Kailua’s Ashley Jacobs Picks Basketball Over Soccer

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Ashley Jacobs practices her dribbling with teammate Kristen Corrales. Photo by Nathalie Walker
Ashley Jacobs practices her
dribbling with teammate
Kristen Corrales. Photo by
Nathalie Walker,
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It won’t bother Ashley Jacobs and her Kailua teammates that the girls basketball season will come a little earlier this year. After seeing their hard work pay off in a big way last spring - in the form of a berth in the Hawaiian Airlines State Tournament - the Surfriders are more goal-oriented than ever.

“We’ll try even harder and work even harder for next year,” said Jacobs, who will be a junior in the fall. “We should be better than last year. We have a lot more returnees.”

Kailua won the Division II state tournament consolation championship game versus Seabury Hall in May, fulfilling a longstanding goal of playing a game in the Stan Sheriff Center. The Surfriders had attended the boys’ state tournament in February as a “team bonding” exercise, taking an in-depth tour of the Sheriff Center for inspiration.

“We’ve got to go underneath (the seating of the Stan Sheriff Center) and see behind the scenes,” said Jacobs, who helped Kailua to a 14-6 record this spring. “We told ourselves then that we wanted to come back and play there ourselves. Setting goals for yourself and achieving them is the best feeling.”

Jacobs is one of the top players to watch in Division II for the 2007-08 season. A steady scorer, she also received high marks for her toughness this season, playing through a fractured thumb to score the winning points in a key road win at Kaiser late in the season.

For all her natural ability - she also played softball and soccer - it may be Jacobs’ work ethic that carries her across the finish line.

“She’s always focused and determined to do well,” said teammate Kristen Corrales. “She works hard in practice. The JV girls really look up to her. She’s really humble, and she does well in both school and in basketball.”

For Jacobs, the Hawaii High Schools Athletic Association’s recent decision to move the girls’ basketball season to winter will mean making a choice between soccer and basketball now that both sports will be played at the same time. She didn’t have to think long. Although a gifted soccer player, basketball has become an all-consuming interest for her since her freshman year, when she played on the Kailua junior varsity, which was her first organized basketball team.

“Once I started playing basketball I knew I wouldn’t give it up for anything,” she said.“I used to play with my cousins, and my dad (Solomon) was really good at basketball, but I’d never played on a real team. In ninth grade, my friends were all trying out, so I decided to try. I kept trying harder and harder.”

Last season, Jacobs averaged 11.5 points per game and connected 16 times from 3-point range to place among the Oahu Interscholastic Association’s Division II leaders in both categories during the regular season.

She spends long hours on the playground of Enchanted Lakes with Corrales and fellow team-mate Zsalei Kamaka working on her game, in addition to attending the Kalakaua clinics on Saturdays, where she works on ball-handling.

With two years of high school eligibility remaining, it’s possible that some college recruiters could come calling some day, but Jacobs is keeping basketball in perspective. Her high grade point average makes her a likely candidate for academic scholarships.

“I won’t make it a big thing if I don’t (continue playing beyond high school), but I’d like to give it a try,” she said.

Jacobs wears the same numeral - 23 - made famous by her basketball idol, Michael Jordan, but that was more a matter of luck, she says.

“I like Michael Jordan - he really stood out - but that’s not why I got his number,” she said. “The upperclassmen get to pick first, so there were only the higher numbers left to choose from. My friends told me, ‘you can be A.J.’”