‘Hot Seat:’ Multi-talented Whitehall junior on fast track to success

WHITEHALL — Playing sports year-round keeps Jack Houtteman plenty busy.

From soccer to basketball to track and field, the Whitehall High School junior rarely gets a breather.

However, he does still manage to squeeze in time for some of his favorites, including cooking and watching the sitcom “Friends.”

Learn about those things and more by watching Houtteman on the “Hot Seat,” a weekly video series with CatchMark’s Scott DeCamp, who poses a series of fun, rapid-fire questions. Click on the video at the top of this story to see how Houtteman fared.

The 16-year-old son of Rich and Gina Houtteman kicked his junior year off in a big way by earning all-state honorable mention accolades in soccer. The midfielder also was a finalist for the VanDyk Mortgage West Michigan Conference Player of the Year award, among his other accolades.

Jack Houtteman carried that success over to basketball, where he was a contributor at shooting guard and small forward for a Vikings squad that captured conference and district titles and advanced to the regional finals.

He’s currently running track for a Whitehall squad with very high expectations. Houtteman excels in the 800-meter run and he also competes in the 4×800 relay and the 4×400 relay. The 1600 run may be in his future, too.

If that weren’t enough, Houtteman carries a 4.1 GPA. His favorite class is physics.

In his free time — if he’s not cooking or watching “Friends” — Houtteman enjoys fishing and the outdoors. The 6-foot-1, 168-pounder also has fun lowering his basketball hoop and dunking on it.

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