Super 5 Player of the Year: Jaden Hobbs, Alva
A single pendant light hung from the roof, and hand-painted lines marked the concrete floor of the self-made court inside a half-century old round-top barn near Lamont.
Nearly every day, Jaden Hobbs stepped onto the court she helped measure and paint with the intention to one-up her older sister Jill.
“I never let her win … ever,” said Jill, who starred at Deer Creek-Lamont and played one year at Northwestern Oklahoma State.
“Little did I know that I was setting myself up to be known as ‘Jaden Hobbs’ sister.’ ”
Jaden is The Oklahoman’s Super 5 Player of the Year after leading Alva to a third straight state championship while averaging 17.3 points and 5.8 assists to close out her high school career. And what a career it was. Three state tournament scoring records — 299 career points, 107 points in one tournament and 45 points in a single game — are paired with three gold balls and one silver ball.
“I just wanted to win, really,” said Hobbs, who will continue playing at Oklahoma State. “That’s all I wanted to do and I wanted to be able to share that experience with my teammates and my coaches. As the years went on it meant more and more, and I wanted that feeling each year.”
Her state tournament dominance led to her being mentioned in the same breath as greats such as former Atoka star Crystal Robinson and former Sequoyah Tahlequah star Angel Goodrich, both of whom worked their way to the WNBA.
Washington coach Rocky Clarke had a front-row seat to Hobbs’ abilities twice in the state tournament when she scored the record-breaking 45 as a sophomore in a semifinal win over Washington and 24 in this year’s title game.
“She is a major stud,” Clarke said following last month’s game. “The only one I’ve ever seen better than her is Crystal Robinson. She comes to play. Everybody wishes they had a player like her.”
Hobbs played in the old roundtop barn until the family moved in the sixth grade, but not without leaving behind a moment or two that foreshadowed her dominance.
Jill tells a story of playing a 3-on-3 game with her parents as Jaden’s teammates against Jill and two friends. A 6-yearold Jaden refused to pass the ball to her wide-open mom in favor of her dad, who was double-teamed. Her dad eventually called a timeout to tell Jaden point guards need to find open teammates.
“Well, mom’s not playing a lick of defense,” Jaden responded. “I don’t think she should get the ball and shoot every time if she’s not going to play defense.”
The game then continued under the pendant light with Jaden finding her way.
“It was the environment I was in,” Jaden said. “You had to be tough if you wanted to be good out there.”