By: M. WinterchekNow that the high school basketball season is over were going to take some time to preview some of our Central Texas Basketball talent.
We chose to start with 6'1" point guard Jaymes Maldonado from St. Michael's Academy. Here is a kid that could have been a prominent starter at any of the local public schools but chose to attend St. Mikes because of its academic history. To often you hear about student athletes that transfer from one school to another because of a better sports program. So a student athlete with Jaymes's abilities choosing to attend a College Prep school for academic reason is completely out of the norm.
I had the opportunity to watch Jaymes play at St. Michael's for the past two years and one thing I've learned from watching him is that once the ball gets in his hands and he is in the open court I'm going to see something fantastic. His ability to see the court is just as good or better than many of the D1 recruits that have already committed to colleges in the Austin area. I've seen full court bounce passes, behind the back passes and football passes that were caught by his teammates with nothing more to do but put the ball in the hoop. The ball sometimes getting there so quickly that it surprises his teammates, he could easily average 9 or 10 assist a game if not for the miss handling of the ball or missed shots.
His abilities don't stop at making great passes, he has a very consistent shot from 15 feet out and can shoot from beyond the arc. According to stats we received he averaged 52% from two point range, 37% from three point range and 65% from the charity stripe and was awarded 1st Team All District honors in TAPPS 5A.
Jaymes has received letters from several colleges including, Clarke University, William Penn University both from Iowa, Stephen F Austin both from Texas and several Junior Colleges.
Jaymes is just an overall great kid and according to his coach works hard in practice and is willing to do what ever it takes to help his team win. I would like to let the intrested colleges know that this kid is the real deal, and would be an asset to any basketball program on and off the court. Whatever college program Jaymes joins I know the coaches will be impressed and will not be disappointed.
We wish Jaymes a lot of luck and hope to see him playing at the college level next season.
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