When she was in sixth grade, Cayla Sexton appeared to be on the way to being a big-time forward or center in basketball. At 5-foot-5, she towered over her classmates when she signed up to play rec basketball.
Something happened between now and then. Well actually, almost nothing happened, as the Ewing High School junior has gained only two inches over the past five years.
Fortunately for the Blue Devils’ girls’ hoops team, Sexton adapted to her non-growth spurt and has made herself into one of the top all-around guards in the Colonial Valley Conference.
During Ewing’s 13-2 start, Sexton was second on the team in scoring with an 11.0 average, and was first in assists (28), steals (29) and 3-point field goals (14). She also chipped in with 27 rebounds from her guard spot. The Blue Devils finished the season at 22-5, but ultimately fell to Neptune in the Central Jersey Group III semifinals, 52-38. Sexton finished the game with five points and nine rebounds.
“She’s one of the most well-rounded players I’ve had in my nine years here,” head coach Mike Reynolds said. “She can impact a game whether she’s scoring or just handling the ball or playing defense. She knows all those things are important. If she’s not scoring one night, she’s not going to slack off in another area. She’s going to continue to try and plug away and just make an impact. She does a really nice job of that.”
The youngest of three children, Sexton’s brother and sister did not play basketball, nor did her father, Homer. But when the Trenton Catholic Academy middle school program asked Sexton to come out for the team, she decided to go for it.
“They wanted me to play because I was actually tall, I was one of the tallest people in middle school,” she said, laughing. “I was almost this height that I am now. And so they wanted me to play with them.”
From the moment she first dribbled a ball, Sexton fell in love with the sport, and as she got a bit older, she decided she wanted to improve. Homer was right there to help.
“My dad’s a very big influence,” Sexton said. “I told him I wanted to get better and he took all this time to help me get better by watching videos and talking to coaches and just working me out in the gym. He basically made me who I am.”
There was some tough love involved, of course. When asked if Homer would yell at her for mistakes, Cayla replied “All the time, still to this day.”
Aside from fraternal help, Sexton made herself better by going against tough competition. Much like Alexis Johnson, who graduated as Hamilton West’s all-time leading scorer several years ago, Cayla went to the Hamilton YMCA and played in pick-up games against male competition.
“At first they started taking it easy on me, and when I started actually playing and they saw I could play, they started picking it up a little bit,” she said. “Now they play me like I’m an actual boy.”
But they still get a little upset when she makes them look bad.
“Yeah,” Sexton said. “You could kind of say that.”
The experience has helped her immensely, providing her with toughness and the ability to play at a fast pace.
“If you do it against the boys you can probably do it against the girls,” she said. “So it made it a little bit easier.”
The one adjustment Sexton needed to make was in what her role would be on a basketball team. By the time she reached seventh grade, she was no longer the tallest kid in school.
“I thought I was going to be very tall,” she said. “I was taller than everybody at the time and I thought I was going to sprout up. But it turned out everybody passed me and I just stayed here.”
In eighth grade, Sexton began to work on her game in the backcourt. She admitted that it was difficult and that she needed time to adapt. That’s where visits to the Y paid dividends. She said she went to the gym every day to practice her skills at guard. Now, she loves the position.
When she got to ninth grade, Sexton was placed on the Trenton Catholic varsity squad and played in 19 of the Iron Mikes’ 21 games, averaging a modest 3.8 points. Last year, she was in the regular rotation, averaging 5.2 points for a 20-9 team that won the Mercer County Tournament championship.
Sexton transferred to Ewing saying she needed a change, but was quick to note that she loved her TCA teammates—she was just looking for a new experience.
Her arrival immediately gave the Devils a complement for forward Mya Grimes, the team’s leading scorer. Sexton’s presence also makes things easier for Reynolds, who is impressed by Sexton’s basketball knowledge. Although she has numerous skills, the coach won’t assign her a certain duty for each game. He basically gives her free reign on what to do.
“I think having watched her play now, I trust her to go out there and figure some things out,” Reynolds said. “I don’t think I need to over-coach it. I’ll certainly say some things here and there, she’s very receptive to it, but I like that she has a good feel for the game and I think players like that just need to go out and play.”
Sexton’s biggest strength is her versatility. Teams have to respect her 3-point shooting, but if they crowd her too much on the perimeter, Sexton’s quickness allows her to drive by a defender and penetrate to the basket. She also has excellent court vision, allowing her to set up teammates.
There is also quiet leadership by example. And if she needs to speak up, it’s in the right way.
“She’s just very steady,” Reynolds said. “She’s not going to be overly vocal. She’ll say something when something needs to be said but it’s always in an encouraging type of way, never a blame type of way. I think any kid responds to that. You want to be encouraged and you want to be excited about playing and she does those things for us.”
What has really helped is that Sexton’s arrival did not cause problems within the team fabric. Often times, the addition of a transfer takes away playing time that another player thought they might have earned, and disgruntlement can occur. That has not happened in the Devils Den.
“First, she’s just a really nice girl,” Reynolds said. “And our kids understand the game, they know she’s a good player and she was going to step in and play big role and that she would help us. That’s all they want. They just want to win games and get as far as they can get. If she can help us do that they’re totally open to it.”
Sexton did not get a chance to play with Ewing until preseason practice started. She said, “it was definitely an adjustment but it wasn’t the hardest thing to do. It felt easier after the first few weeks.”
One of the more difficult things for Sexton to deal with this season came on Jan. 9, when Ewing dropped a 48-46 decision at TCA in the Boys and Girls Club of Mercer County Capital City Challenge.
“That was hard, overwhelming,” said Sexton, who had eight points in the loss. “It kind of got to me at first, I really wanted to win. Then I relaxed a little bit. It was fun playing against them. It was like I was at practice again.”
Thanks to her days as an Iron Mike, Sexton does bring an important intangible to Ewing, in that she understands how to play in high-level tournament games. Those contests are approaching with county and state tournaments on tap.
“I will just tell them what I would do and my experience to help them out along the way,” she said. “I’ll just tell them to relax and it’s just a game and play hard.”
Well, it’s a little more than just a game for Sexton.
“I love basketball,” she said. “School and basketball are my whole life.”
And she’s living large on the court. Figuratively speaking, of course.
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