore season and Dasinger took over before his junior year, Etter got the opportunity to lead even earlier.

“I always saw us as a junior and senior-type team growing up,” Etter said. “I happened to get here when we were changing coaches, and they really gave me a shot. Now, we see freshmen and sophomores on varsity every year, and I think it really helps us keep the program going the right way.”

As much as his scoring has helped, Etter has meant more than that to Etowah.

He has continued to assume ball-handling duties at times, and he is an anchor on the Eagles’ defense, which Dasinger said is even more important than his offense.

“His legacy is not just the scoring,” he said. “We focus on that. It has helped us for two years, but his legacy will last because of how he has gone about it. He just plays hard and gets baskets you don’t game plan for. He plays hard on both ends, and that’s going to last way longer than his 1,000 points.”

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