Jayde Richardson
By George Edgar
Special to The Sports Paper
PORT TOWNSEND ‑ Jayde Richardson has undergone a lot of changes in the past six month. She’s moved from Montana to Washington in June when her parents got new jobs. She swam in a small indoor pool instead of one that was under the Big Sky that led her to an even bigger pool. And she went from not wanting to play basketball to playing for the Port Townsend Redskins.
It’s been a lot for Richardson to take in, but she’s been handling it all very well.
Richardson is a senior post for Port Townsend, taking over from when Cody Hallinan patrolled the paint last season and blocked any shot in the air either into HoodCanal or PortTownsend Bay.
Richardson isn’t going airborne to swat any opponent’s field goals into Whidbey Island, but has seemingly grabbed every missed shot out of the air, even though she’s only five feet eight inches tall.
“Her strength is the biggest thing about her,” said PT girl’s basketball coach Randy Maag. “She also boxes out well. And she’s only five-eight.”
Any ball around her usually ends up in her hands. Against Klahowya earlier this season, Richardson hauled down 23 rebounds to go with 14 points. (Remember, it was against Klahowya last year that Hallinan blocked a school record 18 shots).
And she almost didn’t want to play basketball, but she fell into Maag’s proverbial lap.
“She showed up at an open gym, two weeks before the season began,” recalled Maag. “That was the first time I saw her. It was a huge surprise. We graduated everyone but Jewel Johnson from last year. We didn’t have anyone with her strength. We probably still need size, but we had no strength.”
Already she’s paid off. She averages 10.1 points per game, and 18.5 rebounds per game, buoyed by her 23 boards against Klahowya. In The Crush In The Slush tournament over the Christmas holiday, she had a game high 15 points and 13 rebounds against Chimacum in a 47-38 win.
Richardson moved from Conrad, Montana, a small town between Helena and Missoula along Interstate 90. She was on the varsity at ConradHigh School for two seasons, playing in the post for the Cowgirls since she was the tallest. Road trips were definitely long, and sometimes in heavy snow. A Class B school with 200 students (equivalent to a Class 2B school here), Conrad placed fifth last season in the state tournament.
Her family moved to Port Townsend in June when her parents got jobs in town. Her mother Jamyne is a physical therapist in a nursing home and her father Dave is a paramedic. But upon enrolling at PT, Richardson was going to focus on her schoolwork and planned on going into the Coast Guard after graduation.
“I wasn’t planning on playing basketball,” she said. “But one of the girls got me to show up at open gym, and I kept coming.”
Richardson began the school year on the swim team, where she swam in the 100 and 200 freestyles and on both freestyle relay teams, even though Port Townsend’s pool isn’t exactly regulation size.
Since Conrad was a small school, it didn’t have a swim team, but she did swim for a club team. “We didn’t have year round swimming in Montana,” she said. “We only had an outdoor pool (in Conrad).” At the state meet this past November, Richardson made it to the consolation finals of the 200 freestyle and was on both of PT’s relays.
When she first saw Port Townsend, Jayde thought “It was big. I love it, especially since it’s next to the water. It’s a neat town, and I really liked the school.”
And even though Conrad was a small school, its gym was decidedly larger than the Blevins Gym nicknamed “The Shoebox” at Port Townsend.
“They had just built a new gym,” Richardson said. “It was really big.”
When Richardson was at Conrad, she was a Cowgirl; now she’s a Redskin, with the Cowboys down the road at Chimacum as one of her biggest rivals. And if you’re wondering ‑ given Port Townsend’s impending name change ‑ she thinks the school mascot should remain the same.
“I have no problem with the nickname,” Richardson said. “I think they should keep it.”
Colleges are beginning to send notices to her, though it looks like Richardson will have to move from the post to the backcourt.
“She can play at the next level,” Maag said, “but she’ll have to play away from the post. She can make a good off guard. She has a good shooting touch.”
It looks more change is coming her way, something that she welcomes.
“I do enjoy it,” Richardson says of all the changes in her life recently. “It’s different. You might as well try it when it’s going to happen.”