For individuals who know Brooklynn Haywood, the junior level guard is a reputation on the women basketball scene.
For individuals who know her higher than others, and maybe those that don’t know her exterior of basketball, she owns a black belt in karate and may belt out a Jonas Brothers hit as her go-to karaoke tune.
“I’m always so straight faced and don’t really have an emotion on the court other than when my teammates make a play,” Haywood stated. “I don’t let anything bother me, but off the court, I’m just loud and singing and dancing all the time.”
For the file, Haywood, Union Excessive’s standout level guard, makes noise on the hardwood, too. She lately surpassed 1,500 profession factors behind three straight 40-plus-point efforts to shut out December. Union is 10-1 getting into 4A Larger St. Helens League play subsequent week.
Haywood’s dedication, self-discipline and willpower in basketball dates again years earlier than the game turned a greatest good friend. At age 10, she earned her black belt. However basketball shortly turned her full-time focus.
Initially from Alaska, the Haywoods — together with her dad and mom, Mark and Jennifer — relocated to Clark County in 2021 so their daughter might pursue extra basketball alternatives. It got here after assembly Prairie Excessive graduate and native basketball coach Matt Conboy at a Las Vegas camp. Haywood now trains with Conboy, additionally her godfather, frequently.
Her junior marketing campaign 11 video games in — averaging 35 factors, eight rebounds and 5 assists per recreation — has Union coach Gary Mills looking for the phrases to explain what he’s seeing. As a result of essentially the most expert participant he’s ever coached has taken her recreation to a different degree, he stated, from a more-developed mid-range recreation to figuring out how greatest to be efficient on the ground.
Mills first turned a highschool head coach in 2004 at Evergreen, his alma mater, and few gamers he’s coached have as excessive of a basketball IQ as Haywood.
“And what she has to go with is the mindset of an assassin,” Mills stated. “She seems like she will be able to make a shot at any time, and that confidence is there nearly on a regular basis that she will be able to do one thing nice.
“A smart basketball player knows when it’s their time to go and their time to shine, and then they also know when they need to get their teammates involved.”
Up to now, what’s been off the charts is effectivity. Haywood is capturing 46 p.c from 3-point vary on a crew that’s on tempo to shatter this system’s 3-point capturing proportion crew file.
A giant spring and summer season with CalStars Basketball on the Nike EYBL circuit raised Haywood’s already excessive inventory on a nationwide scale. Taking part in alongside present highschool seniors like Jazzy Davidson (USC commit) and Addie Deal (Iowa) as membership teammates broadened Haywood’s recreation and strengthened her management qualities getting into her junior season, she stated.
At present, Haywood is the No. 24-ranked participant nationally within the Class of 2026 by ESPN HoopGurlz and holds greater than two dozen scholarship gives from NCAA Division I colleges.
However rankings aren’t the one place the place her title is seen. Haywood has 55,000-plus Instagram followers on a basketball-centric account run by her father, and that publicity launched alternatives within the new world of title, picture and likeness (NIL) for highschool athletes. Most notably, she has a partnership with Invisalign, a teeth-straightening different to conventional braces. The package deal contains $5,000, plus no-cost remedy advantages.
Most state associations permit highschool athletes to monetize their model with out dropping newbie eligibility. The Washington Interscholastic Actions Affiliation permits NIL actions unaffiliated with a college crew, faculty, WIAA district or WIAA.
As grateful as Haywood is for NIL alternatives, she lets adults deal with the behind-the-scenes enterprise aspect so her focus could be elsewhere: sustaining her 4.0 grade-point common and pushing ahead on a goal-driven basketball mindset.
“I just try to live as much of a normal life as I can — just be a teenager,” Haywood stated. “I just hoop and have fun.”
Up to now, it has, and examined Union in massive methods via 11 video games. The Titans took top-ranked Davis of Yakima to time beyond regulation earlier than a 74-73 loss on Dec. 19 behind 42 factors by Haywood. Then, they rallied again from an 8-point halftime deficit to prime Ida B. Wells of Portland on Dec. 30 to win their bracket on the POA Vacation Basic.
No Union crew below Mills is off to pretty much as good of a begin via 11 video games like this 12 months’s Titans, who don’t have a participant taller than 5-foot-9 on the roster. Exterior capturing is a crew energy; your complete beginning lineup is capturing 33 p.c or higher from 3-point vary.
Senior guard Carli Christensen, a good friend and teammate of Haywood’s for 3 years, stated a teammate like Haywood elevates others in a number of methods.
“It brings up the whole team to a new competitive level,” Christensen stated. “Having a player like that sets a new standard.”
And a brand new customary the Titans wish to obtain ends in March. Union’s final state match look got here in 2020 when this system positioned fifth in Class 4A for its first state trophy. The Titans’ season the previous three years ended at bi-districts.
“We all have that same mindset,” Haywood stated about reaching state, “and so all of us are going after the same goal. That has helped us come together as a team, win games and be on the same page. All the things you need to be a great team — and not a good team — is what we’re trying to get to.”