Jaedin Reyna transferred from Illinois power St. Rita to Bishop Noll this season and started playing his best basketball to close out 2022.
Jaedin Reyna is in rebuild mode.
The junior point guard departed Illinois powerhouse St. Rita in February and enrolled at Bishop Noll for his third year of high school, leaving behind a nationally touted program for a Warrior team looking to back up its Class 2A sectional title last year with one in Class 3A this season.
He’s navigating a college recruitment cycle that saw Illinois calling him with an offer as a freshman but has since cooled. He’s trying to prove his potential in the eyes of high-level coaches to prompt their courting again.
And he’s trying to sort together his own game. He averaged 23 points across four games at the Rich Township Big Dipper Tournament to end 2022 and is scoring 17.2 points, dishing 3.3 assists and swiping 1.9 steals per game on the season.
Reyna is trending up.
“That holiday tournament was like a coming-out party,” Bishop Noll coach John Dodson said. “I think you’re starting to see a kid who’s figuring things out.”
Reyna called Bishop Noll a “great fit” after being one of three sophomores to start for St. Rita last season. His parents wanted him in a Catholic school. His dad liked Dodson. It was a no-brainer for the Hammond resident.
But with change came challenges. Reyna didn’t play a fall sport but the other four starters in the Warrior lineup did. That meant the player responsible for initiating the offense got virtually zero reps with his teammates until the season began.
“We’ve definitely struggled with chemistry,” Reyna said. “But it’s still early. We’re still learning to play with each other. We’ve got a lot of talented guys on this team and we’re all just figuring it out right now.”
Dodson recalled early film sessions with Reyna where he’d completely miss an open teammate he wasn’t looking for, not because he wasn’t trying but because he didn’t fully understand what was happening.
“That first time we went over film I showed him a play where he left a guy wide open,” Dodson said. “He goes, ‘Well, shoot. I wasn’t looking for that.’ That’s not his fault. He was learning.”
Reyna’s role has evolved with time. He was primarily a distributor at St. Rita, Dodson said, but he’s asked his point guard to be more aggressive. Reyna spends increasing hours in the weight room trying to get strong enough to power through defenders and into the paint for baskets around the rim.
The trouble is deciding when to do it.
“He’s always been a playmaker,” Dodson said. “Now he’s trying to find that balance between when he needs to take over and when he needs to go get you 15 assists. He’s still finding that balance because he’s taken on so much.”
At the same time, Reyna continues to draw attention from college coaches. The University of Illinois Chicago and Eastern Michigan are among those recruiting him hardest, he says, and he holds scholarship offers from both.
Putting up the numbers Reyna has combined with a run in the IHSAA state tournament would help his cause heading into a critical summer of AAU ball that’ll largely determine Reyna’s options.
“I’m just trusting the process,” Reyna said. “Whatever comes to me, comes to me.”
It’s important that Reyna finds a place to play beyond high school, he says, so that he can give back to his parents who have sacrificed so much for him whether that be in time driving to practices or money to travel to tournaments with his AAU programs.
“I just want to pay them back for all they’ve done for me,” Reyna said.
In Reyna, Dodson said he sees a talented young player becoming increasingly comfortable on a 6-5 team still in the hunt for a Greater South Shore Conference title. The quicker Reyna figures himself out, the better for the Warriors.
“He’s started to realize what he needs to be for us and how to best utilize not just himself but everyone else around him,” Dodson said. “We run a lot of different sets, and he’s figuring out when to distribute, when to find shots and he’s getting more comfortable making it his own. That’s going to go a long way here.”
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