Jaylon Watts lights up the team with his positive attitude and the stat sheet with contributions in every area for Chesterton’s 5-0 basketball team that hosts Bloomington North on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Phrase association game: Say a phrase and name the first player or players on the Chesterton boys basketball team that come to mind.
Outrageously quick: Malachi Ransom.
Pure, pure, pure 3-point shooting touch: Cooper Huwig, Logan Pokorney, Tobias Ray.
Division I basketball prospect: Bradly Basila.
Three phrases elicit the names of five different players, including four perimeter players.
Yet, one multi-year perimeter starter’s name has not yet surfaced.
Jaylon Watts seldom is the first player to come to mind on the deep Trojans (5-0), who face a stiff challenge Tuesday with Bloomington North in town for a 3 p.m. tipoff.
There isn’t any one thing that Watts does the best on the team, just as there isn’t any one thing he does not do well.
A look at last season’s final stats reveals that Watts averaged 10.7 points and 4.0 rebounds, putting him second to Pokorney in scoring and second to Basila in rebounding.
He also made the second-most 3-point field goals, behind only Pokorney, and ranked third in 3-point percentage (.388), behind only Pokorney (.396) and Huwig (.391).
The emergence of Basila down low and the expansion of Ray and Ransom’s games mean Watts doesn’t need to score as much, but when the Trojans need a bucket, he knows how to get to the hoop to get one or at least a couple of free throws.
“He’s always been a silent stat stuffer in a way. You don’t always feel it, but in some games he might have three steals, he might have seven rebounds,” Chesterton coach Marc Urban said of Watts, who earned a promotion to the varsity early in his sophomore season. “He might have four assists or he might hit four 3s.”
Making winning contributions that are more subtle than some can work against a player hoping to get recruited to play in college, but Urban is convinced there are programs Watts can help.
“Fantastic kid,” Urban said. “I love the kid. I’m going to do whatever I can to try to find a place for him to play college basketball because he’s going to make that team better no matter what.”
Watts’ dedication in the weight room during the offseason and into the season made him stronger and in turn better in one area Urban identified as a need for improvement.
“He wasn’t really good defensively last year individually,” Urban said. “He was trying but he wasn’t really good and I feel that he’s made a really big stride being able to keep guys in front of him and play with more physicality. He put on some weight, got stronger, and I think that has helped.”
Watts shoots well from beyond the arc and in the mid-range but getting to the rim is what he does best.
“You play against some guys who look really slow but they’re always able to get by you for some reason,” Urban said. “Jaylon’s not slow; he’s quick, but he still has that ability to take advantage of small little angles and get by you, where he doesn’t have to do a lot. He’s just being aggressive and able to take advantage of quick angles. He’s got the ability to get by people and he’s finishing better. I think that added strength has helped him there.”
Strength of character never has been an issue for Watts.
Grace College has been host of the Champions of Character Basketball Classic for the past nine years. Grace asks coaches from each of the eight teams that play in the one-day event to choose a champion of character to receive a sportsmanship award before that team’s game. Urban chose Watts for the honor.
“If you ever encountered Jaylon in your life you would be like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s a no-brainer.’ He’s a fantastic kid and a lot of fun to be around,” Urban said. “People don’t see this, but his relationship with his sister, he does a really good job of mentoring her, making sure she’s respectful, things like that.”
Jaylon’s sister, Rae, is in sixth grade. She does not play basketball, but does play volleyball, Jaylon said.
“It’s something you should do in life, so I don’t think it’s something you should get an award for,” Watts said of mentoring his sister.
He added that winning the award, “made me feel good, but I have to keep getting better as a teammate. We have to keep trying to get better as a team every day. I feel like I’ve gotten better as a teammate. When things aren’t going well I try to focus on trying to help my team whatever way I can, even if I’m on the bench, even if it’s making sure whoever is in knows what they’re doing.”
Watts and teammates moved from No. 19 to No. 15 in the coaches’ poll, one spot behind South Bend St. Joseph. Bloomington North takes a 3-1 record against a tough schedule into tonight’s game at East Chicago Central.