Jaden Shoultz has announced his signing to play basketball for the University of Richmond Spiders. The 6-5 combo guard who is the 20th best player and 5th best shooting guard in the state of Maryland, announced his signing via an Instagram post on Friday, May 8.
Jaden was picking between Richmond and the University of California – San Diego. Shoultz also had an offer from UMass – Lowell and interest from the University of Miami (OH), Harvard, Youngstown State, and Manhattan University, as well.
“Richmond separated itself by bringing me on an official visit. I took many visits throughout my journey, but it being my first official visit here, everything the entire day was paid for, [and it] felt good. Also, flying my mom down from Ohio to make the visit made me feel very good and they treated my family very well, which gave me a great feeling about the school,” Shoultz said.
Jaden joined the team as part of Coach Mike G. Jones III’s transferring class that included him and rising senior forward Jared Jeffers. He averaged 8 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists, helping lead DeMatha basketball to a 21-10 record this winter, including an 8-4 mark in the WCAC. Shoultz’s highlight game came in the absence of Ashton “Ace” Meeks where he scored 8 points and hit a game-winning put-back shot to propel them to a 65-63 upset victory over Bishop O’Connell.
This year, DeMatha finished as the No. 1 team in Maryland according to Rivals, the No. 42 team in the country according to MaxPreps, and No. 8 in the All-Met rankings.
“Jaden made a huge impact on the team with his athletic ability, leadership, and hard work,” Coach Jones said.
Shoultz will join a loaded guard squad in Richmond with seven guards carrying over from last year’s roster. Rising seniors Colin Tanner and David Thomas are joined by rising sophomores Aiden Argabright, Donovan Richardson, Will Harper III and Kirby Mooney. In addition to Shoultz, Richmond is gaining transfer guards in rising juniors Derin Saran, Dominick Stewart, and Jaime Kaiser Jr.
Jaden will join a Spiders freshman class with guard Sam Simmons Jr. and forwards Dane Caldwell and Chad Cook. Spiders Basketball said with Shoultz’s signing, their 16-man roster is complete for the 2026-2027 season.
For Richmond, they are trying to return to championship form. In the 2022-23 season they won the A-10 and made the NCAA tournament’s First Round. A year later, they were regular season champions of the A-10, but since then they have gone 25-39. Last season they found inconsistent success going 15-17 overall and 5-13 in the A-10. Richmond’s season ended in the A-10 quarterfinals with a loss to Loyola Chicago 67-73. With 22 seasons under head coach Chris Mooney’s belt, the Spiders are destined for a title next year.
“I’ve built a great relationship with the entire staff. Coach Gipe was the main coach on the staff who recruited me hard. But the entire staff was there on my visit and the coaches who couldn’t make it shot me a text letting me know how much I meant and how interested they were and [were] very open if I had any questions. Coach Mooney was very open and transparent about his vision for my career and how he saw me being able to be successful in the program,” Shoultz said.
Jaden spent his first three years of high school in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, first at The Wellington School where, during his freshman year, he broke the school’s scoring record and 3-point record in his playoff debut, scoring 47. After the season he was named All-Central District Honorable Mention. Then he helped lead Northland High School to two straight city championships. In his sophomore year he was recognized as 2nd-Team all city. In his junior year he earned an Honorable Mention in the All-Ohio Division II. These awards were earned after averaging 16.2 points for the Vikings in his junior year. In his first year with Stags he also earned an honorable mention from the WCAC.
With all these awards, Jaden wants to do the same with Spiders. “In college I want to achieve many things like All-A-10 rookie team, A-10 rookie of the year, A-10 defensive team, A-10 first team, and A-10 MVP.” Most importantly, he says, he wants to win the “conference regular season title and conference tournament title and have a chance to play in March Madness, which would be a dream come true.”
“To play at the next level Jaden will need to get stronger,” Coach Jones said. “Jaden is very skilled and getting bigger, stronger, faster will help him excel at Richmond.”
