Justin Christopher Shouse (born 16 September 1981) is an American and Icelandic former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player and coach. He won the Icelandic Cup four times and was named the Cup Finals MVP in 2015. He was named the Úrvalsdeild Foreign Player of the year in 2010 and, after becoming a naturalized Icelandic citizen, he was named the Úrvalsdeild Domestic Player of the year in 2012 and 2013. He retired in 2017 as the Úrvalsdeild's all time leader in assists, a record he held until January 2024 when it was broken by

Hörður Axel Vilhjálmsson Hörður Axel Vilhjálmsson (born 18 December 1988) is an Icelandic basketball coach and former player. He is the Úrvalsdeild karla all-time leader in assists. Professional career Hörður began his senior team career at the age of 15 with F ...

High School career

From 1997-2000, Shouse played in 109 games for the McDowell Trojans of Erie, Pa. As a junior (1998–99), Shouse led McDowell to a 26-5 record including a 52-48 overtime win over nationally-ranked New Castle on their way to the school's only state final appearance. McDowell would lose the 1999 4A State Final 64-40 to Williamsport. During the 1999-2000 season, McDowell, led by Shouse and J.J. Delsandro, amassed a record of 27-0 and was ranked #1 in Pennsylvania before being upset by Uniontown in the 2000 PIAA 4A Elite Eight. Uniontown would go on to the lose the 4A State Final to Chester. Shouse finished his career as McDowell's leading scorer with 1340 career points (12.3 ppg). That record would be broken by Sean Smiley in 2005.

College career

Shouse played college basketball for

Mercyhurst University Mercyhurst University is a private Catholic university in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States. History On September 20, 1926, Mercyhurst College opened its doors just a few blocks away from the city's southern boundary. It was founded by the S ...

from 2000 to 2004. He played a total 108 games, all starts, averaging 13.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 5 assists and 2.4 steals. He was selected to the All-GLIAC Defensive Team three times and was named to the First-Team All-GLIAC nod as a senior. In 2011 he was inducted into the schools Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Germany

Shouse started his professional career with the Bergheim Bandits of the German Regional league in 2004 where he averaged 22.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game.

Iceland

In 2005 Shouse joined Drangur in the Icelandic Division I as a

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

. For the season he averaged 37.7 points per game while the team finished 6-12, good for 8th place finish. After one season in Division I, Shouse joined

Úrvalsdeild The Besta deild karla () is a professional association football league in Iceland and the highest level of the Icelandic football league system. The competition was founded in 1912 as the Icelandic Championship. Because of the harsh winters in I ...

powerhouse Snæfell in 2006. He played there for two seasons, winning the Icelandic Basketball Cup and the Icelandic Company Cup in 2008 while losing in the National Finals the same year. In 2008 he signed with Úrvalsdeild club

Stjarnan Ungmennafélagið Stjarnan (, ), commonly known as Stjarnan (), is an Icelandic multi-sports club specialising in handball, football, basketball, volleyball and gymnastics located in Garðabær. Basketball Men's basketball As of the 2017–2 ...

. Since joining the club he has won the Icelandic Basketball Cup three times and the Supercup and Company Cup once each. He was twice selected domestic player of the year (2012, 2013) and once the foreign player of the year (2010). In 2015, he was named as the Icelandic Cup Finals MVP. On 19 April 2017, Shouse announced his retirement from playing professional basketball. On 27 January 2019, Stjarnan retired Shouse's number 12 jersey. On 12 June 2019, Shouse decided to return to basketball, signing with newly promoted 1. deild karla club

Álftanes Álftanes () is the name of a town and a collection of small peninsulas in Iceland. It means ''swan peninsula''. The best known of these peninsulas extrudes from the eastern part of Reykjanes with the town of the same name in the Capital Region ...

where he met up with his former Stjarnan coach

Hrafn Kristjánsson Hrafn Kristjánsson is an Icelandic basketball coach and former player. He was named the Úrvalsdeild Coach of the Year in the 2010–11 season, when he won the Icelandic championship with the KR. As a coach he has won the Icelandic Basketbal ...

. He however decided to abandon his comeback for health reasons before the start of the season.

National team career

Shouse received an Icelandic citizenship in 2011. He was selected for the

Icelandic national basketball team The Iceland men's national basketball team () represents Iceland in international basketball tournaments. The team is controlled by the Icelandic Basketball Association. Iceland has qualified for the EuroBasket three times in their history, wit ...

that won bronze in the

2013 Games of the Small States of Europe The 2013 Games of the Small States of Europe, also known as the XV Games of the Small States of Europe, were held in Luxembourg City and surrounding areas. The slogan, as well as the logo, was "Are you ready for the Games?" The opening ceremony was ...

Coaching career

Shouse was a player-coach for Drangur in 2005-2006 and led the team to a 6-12 record in 1. deild karla. In 2008 he led Snæfell women's team to a with a perfect record in the 1. deild kvenna and promotion to Úrvalsdeild kvenna. After his playing career with Stjarnan ended, Shouse served as an assistant coach to

at Stjarnan during the 2017–18 Úrvalsdeild season.

Awards and titles

Player

Awards

*2x Úrvalsdeild Domestic Player of the year (2012, 2013) * Úrvalsdeild Foreign Player of the year (2010) *2x Úrvalsdeild Domestic All-First team (2012, 2013)

Titles

*4× Icelandic Cup (2008, 2009, 2013, 2015) * Icelandic Cup MVP: 2015 *2x Icelandic Company Cup (2008, 2016) * Icelandic Supercup (2009)

Achievements

all-time career assists leader (broken in 2024) *2×

assist leader (2009, 2012) * 1. deild karla scoring champion (2006)

Coach

Titles

* Icelandic Women's Division I champion (2008)

Post basketball

Following the end of his basketball career, Shouse went in to the restaurant business, opening a

chicken wing Chicken wing(s) or chickenwing may refer to: * Chicken wings * Chicken wings as food ** Buffalo wing, a popular way of preparing chicken wings ** Chicken wing rice roll, a popular Taiwanese dish of chicken wings stuffed with fried rice. ** Swi ...

food truck A food truck is a large motorized vehicle (such as a van or multi-stop truck) or trailer equipped to store, transport, cook, prepare, serve and/or sell food. Some food trucks, such as ice cream trucks, sell frozen or prepackaged food, but m ...

called ''The Wing Wagon'' and later a restaurant in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

called '' Just Wingin' it''.

Popular culture

*''Justin Shouse - Kjúklingur og körfubolti'' (English: Justin Shouse - Chicken and basketball) is a 2020 documentary Shouse's life and basketball career.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shouse, Justin 1981 births Living people American emigrants to Iceland American expatriate basketball people in Germany American expatriate basketball people in Iceland American men's basketball players Basketball players from Pennsylvania Justin Shouse Icelandic expatriate basketball people in Germany Icelandic men's basketball players Mercyhurst Lakers men's basketball players Point guards Stjarnan men's basketball coaches Stjarnan men's basketball players Snæfell men's basketball players Snæfell women's basketball coaches Úrvalsdeild karla (basketball) players 21st-century Icelandic sportsmen