Jordan Latham has been behind in wrestling matches, only to rally with a strong finish and prevail in the end.
The Center Grove senior is trying to do the same with his life.
Latham has experienced confusion, fear, disappointment, loneliness and pain — emotional and physical — in his first 19 years. In the past seven alone, he’s lived in 10 different homes, including six since the start of his freshman school year.
He’s been homeless and, at times, friendless.
Latham’s birth parents, both who have struggled with addiction, have been part of Jordan’s life in varying increments. His father overdosed when Jordan was 3, fell into a coma and has been paralyzed on his left side and from the waist down ever since. Now 38, he lives in a nursing home in Indianapolis. Jordan attempts to visit him twice a month.
His mother resides in Indianapolis. Latham’s sister, 20, also succumbed to the powerful grip of drug use and lives in Indianapolis with their mother.
“Me and my sister try to talk as often as we can, but we’re not close,” he said. “I haven’t talked to my mom since 2012.”
As bad as certain aspects of Latham’s childhood were, he remains determined to end the cycle of misfortune that plagues his family. He thinks about one day being the best husband, father, friend and employee. He wants to give his own children the kind of life he could only dream about as a young boy.
“I feel like it’s kind of like an adventure,” Latham said. “It’s brought me a lot of pain, but then again it’s brought me a lot of good things. I have my girlfriend and my wrestling team … I wouldn’t be at this school if none of this stuff had happened to me.
“The people at Center Grove pushed me to my limits. If I didn’t have them, I don’t think I could have made it through. If it wasn’t for (former Trojans wrestling coach Cale) Hoover, I would have been in a homeless shelter for children, which keeps you until you’re 19. He saved my life. The Center Grove district, the teachers and parents, they’re all family.”
A family playing an integral role in Latham refusing to give up.
Many low points
Latham started his tour of foster homes when he was 12 and taken from his mother’s care. Prior to that, he sometimes stayed by himself in an abandoned house down the street from his mother’s residence.
Latham remembers the house he was forced to use for shelter and warmth. He was homeless for different stretches as an 11- and 12-year-old, the longest being 10 days. Latham stole food from local gas stations to keep his body nourished. Looking back, he’s not proud of himself, but he was simply doing what needed to be done.
“When I was younger, my mother didn’t take care of me very well. She was gone or had kicked us out,” Latham said. “My sister had friends (to stay with), and I didn’t have many friends back then. It’s the feeling where you don’t really care what’s going on then and there. You worry about what’s going to happen if you don’t get food for the next night.”
He had no choice but to become street smart.
Latham stole items that made little to no noise, such as hot dogs or burritos. The grease stains left behind in his pants pockets were a small price to pay to stay alive. He was also taught to use rubber bands at the bottom of his pant legs, which allowed him to drop stolen food down his pants without the risk of it falling out.
As enticing as it was for a hungry young boy to steal a candy bar or cupcake, these were items Latham bypassed, knowing they were kept fresh by wrappers. Grabbing one meant making noise, which meant a greater risk of being caught.
Latham’s main motivation to attend School 31 was to eat lunch.
He was educated in the Indianapolis Public School system from kindergarten through fifth grade, Latham went to Whiteland for a year and has been in the Center Grove system since seventh grade.
Since then, he’s been kicked out of the homes of an aunt and grandmother, and two foster homes. He had to leave another since the family already had too many children.
For Latham, the first four years at Center Grove were a learning experience. For the first time in his life, he was being held to a higher standard, and reciprocating with actual effort and maturity took time.
This coincided with the expectations of an Indianapolis couple who had known Latham and were aware of his potential.
Turning it all around
In October 2016, Latham moved in with Jason and Samantha Routh, who live seven miles north of Center Grove High School and are now his legal guardians.
The Rouths had known Latham since he was 10 and wanted him to move in with them as early as age 12. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the financial resources at the time to be able to give Latham everything he needed.
But after staying with an aunt and his maternal grandmother and being kicked out of both homes due to bad behavior, Latham was invited to stay with the Rouths, who live near Perry Meridian High School.
“We knew that Jordan was a very bright kid. It was sad for my husband and I to watch people give up on him,” Samantha said. “When he first moved in, he was really uncomfortable because he was afraid he was going to get kicked out.
“What this child has gone through … it was bad. Him and his sister watched all of it. Abuse. Neglect. It was awful.”
Latham’s first four years in the Center Grove school system included bouts of bad behavior and the occasional missed class. He was at a point in his life where he didn’t trust easily, if at all.
Hoover remembers Latham’s first two years of high school, and not fondly.
Latham would do something wrong during a wrestling practice. Instead of dealing with the consequences, he simply disappeared. Sometimes for a day. Sometimes for a week. Sometimes longer. Hoover, aware of Latham’s trust issues, gave him his space and observed him from a distance.
Latham expected abandonment. Having been to so many foster homes, it’s what he was used to. Only no one at Center Grove gave up, especially Hoover.
Early in the 2017-18 school year, Hoover approached Latham with a rather blunt message: Keep going like you’re going and you’ll end up somewhere you don’t want to be.
Latham listened. He began going to classes on a regular basis, improved his grades and began viewing himself as the person in his immediate family who would break the cycle of misfortune by graduating from high school and going on to be the best version of himself possible.
“Jordan has grown more than any student I’ve ever been around. He is very aware now of how what happened to him is not normal and is not how people are supposed to grow up,” Hoover said. “He manages that anger and frustration so much better. He’s just come so far.”
Center Grove arranged to send a bus to pick Latham up each morning before school. After school (or wrestling practice this time of year), he catches a ride with a friend to his part-time job. Living with the Rouths is his second-longest stay in any one place in which he didn’t live with his mother.
Hoover remembers the times Latham missed the bus. Now instead of skipping school, Latham has more than once jumped on his bicycle and pedaled all the way to Center Grove in order to be present.
“From where he was to doing what he’s doing now says a lot about Jordan’s growth,” Hoover said.
Breaking the family cycle
As a wrestler, Latham is Center Grove’s starter in the 170-pound division. He holds a 13-13 record this season for the Trojans, who are preparing for the Mooresville sectional later this month. More importantly, he’s matured enough and trusts those around him to the point where he regularly attends classes and wrestling practices.
He’s on pace to graduate from Center Grove. On August 26, two weeks after his 20th birthday, he leaves for boot camp for the United States Marines Corps in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Most Marines look back and refer to boot camp as one of the most difficult challenges of their lives. Latham, who has already experienced so much, can’t wait to get there to start honoring his six-year military commitment.
Hoover credits the Rouths. The Rouths credit everyone at Center Grove.
“That school is outstanding. That is like Jordan’s second home,” Samantha Routh said. “That school and those teachers have changed Jordan. They’ve given him a chance in life.”
One Latham doesn’t plan on wasting.
He wants nothing to do with drugs or alcohol. He is learning to trust and can’t wait to have his own family one day. Latham would like to be a police officer once out of the Marines, though the thought of helping troubled children from broken homes has also crossed his mind.
Whatever their story, Jordan Latham will most likely be able to relate.
