Woodburn High School guard RJ Veliz always striving to improve

WOODBURN – RJ Veliz is accustomed to filling the stat sheet.

The Woodburn High School senior guard averages 23.5 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals per game. And he's closing in on 2,000-career points.

Veliz was held below double figures for the first time this season in  Wednesday’s 68-51 loss at No. 4 Stayton. But he didn’t dwell on the defeat.

“All I was thinking about after the (Stayton) game was how to get better for next time so we’re more prepared,” Veliz said.

The morning after the game, Veliz was in Portland to work with his personal trainer. Friday morning he was in the Woodburn High School gym at 6 a.m., taking more than 300 shots consisting of 3-pointers, mid-range jumpers and floaters in the lane.

That work ethic has helped Veliz become one of the premier backcourt players in Class 4A.

He had 14 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in Friday's 60-59 victory over Newport.

A gym rat

A two-time 3A all-state selection at Blanchet - he transferred to Woodburn for his senior year – Veliz is a gym rat.

In third grade, he started playing basketball year-round at The Hoop in Salem.

There, he worked on his game with the likes of Jaden Nielsen-Skinner, a senior guard at South Salem who has signed with Portland State; and Evina Westbrook, a South Salem grad and USA TODAY national girls high school player of the year in 2017 who is a standout sophomore guard on the Tennessee women’s team.

“He has an internal fierce competitive spirit that drives him,” said RJ’s dad, Raul Veliz, Woodburn’s first-year boys basketball coach. “He just works really hard to be good at what he’s doing.”

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Veliz also excels in football. As Woodburn’s starting quarterback this season he led the Bulldogs to their first state playoff appearance in 44 years.

At Blanchet, he was a three-year starting quarterback in football and a three-year starting guard on the hardwood. The Cavaliers' boys basketball team placed third in the state Veliz’s freshman season and fourth last year.

Community ties

Veliz called his time at Blanchet “amazing,” but he maintained strong ties to the Woodburn community.

 “Blanchet was great, but it’s kind of different playing for a town you’ve lived in your whole life,” he said.

Transferring has been a relatively smooth transition; RJ already knew many of his teammates before arriving on campus.

His transfer to Blanchet was not a father-son package deal. RJ filed transfer papers last spring.

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Raul Veliz, a PE teacher at French Prairie Middle School in Woodburn and an assistant boys basketball coach at Blanchet last season, interviewed for the vacant Woodburn boys basketball coaching position in late July.

He acknowledges he's more demanding on RJ than other players.

“He rises to it,” Raul said. “He knows during practice time and all that stuff I’m coach. Then we go home and it’s dad time. We built over the years that sort of relationship.”

RJ said his dad had been coaching him his whole life.

“Things this year are clicking a little more because he knows what I’m capable of and I trust him 100 percent with the calls he makes,” he said.

Woodburn hoops much improved

The Bulldogs (13-3, 3-1 Oregon West Conference) are No. 5 in the OSAA rankings and have certainly benefited from Veliz’s presence on the court. Last season Woodburn was 8-17 overall and 4-10 in the 5A Mid-Willamette Conference.

In the OSAA’s reclassification, Woodburn moved down to 4A beginning with the 2018-19 school year.

“He’s helping the team improve,” said senior guard Trevor Karsseboom, who has played on Woodburn’s three consecutive state championship boys soccer teams. “Everyone’s getting (better) looks with him being here.”

Veliz is adept at hitting jumpers off the dribble and converting on drives at the rim. But he’s also a facilitator and leads the team in assists.

Senior guard Ryan Stebner, who has known Veliz since fourth grade, called him a “fearless competitor” without a big ego.

“He doesn’t talk about his success,” Stebner said. “He lets his success speak for him.”

Veliz, whose younger brother, Tomas, is a freshman guard on Woodburn’s junior varsity team, has received interest from Division II and Division III schools to play football and basketball, and NAIA schools to play basketball.

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While Veliz isn’t closing the door on college football, his athletic future is likely in basketball. He wants to play at the highest level possible "because I’m a real competitive person.”

An honors student, Veliz plans to study business administration and would like to coach basketball down the road at the high school or college level. He’s also entertained the possibility of becoming a high school athletic director.

For now, the focus is on his final high school basketball season.

“State championship is our goal,” Veliz said. “Every day we have that in our minds.”

ghorowitz@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/ghorowitz