{"id":1074,"date":"2014-01-03T23:29:52","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T23:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=1074"},"modified":"2014-01-03T23:29:52","modified_gmt":"2014-01-03T23:29:52","slug":"changes-dont-deter-port-townsends-richardson-from-having-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=1074","title":{"rendered":"Changes don’t deter Port Townsend’s Richardson from having success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jayde<\/a><\/p>\n

Jayde Richardson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By George Edgar<\/p>\n

Special to The Sports Paper<\/p>\n

PORT TOWNSEND \u2011 Jayde Richardson has undergone a lot of changes in the past six month. She\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a lot for Richardson to take in, but she\u2019s been handling it all very well.<\/p>\n

Richardson is a senior post for Port Townsend, taking over from when Cody Hallinan patrolled the paint last season and\u00a0blocked any shot in the air either into HoodCanal or\u00a0PortTownsend\u00a0Bay.<\/p>\n

Richardson isn’t going airborne to swat any opponent’s field goals into Whidbey Island, but\u00a0has seemingly grabbed every missed shot out of the air, even though she\u2019s only five feet eight inches tall.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer strength is the biggest thing about her,\u201d said PT girl\u2019s basketball coach Randy Maag. \u201cShe also boxes out well. And she\u2019s only five-eight.\u201d<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

And she almost didn\u2019t\u00a0want to play basketball, but she fell into Maag\u2019s proverbial lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe showed up at an open gym, two weeks before the season began,\u201d recalled Maag. \u201cThat was the first time I saw her. It was a huge surprise. We graduated everyone but Jewel Johnson from last year. We didn\u2019t have anyone with her strength. We probably still need size, but we had no strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already she’s paid off. She averages 10.1 points per game, and\u00a018.5 rebounds per game, buoyed by her 23 boards against Klahowya. In The Crush In The Slush tournament over the Christmas holiday, she had\u00a0a game high 15 points and 13 rebounds against Chimacum in a 47-38 win.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0with 200 students (equivalent to a Class 2B school here),\u00a0Conrad placed fifth last season in the state tournament.<\/p>\n

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,\u00a0Richardson was going to focus on her schoolwork and planned on going into the Coast Guard after graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t planning on playing basketball,\u201d she said. \u201cBut one of the girls got me to show up at open gym, and I kept coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s pool isn\u2019t exactly regulation size.<\/p>\n

Since Conrad was a small school, it didn\u2019t have a swim team, but she did swim for a club team. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have year round swimming in Montana,\u201d she said. \u201cWe only had an outdoor pool (in Conrad).\u201d At the state meet this past November, Richardson made it to the consolation finals of the 200 freestyle and was on both of PT\u2019s relays.<\/p>\n

When she first saw Port Townsend, Jayde thought \u201cIt was big. I love it, especially since it\u2019s next to the water. It\u2019s a neat town, and I really liked the school.”<\/p>\n

And even though Conrad was a small school, its gym was decidedly larger than the Blevins\u00a0Gym nicknamed “The Shoebox” at Port Townsend.<\/p>\n

“They had just built a new gym,” Richardson said. “It was really big.”<\/p>\n

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 \u2011 given Port Townsend’s impending name change \u2011 she thinks the school mascot should remain the same.<\/p>\n

“I have no problem with the nickname,” Richardson said. “I think they should keep it.”<\/p>\n

Colleges are beginning to send notices to her, though it looks like Richardson will have to move from the post to the backcourt.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe can play at the next level,\u201d Maag said, \u201cbut she\u2019ll have to play away from the post. She can make a good off guard. She has a good shooting touch.\u201d<\/p>\n

It looks more change is coming her way, something that she welcomes.<\/p>\n

“I do enjoy it,” Richardson says of all the changes in her life recently. “It’s different.\u00a0You might as well try it when it’s going to happen.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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