When you think of basketball playoff games, you think of buzzer-beating, nail-biting squeakers eked out by one or two points. But check out this year’s Jayton Jaybirds’ performances in the playoffs: Jayton over Crosbyton 5317; Jayton over Whiteface 70-33; Jayton over Happy 61-42; and Jayton over Lorenzo 56-47. The 2023 Jaybirds have been formidable. The Texas Spur caught up with head basketball coach Ryan Bleiker, now in his 13th year at his own alma mater of Jayton, and we asked him what has fueled the 2023 Jaybirds.
“I think the one thing that has really sparked this team especially later in the year is our energy and depth. All of our practices have great energy and competition to them. Since playoffs have started that energy has really been kicked up a notch. It may be weird to describe, but you can actually feel it before the games. Our bench also brings a lot of that energy to the game. We have a large bench, and those kids are always very much into the games. They really help feed the five on the floor to play as hard as they can. The last thing would be the fan support that we have. It is really easy to play hard when you realize the huge amount of people that come to every one of our games. Our student section is second to none, and the numbers of people that travel to watch us is incredible. That always gives our kids an extra boost before the game starts,” he said.
Dedication and commitment also play a role. Last week was the district One Act Play meet in Spur, and Bleiker and the Jaybirds basketball team could be seen practicing in the Spur gym during breaks in OAP competition. We talked to Bleiker about that kind of focus.
“We had district One Act Play that day in Spur and 11 of our 21 players are in One Act Play. It is always a balancing act, figuring out how to practice and manage the district One Act Play competition. This year it was just easier to bring our kids from Jayton over to practice at Spur so the One Act Play kids could also be at the awards ceremony. We are very grateful to Mr. Hamilton, Coach Conrad, and Spur ISD for allowing us to do that,” he said.
The Jaybirds have made eight of the last nine regional tournaments—and now three trips to State in the past five years. Bleiker gave us his take on maintaining this kind of commitment and consistency with his players and program.
“We have been very blessed to have some extremely talented kids come through in the last 10 years. We believe that success breeds more success, and every time an elementary kid gets to come watch a playoff game or be in the student section it drives them to work to be as good as the kids who are playing. We have a larger group of managers than most teams, and the reason we do is so those kids can be right there and watch how to handle themselves and what it takes to win. The last thing I would say is that we put a very large emphasis on Little Dribblers. We have great support from parents and about 90 percent participation in Little Dribblers through our elementary school.”
But the State Tournament is a whole different animal, as any team who’s been there can tell you, and Jayton will face Mc-Mullen County, the self-dubbed #RunTMC, a small school serving a county about an hour and half south of San Antonio.
Bleiker gave us his assessment of the Cowboys (37-2, 10-0) Like Jayton, they were undefeated in their district and have only lost two games this year—both to a larger 2A school, Floydada, which was only one game itself from going to State.
“McMullen County is a very well coached team that has been really good for a long time. They play a very aggressive style of defense and are very skilled on the offense end. We will really have to make sure we don’t turn the ball over on offense and play fundamentally on defense to contain them,” he said.
Bleiker brought up a key advantage that the Jaybirds have as they make their way to the Alamodome. “This will be the second time our seniors have been to the state tournament, so they know what to expect. Our kids really have a lot of confidence rolling right now. That confidence comes primarily from the amount of work they have put in all year. They face a lot of adversity every day in practice and in games. They know they have played some really good teams this year, and they have seen almost every situation, so they should be ready for whatever gets thrown at them.”
He said the Jaybirds leave Tuesday after a Pep Rally at 2 p.m. They will stop at McMurry and have a shootaround and then head to San Antonio. JGISD is having a fan bus leave at 3 a.m. Thursday morning to go to the Alamodome for the 10 a.m. tipoff versus McMullen County. But before they head out, Bleiker had a message for the community, fans and alums. “I would just like to thank everyone who comes out to our games or supports us in other ways. I think we sold over 200 State T-shirts in two hours on Sunday. That type of support is so great from our fans and alumni. I would like for the fans to understand how much they affect the outcome of every game. When our kids come out of the locker room and the stands are packed, it really does give them a huge amount of confidence that so many people give up their nights and weekends to come support them.”
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