Boys’ basketball participant of the 12 months: Jared McCain of Corona Centennial
Josh Giles has helmed the Centennial Huskies for 20 years. The boys’ basketball coach has by no means seen anybody go to the lengths Jared McCain must be nice.
A pair falls in the past, some Centennial gamers have been staying at Giles’ home earlier than an early-morning flight. Everybody was goofing round on his son’s Xbox, Giles remembered. However at exactly 10 p.m., McCain snuck right into a bed room to comply with his nighttime routine: yoga. Creature of behavior.
“It doesn’t matter where he’s at, what he’s doing, what he needs to do to prepare to be the best that you can be, that comes first,” Giles stated. “Everything else comes second.”
It’s the facet most don’t see — even by amassing shut to 2 million followers on TikTok, even by NIL offers galore constructed off his recreation and a smile born for Hollywood, McCain’s method to his craft has by no means modified. The Duke-bound McCain has been chosen The Occasions’ boys’ basketball participant of the 12 months after main the Huskies to a 3rd consecutive Southern Part Open Division championship.
He earned the award by averaging 18 factors, seven rebounds and 4 assists a recreation, his Giles-lauded work ethic on full show in increasing an all-around recreation and whereas guiding the Huskies to a three-peat.
His strategies, past his time within the fitness center, are unconventional for a excessive schooler. Earlier than Centennial’s opening-round recreation of Southern Part pool play, earlier than a 22-point efficiency to guide the Huskies over Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, McCain was doing tai chi.
He’s an avid reader, Giles stated. If he stumbles upon a apply of Michael Jordan’s or Tom Brady’s and finds it fascinating, he’ll incorporate it into his routine. Unapologetically himself.
“The pressure is always going to be there,” McCain stated within the fall of his newfound fame. “You just have to minimize it as much as you can by trusting your work. I feel like the work I put in shows, and that’s what I really had to lock into my mind.”
It’s confirmed all through a blinding profession at Centennial.
McCain was identified primarily as a shooter, Giles stated, when he first got here to Centennial as a spindly freshman. However he dominated his senior 12 months in each aspect of the sport — pushing the break off rebounds, controlling tempo within the pick-and-roll recreation, drawing free throws to sluggish the tempo.
“He’s one of those guys you don’t ever bet against,” Giles stated.