by By Dan Ninham (Oneida)
“You can’t score if you don’t shoot,” said Harley Jackson. “You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take.”
Harley Jackson, 17, is the daughter of Misty Miller and LaVon Jackson Jr. and the family lives in Fort Hall, Idaho. Harley is Shoshone-Bannock.
Harley is a senior basketball player at Shoshone-Bannock Senior High School. She recently signed a national letter of intent with NAIA Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana.
“I have a strong family that values education and showing respect to my elders,” said Harley Jackson.
“My father, LaVon Jackson, taught me to be a competitive athlete by showing me tough love, telling me to play with heart and be the best on the court no matter my height and being my biggest fan,” said Harley.
“Harley’s first experience playing organized basketball was when she was five years old in the Fort Hall Rec Pee Wee League,” said dad LaVon Jackson, Jr. “She would play on the same team as her older sister Marrisa. Even though she was younger, it was obvious she had the potential to be good someday. Also, she would play in the basketball leagues in Pocatello on a girls’ team and a boys’ team.”
“Even though she was the only girl on the boys’ team, she stood out as one of the top players on the court. She was shooting three-point shots and leading her teams in scoring when most players her age were still trying to figure out how to dribble the basketball. At seven years old, she played in her first 11U native tourney on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. She won her first MVP in a first to third grade tourney in a native tourney in Elko, Nevada,” added LaVon.
“We were in a Dick’s Sporting Goods in Salt Lake City and Harley was dribbling a ball between her legs,” said LaVon. “There was this guy watching her and he made the comment that girl is going to go places! From that point on, native parents started to ask if Harley was playing on tourney teams. In her last year of the 11U tourney she played for a girls’ and boys’ team. Her girls’ team took home the championship and her boys’ team took second place. Harley played a major role and was looked upon to score on both of those teams. Harley ended up playing eight games in one day.”
“When she got to junior high school she still played in the Fort Hall and town leagues but she joined a traveling team called the Bulls. Chris Ball coached the team and he was a former college player at Idaho State University. He encouraged Harley to not be afraid to shoot the ‘three’ and be a scorer. He ran his offense around Harley and gave her confidence to be a shooter and scorer. He wasn’t afraid to turn Harley loose. She was the best player on the court and often would outscore the other team by herself. It wasn’t always about scoring for Harley because she loved to pass the ball to open teammates. It was apparent even at an early age Harley could shoot and thread the needle on her passes,” added LaVon.
“Her last year playing on this travel team they went undefeated in a league in Preston, Idaho,” said LaVon. “Once again, Harley was unstoppable hitting three pointer after three pointer. She even made a few buzzer beater half court shots too. That same year, she was in eighth grade and played at Hawthorne Junior High School. Once again, Harley was unstoppable at this level and showed how good of a ball player she was. In one game, she hit a game tying three-pointer from 22 feet to send the game into overtime. Her team eventually lost the game but she finished the game with 49 points and hit 11 threes.”
“She then attended Highland High School in Pocatello, ID,” said LaVon. “During her freshman year she played on the same team as her older sister Marrisa. She played junior varsity basketball for two years at Highland but never played varsity basketball. Her coach at Highland was Taitum Degarmo and is also one of Harley’s teammates during women’s native basketball tournaments. Unfortunately, Harley didn’t find the same success she found during her younger years. She was still scoring and hitting threes but wasn’t scoring at a high rate.”
“Harley continued to play in native tourneys and her team ‘Two N Out’ would win multiple tourneys. Harley continued to pile up the hardware and jackets. In a women’s tourney in Owyhee, Nevada she won a Wilson Evolution game ball for making the most three pointers in the tourney (15). In another women’s tourney in Fort Washakie, Wyoming she won a Jordan backpack and another basketball for most three pointers made in the tourney (17). In a teen tourney in Ft. Washakie, Wyoming she won a trophy for making the most three pointers during the tourney (13). It was apparent that she hadn’t lost her shooting touch while playing at Highland High School so during the summer of her to be junior year, she decided to transfer to Sho-Ban HS on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation,” added LaVon.
“Her first year at Sho-Ban HS she flourished once again and her coach was Andrew Baldwin,” said LaVon. “Coach Baldwin turned her loose and opened Pandora’s box on her opponents. In her first game with Sho-Ban HS she scored 34 points with five-three pointers made. She finished the season making 102 three-point baskets with 102 assists and 78 steals. During the State Tournament, she broke three state records (40 points most points in her classification, 10 threes in one game an all classification record and 17 total threes in one tournament an all classification record). She ended up averaging 22.8 points per game her junior season while garnering First Team All-State and First Team All-Conference honors.”
“During the summer before her senior year Harley received a phone call from the recruiting coordinator/coach from Rocky Mountain College,” said LaVon. “She was invited to attend a basketball camp in Hardin, Montana that was being hosted by Rocky Mountain College. After the camp, the coaches were impressed with Harley’s shooting, passing, and dribbling so they began the recruiting process. It was then that Harley knew she had a good chance of playing college basketball. Her senior year at Sho-Ban HS included a new coach Justin Dance. Even with a new coach, Harley was still looked to lead the Lady Chiefs. She didn’t disappoint and ended up averaging 26.6 points per game leading all girls’ in the state and made 91 three-point baskets. She also set a record by scoring a career-high 47 points in a game and eclipsed the 1000-point mark. She finished with 1181 points for her career. She was selected as Co-MVP for her conference and once again was named First Team All-State. She was also selected to play in the State All-Star game and her district’s All Star Game too.”
“During the season, she was courted by several colleges in Montana, California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, and Arizona,” said LaVon. “After the season was over, she was offered a national letter of intent at Rocky Mountain College. She accepted their offer and would become a Battlin’ Bear. All the hours in the gym working on her shot and giving it her all in games culminated in a basketball scholarship for this Sho-Ban girl. It can be said that Harley is someone who can be looked at as a leader and an inspiration for native girls in her community. It seems that guy knew what he was talking about, that she is going places!”
“My uncle Trevor Degarmo and Auntie Taitum Degarmo pushed me to be a better athlete by taking me to play in Native tournaments.”
“I have known Harley for many years,” said her aunt Taitum Degarmo. “My first basketball encounter with Harley was her freshman year at Highland High School in Pocatello, ID. I was the head junior varsity coach and she was an incoming freshman. Her and her older sister both played for me that year. Harley was our leading scorer her freshman and sophomore years. My husband helped me coach her sophomore year. They became very close. He would work with her on the weekends and during summer break. He helped improve her mid-range shot and helped her with her decision-making on the court.”
“When her freshman year was done I took her with me to a basketball tournament in Owyhee, NV,” said Taitum. “She was only 14 at the time. We stayed on the winning side only playing four games but Harley won the most 3 pointers during the tournament. After her sophomore year I took her to a tournament in California and she was the youngest player in the tournament. We also won that tournament her sophomore and junior years. That same year I took her to a tournament in Wyoming. At that tournament she also got the most ‘3’s’ for the tournament and we stayed on the winning side of the bracket. I believe she had 17. I told her she was my good luck charm. The tournaments I took her to with me, we won.”
“Her ability to shoot was something that I had never seen before in all my years of basketball,” said Taitum. “She is able to shoot off the dribble and catch and shoot. She has a very smooth shot. It has been a privilege to watch her go from a quiet, shy player to a team leader and taking control of her team. Her passing ability to get her teammates in scoring position is amazing to watch. We are excited to watch her grow as a player, teammate, and a young woman at Rocky Mountain College. I believe she is going to be a great asset to the team and the community. She has a big heart.”
“I shoot as much as I can when I go to the gym and in game-like situations,” said Harley. “I enjoy playing against my dad. I could always improve on everything.”
“I decided to come out and represent my tribe’s school,” said Harley. “It feels better to play for my tribe and see my people represent us in anything that we do. It feels good.”
“My grandparents and parents stress education as the key to my successful future,” said Harley. “To accomplish that I go to school everyday and participate in school activities. I show respect to my grandparents by doing what I’m told and going grocery shopping and delivering to my grandpa and splitting wood for my grandma. I also go to lunch with my grandma and listen to her stories and help prepare for special occasions.”
Justin Dance, head girls’ basketball coach at Shoshone Bannock HS talked about his star athlete: “Harley is one of the easiest players I’ve ever had the privilege of coaching. Last season she started to heat up and towards the end of the year she was smoking. She carried it over this year and started the season off averaging over 30 points in the first five games. There were several times this year where she outscored the other team alone. She broke several scoring records at the school, district, and state level. She had the best handles in the state and had great court vision to go along with her terrific shooting. A comparison that comes to my mind is Trey Young when he was at Ohio State. Sometimes she would make passes or moves that were beyond her years. With that being said, she knew she could score, but she knew that the season would work better if she could get her teammates involved.”
“As soon as she would cross half-court she was in range. Everyone knew that too. At the beginning of the year, she approached me and asked me what I thought she could get better at to prepare her for the next level. We talked about how she was a great shooter, but after scouts see it, they will run her off the line. She worked on pulling up from 10-15′ and some moves she could use to beat a defender that was playing too tight. She worked on it all year and you could really see her progress,” added Justin.
“As a leader, she knew she could take over games, but she worked to get her teammates involved,” said Justin. “When she was stuck or frustrated, she did a good job at coming to the coaches rather than attacking another teammate. She was good spirited and would make jokes and a lot of the girls on the team really looked up to her not only on the court, but off the court as well. One freshman that played with her commented on her off the court presence when I asked how she was fitting in with the older girls and she said Harley was nice, was non-judgmental and was a good friend.”
“One game late in the season we had finished a couple of tough games and had a major injury to a key player,” said Justin. “Everyone was kind of down and worried. She came out and hit a couple shots early on. They had scouted her and knew she could shoot so they would press her early and she used a lot of the moves we had worked on to get into the paint and either pull up, or take in for a layup. She started to draw defenders and worked on getting her teammate involved and it was fun to see her help lift up spirits. It wasn’t until after the game when we were going through totals on stats that we found out she scored 47 with 10 assists. She could’ve easily had scored 60 or maybe even 70, but she made it a priority to get her team involved. She didn’t even realize she had scored that many until I let her know after the game. This was just another look at her great character.”
“Culturally, she really worked to change the image of a young native girl. She would come to us as coaches and ask if we could do things to honor missing and indigenous women with red paint over the face and a moment of silence before the game. She would make friends with those of other schools and represented her culture in a positive way that made a lot of people change the way they viewed young Native American women,” added Justin.
“Overall, Harley is a phenomenal athlete, an amazing leader, a great representative of Native American women, and a good friend,” said Justin. “She is extremely talented at basketball and her work ethic and attitude will only help her grow more as she moves on to the next level.”
“I work on different types of drills for a certain amount of minutes,” said Harley. “I work on different areas of my game including shooting, dribbling and passing drills. I work on defensive drills like blocking out, slide drills, help-side for defensive positioning and taking charge drills. I work on outlet drills, bounce pass drills and stepping around the defender drills. I also work on free throw shooting for a certain amount of shots and the same for my mid-range and long-range shots.”
“I pray to the Creator for strength and to have a clean game with no injuries and good sportsmanship,” said Harley. “I lock out the negative by focusing on the basket and tuning everything else out. I have a switch in my head that comes on and all I see is my opponent and I envision what moves I will make to get my shot off.”
Photo Credit: LaVon Jackson
