Thompson Erases Doubt, Makes History
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 14, 2017
When Jacara Thompson tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee this past summer, she thought she was done playing basketball.
The fact it was the second torn ACL of her high school career, along with the timing of the injury, had the Swartz Creek superstar doubting her future.
“I thought I wasn’t going to play basketball anymore,” Thompson said. “This is my second knee blowout and I need to be done – that was my first thought. I was going to miss my whole senior year, and that was really hard.”
Thompson proved her initial thoughts wrong, however, and is back on the court making history. Recently, she broke a school record that had stood since 1979, setting the all-time mark for scoring at Swartz Creek. She had scored 1,179 career points through Feb. 10, now well ahead of the former mark of 1,087.
“I don’t even know how to explain it,” Thompson said of setting the record. “Nobody in my family has ever broken a big record like that or anything. It really didn’t hit me until people started telling me congratulations.”
Those congratulations would have been well deserved for any player hitting that mark. For those who have watched Thompson overcome two major knee surgeries and break the record despite missing 17 games, the moment was even more special.
“I was extremely proud,” Swartz Creek girls basketball coach Adrian Trzebiatowski said. “As a player, you have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone that achieves that goal. As a coach, to see a young woman grow up, to blossom, to develop into a very good basketball player and an amazing person, it is an extreme sense of pride and admiration for what she’s gone through.”
It was in Trzebiatowski’s second season at Swartz Creek that Thompson entered high school, and the slashing guard was making an impact on the varsity team as a freshman. But her debut lasted only six games as Thompson’s first torn ACL, in her right knee, came early in her career.
She came back with a strong sophomore campaign, and as a junior joined the state’s elite, averaging 25 points per game and totaling 501. She was named Class A all-state second-team by The Associated Press.
“Early in her career she was a slasher – she could take a bump or two or three and still get to the basket,” Trzebiatowski said. “Last year we really committed to lifting weights, and she could finish with contact. She was able to get herself to the line and finish layups. I wish there was a stat column for how many and-ones she has. She was a strong player who could really plow and weave her way to the basket.”
Thompson also was developing a stronger mid-range game and working on her outside shot to keep defenders even more off-balance. Before she could showcase her advancing skills and build on the momentum of her junior season, she suffered her second ACL tear.
While an initial doubt she could return again was in her own mind, it was something her coach never saw.
“She knew how to rehab, and knew what she had to do to get back,” Trzebiatowski said. “As far as mental toughness, Jacara overcoming this is probably one of the toughest athletes I’ll ever coach.”
As Thompson worked her way back again, she said it was her Swartz Creek teammates who helped her get to the right place mentally.
“I finally got over it when I started to practice with my team,” Thompson said. “I couldn’t scrimmage with them, but they made me feel even better, that you’re going to be even stronger when you come back.”
Trzebiatowski said the team had to learn to play without Thompson over the summer, but despite that, Thompson’s impact on the young Dragons squad remained strong.
“Everybody looked at her as a leader, but I don’t think she’s always felt that way until this year,” Trzebiatowski said. “When we actually voted for team captains, the team decided before we even voted that Jacara would unanimously receive the vote for team captain. That’s never happened to me.”
Thompson missed the first two games of the season, but has come back strong. She’s averaging 17 points per game and has now added a more dangerous 3-point shot to her repertoire, something she said already has caused opposing defenders to take notice.
“I kind of always knew I had to get better at it,” she said. “Shooting wasn’t really my big thing. I always loved driving and getting to the basket and to the free throw line, but I knew I had to add an outside game. I feel like (defenders) look for me to go the basket every time, but now that I have an outside shot, they’re going to have to check me. They’ve caught on. They call me a shooter now.”
She said she feels like her old self now, although it took a while to get there.
“I’d say probably about 90 percent of it is mental, really,” Thompson said. “Because you have to think about what move am I going to do? Am I going to tear my ACL again? You think about every move you do when you’ve been through two ACL surgeries.”
Thompson is undecided on her basketball future, but said she wants to play at the college level. Her injuries have helped her to focus on her off-court future, however. No matter where basketball takes her, Thompson wants to study to become a physical therapist.
“I had always thought about going overseas and even trying to make it to the WNBA,” she said. “I don’t think I want that anymore. I want to do something to help people with ACL injuries.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Swartz Creek's Jacara Thompson prepares to shoot a free throw. (Middle) Thompson, back this season after multiple knee surgeries during her career, looks to get past a defender. (Photos courtesy of the Swartz Creek girls basketball program.)
JoBurg 3-Sport Great Capping Career Filled with All-State Honors, Team Trophies
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
April 5, 2024
It won’t be hard for Jayden Marlatt to remember opening day on the softball field from any of her four years at Johannesburg-Lewiston.
As a freshman, she missed the opener due to needing to quarantine. Her sophomore and junior years started on the road because the Cardinals’ field was under construction.
This season the Cardinals will open up — weather permitting — on their brand-new field, hosting Mio on Monday, April 8. Marlatt is slated to be the starting pitcher again and add to her school record collection.
While Johannesburg-Lewiston is looking forward to playing on the new diamond, Marlatt and her teammates have high hopes of finishing the season almost 200 miles south. They’re looking to get back to Michigan State University – the site of the Division 4 Semifinals and Final.
The Cards have had their sites on that goal since they fell 4-2 to Mendon in last year’s Semifinal at Secchia Stadium. The loss ended a 30-4-1 campaign that saw the Cardinals play every game on the road for a second consecutive year, but come up only one victory short of a first championship game appearance.
The trip to East Lansing also came after the Cards won the program’s first District title since 2008 and advanced to the Semifinals for the first time since 1981.
“It has been a long two seasons on the road,” said eighth-year head coach Kim Marlatt, noting the team utilized a Little League field for practices during the stretch. “They’ve been putting in a lot of work in the offseason, so it is excited to get going.”
The new field isn’t the only new things this spring. The Cardinals will have a junior varsity team for the first time during the Marlatt’s tenure. The JV squad is coached by Ryan Marlatt, who has been serving the program the past eight years as assistant coach. He also has been the head girls basketball coach at JoBurg the past two seasons.
The Marlatt coaches are the proud parents of Jayden, who continues to garner recognition as perhaps the greatest athlete in Johannesburg-Lewiston’s history.
The three-sport star had a huge hand in all that JoBurg accomplished last season leading the team in batting average (.670), home runs (13) and runs batted in (61). As the team’s ace pitcher, she collected 249 strikeouts and compiled a 1.32 ERA.
“Jayden has put in the hard work,” Kim pointed out. “She is a very humble athlete. ‘She doesn’t like to talk about herself. She likes to compete, and she likes to be on the top of her game for her teammates.”
Jayden has been named all-conference and all-state in softball, basketball and volleyball nearly every season over her four years at JoBurg. She’s led her teams to Ski Valley Conference, District and Regional titles along the way.
She’s also been named Player of the Year by multiple publications. And she’s a front runner to be voted the Most Valuable Player of the Ski Valley Conference in softball. Earlier this year, league coaches voted her the MVP for both basketball and volleyball.
“The Ski Valley never used to vote on an MVP,” Ryan Marlatt said. “Hopefully she can add the triple crown and get softball this year.”
Jayden Marlatt, who has played all three sports all four years, acknowledged softball is perhaps her most treasured, and she’ll continue in that sport at Ferris State. Her career total of more than 500 strikeouts, and her 14 home runs last season, are both JoBurg school records. "I like them all but probably softball,” she confirmed when asked to name her favorite sport.
She averaged 12 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and four steals per game this winter helping the Cards basketball team to a conference runner-up finish. She was key to JoBurg's ability to put a 12-game winning streak together, and she topped the 1,000-point career mark along the way.
Her outstanding senior year on the basketball court and this spring’s possibilities nearly vanished as the volleyball season ended.
She suffered what looked to be a serious lower-leg injury in the final game of the JoBurg volleyball season. “She finished in the emergency room,” Kim Marlatt said.
Diagnosed a high ankle sprain, it was an aggravation to an injury from her junior year in basketball. She wasn’t quite at 100 percent on the basketball court this season until the holiday break. She’s starting the softball season healthy, though.
Before the injury, Jayden led the Cards to their third volleyball conference championship over the last four years. After becoming JoBurg's all-time kills leader during her junior season, and with many of her teammates from her first three seasons graduating, Jayden had to fill a variety of roles while anchoring the offense from her outside hitter spot.
She ended up leading the team in both kills with 421 and digs, with 431, in her final season on the volleyball court. And she is listed among MHSAA’s all-time leaders in kills for a single match and career.
It’s more than Marlatt’s stats that stand out for Kristine Peppin, the school’s volleyball coach the past 15 years.
“It is not about the size of the school or the size of the player, it’s the heart that they have inside,” she proclaimed. “This girl would be a successful player on whatever team she was on.
“Yes we’re a small school, small town,” she continued. “That kind of leadership and heart and drive to be the best is what’s given her that success.”
Marlatt’s work ethic is second to none, Peppin noted. She never saw Jayden give less than a “1,000” percent in practice or games in her career.
“She’s a super hard worker and extremely modest for the kind of skill she possesses and the success she’s had,” Peppin said. “Her teammates think it’s amazing to be on her team.”
Marlatt’s volleyball skills caught the eye of at least one of her conference opponents’ coaches back in junior high. Ron Stremlow was performing one of his many coaching duties for Fife Lake Forest Area when he first saw Jayden on the volleyball court.
“I could tell then this girl was somebody special,” said Stremlow, who became one of the winningest coaches in state volleyball history with the Warriors. “When she got in high school, it just took off.
“She puts the time into it, and she works hard,” Stremlow continued. “Kids like that get what they deserve – they work for it.”
Stremlow, now retired, also acknowledged he’s enjoyed being able to watch the hard-throwing Marlatt on the softball field the last couple of seasons as Forest Area hosted the Cardinals consecutively due to JoBurg’s lack of a home field.
It’s something he’ll have to travel to do this year though, as JoBurg is scheduled to host the Warriors on April 15.
The Cardinals also will host a Regional on their new field June 8. The winners of District play at Rogers City, Harbor Springs, St. Ignace and Gaylord St. Mary will participate.
To play in the Regional, the Cards will have to emerge from the Rogers City District featuring the host Hurons, Atlanta, Hillman, Onaway, and Posen.
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Johannesburg-Lewiston’s Jayden Marlatt drives a pitch during softball season. (2) Cardinals’ 1,000-point scorer Marlatt sets up for a free throw attempt. (3) Also a standout in the fall, Marlatt prepares to connect during volleyball season. (4) Marlatt celebrates a trophy win during last season’s Semifinals softball run with parents (and coaches) Kim and Ryan Marlatt. (Action shots by Dylan Jespersen/Petoskey News-Review; family photo by Breya Domke.)