You might have missed Jaylin Stewart when Garfield won the Class 3A boys basketball state championship three years ago. Back then, he was a precocious freshman on a veteran team, content to play a tertiary role, often unnoticed and always unheard.
“He didn’t talk at all. He was just silent,” Garfield coach Brandon Roy said.
You can’t miss him now. Stewart, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, has emerged as the state’s No. 1 recruit and the leading scorer for an experienced Garfield team that is a favorite to win another Class 3A crown this week at the Tacoma Dome.
“I feel like we’re the most athletic team in the state,” Stewart said. “I think we can win it all. That’s the goal.”
The Bulldogs (22-2) have assumed Stewart’s unassuming demeanor. There’s a quiet confidence with a roster of 11 seniors, and a belief they will win any game, no matter the situation.
Garfield looked vulnerable early on its state regional matchup against Timberline on Friday at Bellevue College, trailing by seven points in the first quarter.
No matter. The Bulldogs turned to their full-court press and took control of the game on the defensive end, using a 28-8 run to take a commanding lead in the third quarter en route to an 83-51 victory.
“The main thing for me is, I’m the anchor of the defense,” Stewart said. “That’s really what I try to focus on.”
Garfield, the state’s No. 2 seed, will play in the state quarterfinals at 9 p.m. Thursday against the winner of the Rainier Beach vs. Shorecrest matchup on Wednesday.
Stewart said winning a state title with this group of teammates would be especially meaningful.
“I grew up with a lot of these guys, since we were 4 or 5 years old,” he said. “We’ve played basketball, football. We’ve all known each other forever, so the chemistry is always there.”
Stewart still doesn’t say a whole lot, but he doesn’t have to. The team follows his lead.
“He’s an easygoing guy,” Roy said. “The team has taken on his laid back, chill manner. I always take a peek at the back of the bus, and he’s talking now. He didn’t talk at all back then (as a freshman). But the team is all his guys now and the guys usually huddle around him.
“He’s grown a lot as a person and a player. As a player, he’s so talent that sometimes you want him to get going (earlier), but a close game really doesn’t make him nervous. He can take over a game whenever he wants.”
At his size, Stewart presents a mismatch against most opponents in the paint. And, indeed, he said one of his goals over the past year was to get stronger and more physical.
He showed that, and more, during a breakthrough with his Seattle Rotary team at Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League last summer, earning a top-100 national ranking in recruiting circles. He carried that momentum into the high-school season, leading the Bulldogs to the regular-season Metro League title and earning league MVP honors while averaging 18.9 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
“He’s come out of his shell a lot,” said former UW standout Tre Simmons, Stewart’s uncle and a Garfield coach. “He’s progressed so much from last year to this year. Not just his skill level, but being a leader out there. He plays extremely hard every game. He doesn’t take any plays off, and that’s what we love about him.”
Stewart had offers from the likes of Connecticut, Washington, USC, Alabama, among others, and he has committed to play for UConn.
Garfield’s offense is most effective with Stewart playing inside, alongside 6-foot-8 teammate Emmett Marquardt. In college, Roy expects Stewart will stretch out as a perimeter player because of his well-rounded, versatile skill set. He can shoot, he can pass and he can defend in space.
It’s a similar evolution that Roy undertook in his transition as a young player going from Garfield to UW to the NBA.
“I think at the next level people are really going to be impressed with his ability to play on the perimeter,” said Roy, the former UW star and a three-time NBA All-Star. “It was the same thing for me. I had a lot of game, but people didn’t know I could play on the perimeter. Once I got to college, I was able to show that I had more and people were like, ‘Oh, wow.’ But I always had that.”
There’s some family bragging rights at stake for Stewart this week.
His father, Lodrick Stewart, was a star at Rainier Beach in the early 2000s who went on to play at USC. Lodrick and his twin brother, Rodrick, helped Rainier Beach win two state championships, and Lodrick was the state tournament MVP as a senior in 2003.
Twenty years later, Jaylin Stewart is hoping to match his dad with a second title of his own.
“He’s always talking about that,” Jaylin said with a smile. “So I definitely want to get that done.”