Hendrickson High’s Jalen Washington may not have been born with a basketball in his hand, but he came pretty close. The Hawk junior says he first picked up the sport when he was three years old and has been hard at work on the basketball court ever since.

“I lived with my uncle who played at Leander and took after him,” Washington explained.

Those years of experience have certainly paid off for Washington who has been on the Hawk varsity since he was a freshman. In that time he has twice helped Hendrickson reach the playoffs and hopes to do the same thing this year.

“Things have been going pretty good,” he said. “We are a little inexperienced, but we should be able to pull it out.”

When asked what the biggest highlight of his season had been, Washington answered it has been the way the team has played.

“We’re not going back to what we did last year,” he said. “We have a fast team. We are pretty small but our speed makes up for it.”

Washington says he hopes to continue his basketball career into college and beyond. As for his favorite part of playing – it’s getting to travel.

“I love traveling everywhere, playing games, it’s cool,” he said. “ The tournaments in the summer are fun.”

As the Hawks get ready to start district play this week, Washington and his teammates are eyeing perfection. He says they want to go undefeated in district and get out of the first round of the playoffs. The key to realize these goals, he says, will be hard work.

“We just have to keep working hard,” he added. “Everything will fall in place.”