Strange as it seems, Jasmin Watson’s first experience playing basketball was akin to watching a scary movie.
“It was really natural, and really creepy,” Watson said.
Creepy?
“Yeah, I was like Whoa! I’m actually good at something,” the High School North junior says with a laugh. “I didn’t really have to try too much. I guess it just runs in the family.”
Her dad, J.R. Harrison, played for Ewing High in the 1990s and is in the school’s hall of fame. Her mom, Sarah Watson, was a cheerleader. Watson inherited the basketball gene over the pom-pom DNA and has made herself into one of the top female players in North history.
Despite standing just 5 feet, 6 inches, the junior guard scored her 1,000th point against Trenton at Rivera Middle School on February 12.
But scoring is only part of her game.
“The only thing she does better than score the ball, offensively, is pass,” coach Bob Boyce says. “She’s just an amazing basketball player. From skill, to knowledge, to leadership, she has it all. She can shoot the ball, drive, play the best defense. She’s going to defend the other team’s best player. Just a tremendous basketball player.”
And she is not one to look for all the glory, either.
“She’s unselfish to a fault sometimes,” Boyce says. “They know if they get open and they close her off she’s going to find them and get them the ball.”
Watson began attending Trenton Catholic Academy in second grade, but playing sports was never on her to-do list until she reached age 9. She was initially “obsessed” with soccer, but it didn’t work out, so she stuck with basketball.
She had no great dreams of playing the sport. All Watson wanted to do was go watch her sister, Sabrina, play for the TCA CYO team. Sometimes bored at practice, she would shoot around on the side until a coach encouraged her to come out for the team.
In sixth grade Watson transferred to Community Middle School and played basketball there. Boyce would watch her play in eighth grade and feared she might want to transfer back to her old school, which is usually a state power.
“I was just hoping she didn’t go somewhere else,” the coach says. “She was a tremendous player. I had to do some recruiting in eighth grade to make sure she went to North.”
Thanks to the WW-P educational system, there was no chance of that happening.
“Nope, never a thought of that,” Watson says. “My mom wanted me to be in a good district where it had a good education. She wanted to keep me there, so that’s where I stayed.”
Her mother also showed pretty good basketball savvy, understanding that high school players are recruited in the summer more than in the winter these days.
“She thought the way I was playing with my AAU team that no matter where I played in high school I’d be able to get scouted,” Watson says.
She started AAU in seventh grade, playing with the Central Jersey Hawks. She was joined by Community teammates Chrissy DiCindio and Natalie Everett, who are now her North teammates.
“We’ve been together all the way through since seventh grade,” Watson says. “I love AAU. It keeps my motivation going to play and get into college. It’s just something I enjoy doing. It’s hard work, but I enjoy it at the same time.”
Jasmin actually had to change positions after fifth grade. She was a forward at TCA but never grew after that and evolved into a guard.
“I took the summer off going from TCA to Community and my dad and I worked on shooting, dribbling, things like that,” Watson says. “He’s had a huge impact on me. He just knows the game, he knows my game, how comfortable I am with what I can do and can’t do. He knows how to talk to me when I’m having a bad game or getting hard on myself.”
When she arrived at High School North, it took little time for Watson to make an impact. The freshman was the team’s leading scorer with a 14.8 average as the Northern Knights went 18-10 one season after going 10-11.
Jasmin’s value was magnified last year, but in a negative way as the Northern Knights got to experience life without her. During an early February game Watson suffered a slight meniscus tear and MCL sprain.
“A girl wrapped her body around my leg and tugged me down,” she says. “My right foot was facing forward, my body turned to the right. As I fell back my leg stayed. It was pretty nasty.”
Watson was lost for the season and forced to rehab and attend physical therapy. After a 10-7 start, North went 1-8 without her the rest of the season and suffered first-round losses in the county and state tournaments.
“Sitting on the bench was pretty tough, not something I’m used to,” Watson says. “I just kept encouraging them.”
Boyce and Watson were both concerned about how she would come back until the AAU season came along.
“At first I was a tad bit nervous,” Watson says. “But once I got to see some things, I was confident.”
“She was fine, she rehabbed fine,” Boyce says. “That’s not a surprise. She and DiCindio are the hardest workers I’ve ever seen.”
They also form one of the best inside-outside combinations in the Colonial Valley Conference. In the Knights’ 16-5 start, Watson led the team with a 16.0 scoring average while DiCindio led the team in rebounding and was second with an 11.3 scoring average.
The chemistry they have developed through playing together for five years is fairly apparent.
“We know how each other likes to play through playing AAU and in school,” DiCindio says. “We’re friends off the court. She’s a great leader. She’s obviously a very good player. She’s a great teammate, she motivates everyone and she definitely knows how to calm everyone down.”
Watson feels the same way about DiCindio. “Everyone loves Chrissy,” she says. “She and I spend extra time together, moving the ball between her and skipping it out.”
The fact the two have one more year together is not good news for Mercer County, but Boyce is loving it. He is smitten with Watson the person, as much as the player.
“She’s one of the most personable, funny, energetic, respected people out there,” the coach says. “They all love her. Not only the basketball players but kids in the school. She has total humility. She’s humble about everything. She’s an amazing player, but she’d be the last one to tell you that. She’s an amazing kid.”
Although she has another year to decide, Watson is looking into colleges for basketball and perhaps a career in criminal justice. She is in the “Kids for Kids” Club at North, in which the students tutor children in Ewing and Trenton.
From that, and watching such TV shows as Law and Order and Criminal Minds, Jasmin is toying with becoming a detective for special children’s cases.
“I’m fascinated by the brain, how everyone makes decisions,” she says.
She starts with her own brain, of course. Like most great players, Watson dwells on what she did wrong after a game, rather than celebrating what she did right.
“Sometimes I’ll just stay on one play and say ‘Why’d I do that?’,” Watson says. “And I just don’t know.”
Fortunately for her and the Knights, those plays are few and far between.
