Top male KC Scholar-Athlete might be short-statured but leaves giant impression
Three minutes into the first Olathe North boys basketball game of the season, a head coach turned to his bench, scanned the roster and pointed toward its smallest kid.
A 5-foot-6 guard — a freshman, no less — hopped out of his seat and approached the scorer’s table.
This was 2021, and Jaalan Watson stepped onto the court for his varsity basketball debut buoyed by weeks of practice with this team, but absent a specific assignment for this moment.
Well, maybe one direction: “Just go play.”
His first possession came on defense, and Watson, of his own volition, decided to pick up the opposing point guard full court.
A handful of seconds later, he forced a turnover in the backcourt.
“It’s evident right then, right away, that with this dude, there’s no fear,” Olathe North coach Adam Olerich said. “And ever since ...”
The coach’s voice trailed off.
The athlete never did.
In basketball. Or in track. Oh, or in the classroom.
That’s the story of how a remarkable high school journey started.
Here’s how it finishes: Watson is The Kansas City Star’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Jaalan Watson: The all-around athlete
The first time Watson dunked a basketball came during warmups at an AAU game.
He’d jammed a couple of basketballs through the hoop before, but his hand only grazed the rim on the follow-through, so he determined those didn’t count.
When a two-handed dunk left no ambiguity, he was 16.
And all of 5-foot-7. (He has since grown to 5-foot-8.)
“You remember Spud Webb in the dunk contest?” asked Olerich, referring to the 5-foot-7 Atlanta Hawks guard winning the 1986 NBA contest. “That’s him. Jaalan is just very, very explosive athletically.”
In a story perhaps least indicative of his personality, Watson started telling people he could dunk. A look of confusion or skepticism would follow, and then often a short reply with it: “Show me.”
In a story perhaps most indicative of his personality, that’s precisely what Watson would do.
“I like a challenge,” he said.
Watson might be greeted with doubt when he walks into a gym, but there’s very little left when he leaves one.
He led Olathe North to the Kansas Class 6A state tournament four straight years, culminating in a state runner-up finish as a senior in March. He graduated this spring as the school’s all-time leading scorer, while also breaking records for career 3-pointers and steals. That first career defensive possession, turns out, provided an omen.
He will continue his basketball career in the fall at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
That’s one sport.
There are others.
Watson played soccer, baseball and football as a kid — his mom just wanted to keep him busy. Football stuck throughout high school.
And almost as a hobby, he decided to run track. Except that for all of the abilities Watson possesses, he can’t seem to treat much of anything like a hobby.
“Uber, uber competitive,” his coach said.
An example? His junior year included state qualification in four events. But unsatisfied with his performance at the state meet, his returned for his senior season even though he already knew his future included a spot on a college basketball team in the Northeast.
“Track,” he said, “is my side sport.”
That’s an interesting to way to phrase it when you consider its conclusion. Watson won four medals at the Kansas Class 6A state meet last month, including a shiny gold in the triple jump with a final leap of 47 feet, 3.25 inches.
Not bad for a side sport, huh?
Watson transitioned from sport to sport — football to basketball to track — without so much as a one-day break between them. Just the way he preferred it, honestly. During one varsity sport, he’d spend a couple of nights every week practicing for the next, using early mornings or late evenings to head to the gym to get in some shots.
Sounds lot a like, right?
Well, that’s just the half of it.
‘A tireless worker’
When Jaalan Watson was in elementary school, maybe first grade, his mom asked a teacher how her son was handling the work.
“He’s the first one to finish the math homework,” the teacher replied.
Great, she thought.
“And then he helps the other kids finish their work.”
Tracy Manhnieo describes her son as self-motivated. She says she isn’t sure where he gets it, but those who know the entire family believe it’s pretty obvious:
Jaalan gets it from Mom.
She raised him as a single mother, though they both credit uncles and relatives with helping out.
His uncle Ricky — “my free-of-charge personal trainer,” Watson quips — began working out with him early. Like, in the gym by 5:30 a.m. — that kind of early.
In the beginning, Ricky would remind Watson about the workouts. Within a few days, Watson was practically begging for them.
Even this week, a month after graduation and a couple of months shy of college, Watson has been back in his high school gym with his high school coach.
He can’t help it.
As an athlete.
Or as a student.
In his senior year, Watson took four advanced placement courses in the first semester. A tough schedule, you know? So, in the second semester, he decided to change it up.
He added one more. Five AP classes. Oh, and a senior capstone project on sports medicine.
You might be interested to know his final unweighted GPA, even if he seems rather uninterested in sharing it: 4.0.
Not a single B. That’s how you get into a college that carries an acceptance rate around 17%.
How did he balance that with a four-year varsity basketball career and a state-champion track career?
“There are some nights,” he said, “you just have to lose sleep about it.”
OK, but how about a little more on the specifics?
Jennifer Constance had Watson as one of her students in two Olathe North classes — an AP course, and a homeroom class of sorts.
In the former, a project-based setting, Watson would complete his work, only stopping to answer a question or two from a classmate. Some things don’t change.
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In the latter, Watson arrived each day with a plan, and what amazes people is they swear they never saw him write anything down. He just needed his mental file, as Constance called it.
“He’s a tireless worker,” she said. “He is not going to stop working until he gets the job done.”
At the end of every class period, he’d turn to his teacher before walking out the door. Each time, he shared the same two-word farewell.
“Thank you.”
A bright future
That height thing isn’t just a cool underdog story. Watson’s 5-foot-8 stature is relevant enough that Tracy reminded her son that it would probably be wise to develop a Plan B. (OK, she might’ve had that reminder regardless of the height.)
As college basketball programs began recruiting him, Watson attended a few Ivy League camps. During one at Dartmouth, a team sports psychologist spoke to the potential recruits.
Watson attended a camp in search of his basketball future.
He left with a career choice.
He plans to study sports psychology, hoping to help athletes with the mental side of the game.
“I want to be able to help people,” he said. “A lot of athletes struggle with performance or confidence. I want to help.”
He has a good example — his own.
What his coach never knew is that he was quite nervous in his initial freshman basketball games. He wanted to prove he belonged. He knew some might doubt him.
But that, he said, spanned only “a game or two.”
Heck, or maybe just one play.