Central Decatur’s Boothe reflects on Cyclone career

AMES — Carter Boothe, who was the third two time all-state basketball player in Central Decatur history, recently wrapped up his collegiate career in the Sweet 16 against the 10th-seed Miami Hurricanes.

Boothe, who won the South Central Iowa Male Athlete of the Year award in 2018, appeared in 17 games for the Cyclones from 2018-2022.

“Coming to Iowa State, I was pretty excited to come here and be part of the team and everything,” Boothe said. “Compared to Leon, it’s a lot bigger obviously. Getting used to the bigger setting and getting to see new faces was pretty fun, I’ve learned a lot through my experience here as well just being part of the basketball team and being on my own in the college world. I met a lot of good people and made a lot of good connections.”

During Boothe’s time at Iowa State, he experienced appearances in March Madness his freshman and senior seasons with not as good seasons his sophomore and junior seasons.

“It was a couple rough seasons,” Boothe said. “But, then, a couple of very successful seasons.”

Boothe’s fellow class of 2018 players included some current professional basketball players, and, Boothe also got to meet some Cyclone veterans that are also currently professional athletes.

“I came in with (Los Angeles Laker) Talen Horton-Tucker and (Indiana Pacer) Tyrese Haliburton,” Boothe said. “Those two are having a good career in the NBA right now. Others guys I was cool with included Nick Weiler-Babb (currently playing in Germany) and Marial Shayok (currently playing in Turkey) who were on the team when I was a freshman. My roommate was Weiler-Babb, he’s doing pretty well overseas right now. I’m pretty close with (Indianapolis Colt) Michael Jacobson, he’s actually gone the NFL route which is pretty cool.”

Boothe, who joined the program as a walk-on, appeared in three games his freshman year. Stat wise, Boothe had his first career rebound in Iowa State’s 101-65 win over Southern and his first ever assist in the Cyclones’ 101-53 win over Eastern Illinois 22 days later.

“My recruitment, it’s obviously different as a walk-on,” Boothe said. “My connection to Iowa State was Jake Sullivan (Cyclone basketball player 2000-2004), he was my AAU coach at Kingdom Hoops. I really liked playing for Jake and I thought we had a good relationship. I know Jake is really good friends with my old high school coach Zach Clark.”

Thanks to Jake, Carter got in contact with former Iowa State men’s basketball coach Steve Prohm (2015-2021).

“I was talking with coach Prohm for a little bit and then he invited my dad and I up during orientation to see him in his office,” Boothe said. “After we had been talking for awhile, he offered me the opportunity to be a walk-on on the Iowa State men’s basketball team. I’m very thankful for him for giving me the opportunity.”

Boothe scored his first points in a Cyclone uniform against Southern Miss with two free throws with 59 seconds remaining in the Cyclone’s 73-45 victory.

Boothe also connected on his first field goal that season, a 3-point basket in Iowa State’s 81-52 victory against Texas. The 29 point win is the largest margin of victory against the Longhorns in school history.

“Horns down baby,” Boothe said.

Central Decatur musings

Boothe, a four year member of the Cardinals basketball team, led the team in assists as a freshman, third on the team in points scored his sophomore year and as a junior and senior he led Central Decatur with 380 and 463 points in respective seasons.

Also a senior, Boothe averaged 18.5 points, 7.9 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game.

“Playing with my friends that I grew up with, we had some good seasons for sure,” Boothe said of the combined 73-21 record during his four years. “To be honest, I’m a little disappointed that we never reached the state level. I thought we were good enough to go a couple years. I think we won three POI championships when I was there and it should’ve been four.”

Boothe, who has been playing basketball for most of his life found his favorite basketball memory to be during his time in Leon.

“My senior year when we won the conference and district outright,” Boothe said of his favorite memory. “I really liked the guys who I was playing with, I grew up with those guys and for us to achieve that it was really fulfilling.”

Boothe was also a shuttle hurdle state champion his junior and senior years.

“Working on flexibility and all that stuff goes a long way and people don’t realize that,” Boothe said. “I think being versatile helped me prepare to be able to basketball at a higher level.”

Boothe’s father, Curtis, was inducted into the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame on Saturday.

With 358 wins at the helm Central Decatur’s girls basketball team, Carter learned his fair share from his father.

“He is a really big influence in my life, but I’ve just always been around the game and around him so I’ve learned so much from him,” Boothe said. “Just watching what he does and he continues to teach me so much. Obviously, without him I wouldn’t be here today so he deserves every bit of awards he gets. I still talk to my dad about everything basketball wise.”

NIL Deal

Boothe, like many collegiate athletes, are able to make money now through their name, image and likeness for either marketing or promotional purposes.

Unlike many athletes, Boothe is getting sponsored by MTN DEW as the only others that are part of the MTN DEW Spark Squad are women’s basketball players Avery Hughes of Arkansas and Andrea Katramados of Baylor.

The process to get sponsored by MTN DEW, at least for Boothe, involved the company diving into his direct messages.

“I think it might have been right after the Big 12 tournament and I was sitting in class actually, I had a request for a message on Instagram,” Boothe said. “It said MTN DEW or whatever and I get random messages from people and I didn’t think much of it. I was like what person would name yourself Mountain Dew like who is messaging me that? I clicked on it at the end of class and I was like ‘Oh! It’s MTN DEW’ and they texted me just a big offer to join their Dew athlete team and I was like oh heck yeah I’ll do this.”

“They got me in contact with a rep from MTN DEW and he set it all up and I signed the contract,” Boothe added.

According to Boothe’s Instagram (@c_boothe) story on Friday there was a truck tailgate loaded with boxes of MTN DEW Spark, regular MTN DEW and diet MTN DEW as well as a cooler with the same contents.

“Come get your free Dew on me @mountaindew,” the story shared.

Boothe, is not much of a pop drinker, but he still has a favorite Dew.

“To be honest, I haven’t drank pop in a long time, Boothe said. “I’m not a normal pop drinker, but I stick with the normal MTN DEW, the OG. I’m not a big Code Red guy, but the Spark is pretty good because they sent me a couple bottles of it.”

Boothe, an elementary education major, still has a little bit of time at Iowa State left.

“I still have to student teach next fall, and I’m kind of going from there,” Boothe said.