Ashland Source will select one student athlete to be recognized as the Park National Bank Athlete of the Month during the 2023-24 school year. Nominations for Athlete of the Month are accepted from Athletic Directors and Coaches, but are ultimately chosen by Ashland Source and are based on the student’s exceptional athletic performance, effective teamwork and achievement in their communities. Park National Bank is proud to support this initiative and is giving the athletic department of each school $1,000 in honor of each athlete chosen.
JEROMESVILLE — Hillsdale boys basketball coach Ben Ferguson knew about Braylen Jarvis before he was born.
Growing up neighbors with Jarvis’ father, Joel, in the 1990s, Ferguson said he and the elder Jarvis played thousands of hours of basketball at Hayesville’s Kendig Park together.
Partly for that reason, the first-year Falcons coach said he wasn’t at all surprised to — years later — see a record-breaking senior campaign for Braylen that helped Hillsdale notch its finest season in nearly a decade.
Jarvis, who surpassed 1,000 career points Feb. 23, then broke the HHS single-season scoring record four days later, is the Park National Bank Athlete of the Month for the Ashland Source.
“I knew Braylen since, literally, he was born,” Ferguson said. “I’ve watched him all the way up through, I knew he was a competitor, I knew he was a great kid, he’s a great role model, he’s a leader.”
“The neat thing about it is (Ferguson’s eighth-grade son) Lowen really, really looks up to Braylen a lot,” he added. “And it’s nice that, in the day and age we live in, to have a role model that is so positive — whether it’s school, how he behaves in public, how he walks, how he talks, how he treats people, and of course how he plays sports.”
In three different sports, Jarvis has played a key role in a lot of winning at Hillsdale.
The Falcons have made the football playoffs every season he’s been in high school, including last fall, when the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Jarvis repeated as a Division VII All-Ohio linebacker.
As a junior, he helped guide Hillsdale’s baseball team to a 19-win season that ended in the district finals, and the Falcons reached the regional finals his sophomore year.
But the feather in Jarvis’ sports cap undoubtedly came during his senior basketball season, which ended Monday night in a district semifinal loss to Warren JFK.
Jarvis was the kingpin for the Falcons, whose 18-7 season tied for the fourth-most wins in program history. Their sectional title was the first since last winning 18 games in 2015-16 — also the last time they had a winning record.
Jarvis ended his senior campaign averaging 20.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game. His 507 points broke the previous single-season Hillsdale record by more than 40 and his 1,060 career points are just 27 behind school-record-holder Eric Pickering.
“I’ve been trying to be more vocal,” said Jarvis during an interview last week. “Filling that role is tough, you’ve got to always be doing the right thing, staying engaged, even when things are not going the way you want them to. You still have to try and be positive and keep everybody engaged and have a positive attitude.
“It’s easy to be a leader when things are going good, but when things are going bad, it’s hard to be that guy.”
Ferguson said his first year as coach was definitely a bit of shock to the system for the Falcons.
They ratcheted up their transition offense to become the highest-scoring team in the Wayne County Athletic League while also nearly cutting their turnovers per game in half. They put a massive emphasis on tightening down their defense, which helped cut down their points per game allowed by roughly 10 from last year.
To do all that, Ferguson said he needed Jarvis to be open to switching from point guard to the No. 4 spot on the floor.
The coach said they had that talk the day he took the job, and with Jarvis buying in, it helped launch big seasons for senior point guard Jack Fickes, junior post Bradey Krichbaum and sophomore guard Troy Bennett.
Ferguson said Jarvis’ competitiveness (he refused to lose a sprinting drill this season) certainly rubbed off on his teammates as well.
“Braylen can shoot very well, he can handle the ball very well, he can play lock-down defense,” Ferguson said of his senior, who will represent Hillsdale in the annual News Journal All-Star Classic on March 29 at Lexington.
“But probably the neatest part about his game is how aggressively he can get to the rim and finish so smoothly. … When he wants to get to the basket, he can go get a basket.”
“From the jump, Coach Ferguson coming in, he had big things planned,” Jarvis said. “All around, the biggest thing was just energy and effort and playing for each other — especially playing for the name on the front of your jersey, Hillsdale.”
Jarvis said skill in basketball runs in the family. The son of Joel and Alex Jarvis — both Hillsdale graduates — he said he’s seen plenty of newspaper clippings in the house from his dad’s playing days.
Both are now on the HHS leaderboard, as Joel’s nine 3-pointers in a game in 1998 are still tied for the school record.
“We’re a very competitive family, so getting my name up there with dad and telling him who the real best player in the family is is pretty sweet,” said Jarvis with a laugh, admitting he still can’t beat Joel in a game of P-I-G.
An only child, he said his role model growing up was his cousin and another former Falcon athlete, Carsten Betson. The two always hung out at their grandparents’ house.
In school, Jarvis spends his time at Ashland University participating in the College-Now business administration program, which will help him graduate high school with an associate degree in business.
He said his 3.85 GPA puts him in the Top 10 of his class at Hillsdale, adding that the school side of things has always been an important part of who he is.
“I think it’s pretty sweet to be a part of (National Honor Society) and the Leadership Council,” Jarvis said. “That’s something that not everyone gets to be a part of, but it just shows tribute to (the ‘student’) being first in ‘student-athlete.’ ”
Jarvis said he has talked to a few Division III colleges about potentially playing basketball at the next level, but that he might opt to focus on strictly going to school to become a civil engineer.
Ferguson expects nothing but success, no matter where the future takes his star senior.
“We have other strong players who have good character and we have others that fit that role, but there’s none stronger than Braylen Jarvis as far as the academics, the character, the work ethic,” Ferguson said.
“I have never run across an athlete that has the kind of work ethic that Braylen Jarvis does.”
