Q&A // Colton McLaughlin, Carroll Christian, basketball

Carroll Christian senior Colton McLaughlin has dreams of some day becoming an engineer. These days, however, the 6-foot-4 forward is busy helping the Patriots engineer an impressive turnaround on the basketball court.

Entering Thursday's play, McLaughlin ranked second in Carroll County in both points (21.1) and rebounds (10.1) per game, helping his team nearly triple its win total of a year ago, when it finished 3-19.

He finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds in a 54-50 overtime win over Clinton Christian last week, just days after scoring 31 against Grace Bible, including the game-winning jumper in the final moments.

Also a standout forward in soccer, the honors student is currently contemplating with which sport he'd like to continue at the collegiate level.

You're the only senior on your team. Has that forced you to become more of a team leader and mentor to the younger guys?

Sometimes I feel like so, but there's some really mature juniors on the team that step up. But sometimes I feel like I've got to carry a lot of weight, being the only senior. It would be nice to have some more seniors to help out with that.

You're also a standout forward in soccer. At this point, do you see yourself playing one or the other in college?

I would love to play both, but I don't think I'd have the time for it. To pick between the two, I'd probably have to take basketball.

At 6 -4, do you see yourself as more of a guard or forward at the next level?

I don't think I'd want to play guard. I would rather play forward because I've never play guard before. I don't know if it would be that difficult to transition, but I think it might be, because I'm not a very good dribbler.

How much time have you spent exploring different college options?

Not much at all. I'd love to play basketball in college, but I wasn't really thinking about it that much during soccer season. But when I'm playing basketball, I'm thinking, "This would be nice to play in college." But I haven't done that much research on it because I'm looking for an engineering school, and it's tough to find that with a basketball team.

Is becoming an engineer something you've always aspired to do?

Yes. My uncle is an engineer, and there was one year we went down there for the summer and I talked to him about it. Ever since then, I've just been looking forward to it and been wanting to try it out. I like math and science.

You're part of a team that has improved quite a bit over previous seasons. What do you need to do now to make that next leap to the next level in the postseason?

We just need to keep playing the way we've been playing. We've been playing really great, but we've been slacking off a little these past couple games -- they've been real close. So we just need to step it up just a little bit more and keep playing with heart. I'm really excited about this year because it's one of the first years we've had a winning season for a while.

Carroll Christian primarily plays private schools. Would you like to see the team add some public schools to its schedule?

We actually played a public school this year -- we played Sparrows Point. We lost by 12, but it wasn't too bad. We were down a lot at the end of the first half and we brought it back. We eventually brought it back to six, I believe, but then we lost it again. It wasn't too bad. I thought we did well as a team and played good defense. Probably about 10 years ago, they used to play public schools all the time. They'd play three, four, five public schools a year. I think it would be good for the programs to play public schools and get some tough games in there.

You play soccer in the fall and basketball in the winter, but nothing in the spring. Have you thought about playing a spring sport?

I've thought about playing baseball this year, because the team is going to be short on seniors, but that's still in the works.