The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
ANDERSON A LEADER FOR YOUNG PIRATES
Perry’s lineup includes three who didn’t start before this season
When a team has a starting five with three players who have never started at the varsity level, it needs a veteran leader on the court.
Perry has just that with senior Jaylen Anderson. The three-year starter has helped lead the Pirates to a 6-1 start and leading the way in the Chagrin Valley Conference Lake Division.
Perry head coach Al Iacofano has seen his young starters learn from Anderson, and that has helped them immensely early in the season.
“For them to see the confidence and experience that Jaylen has early in the season is a huge help for them,” said Iacofano. “Hopefully with all of the reps that our guys are getting with him pays dividends down the stretch for us.”
While Anderson has been a key part of Perry’s success on the court, he has also been productive on the football field. Anderson signed with West Virginia University to play running back for the Mountaineers.
There has been a recent trend of football recruits graduating early to start with their college teams in the spring semester. The reason Anderson decided not to is his love for basketball.
“I’ve been in love with basketball my whole life, just as much as football,” said Anderson. “I felt like it was the right decision for me since this is the last year that I would be able to play basketball to stick with the team.”
Anderson’s decision seems to have been the correct one as he is averaging just over 21 points per game this season. This is a vast improvement from where he was as a sophomore. Iacofano has seen him progress from a sophomore who was barely scoring to the senior leader of the team.
“He takes on any role that is asked of him and has since his sophomore year,” said Iacofano. “He was only averaging 4 points per game that season. But he would play 25 minutes and always take on other team’s top defenders.
He would never question the role and he has progressed so much these past three seasons.”
That progress could be seen when Perry took on Lakeside on Jan. 8. Anderson led the Pirates to a 67-61, come-from-behind win in part because of his 38 points. He followed that with a 21-point outing against Geneva for an 82-44 win on Jan. 12.
On a young team, having a player like Anderson helps the others learn in big games, and it has been working so far. When Anderson has gotten hot in games, his young teammates don’t try to take the scoring away from him, rather encouraging him to continue taking shots as long as they are falling.
“We all try to believe in each other and the past two games have been examples of exactly that,” said Anderson. “They kept giving me confidence to shoot the ball and told me that if it’s going in, just keep putting it up. I don’t try to shoot every possession but when the shots came to me I put them up and they were going down.”
This has led Perry to begin the season at 6-1 and Anderson thinks the early season success is going to be very helpful as the season progresses.
“It’s good to have momentum going into the later part of the schedule, especially for the young guys,” said Anderson. “It’s good for them to get this experience early in the season so that they can continue to get the experience that they need.”
While Anderson and the rest of the Pirates have started well, the CVC has a lot of talented teams this season. Perry has yet to take on Chagrin Falls, another game against Lakeside and a pair of games to come against Harvey and Edgewood. Add in a nonconference tilt against Riverside, and it is a tough back half of the season.
Iacofano said with Anderson at the helm for the Pirates, they’ll be ready for stormy seas ahead.
“With the limited amount of conference games that we have this year, every one of them counts a lot more,” said Iacofano. “In the close games, we’ve already had this year, you didn’t see any panic or concern from anyone. They stayed solid and made crucial decisions down the stretch. You credit all the guys with that, but it comes down to senior leadership, and for that we turn to Jaylen.”
Anderson and the rest of the Pirates next storm the court when they take on Edgewood on Jan. 15, as the two leaders of the Lake Division of the CVC do battle.