By Michael Wojtichiw
**This is one of many Chicago Public League Student-Athlete College Commitments. The site will be updated with more stories as they come in.
Social media can be both a good and bad thing. Everyone nowadays seems to be on all forms, whether it be Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, etc., it’s hard to find someone that isn’t on one of the platforms.
That includes high school students, especially high school athletes like Whitney Young girls basketball player Skylar Jones. Whether it be rival schools’ students chirping at players or other players’ successes being shared on the platforms, the students and student-athletes see it. How they deal with it can be the hard part.
“I was having a hard time getting over seeing other people getting things I felt I deserved as well,” Jones said. “I had to realize that not everybody’s path was the same and so that’s when I realized I had to keep playing and do what I do best and it would all fall into place eventually.
“What I did, and sometimes still do, is I’ll just delete Twitter. That’s where I see all the things that mentally drain me. I got off social media and just focused on social media and that helped me so much with everything.”
That all changed between Jones’ sophomore and junior seasons, however, and it made her a better player on the court.
“I had a mental block when I was younger because I saw other people getting offers and stuff I felt I deserved as well,” Jones said. “I got over that and once I did, my confidence came back and that really helped me become a better player.”
Jones, who is ranked as the 96th-best girls basketball player in the country by ESPN, signed her National Letter of Intent to play her collegiate basketball at the University of Missouri Wednesday afternoon at a ceremony celebrating the nine Young athletes singing their letters of intent in the school’s gym.
Jones wasn’t the only person who noticed the change between her sophomore and junior seasons.
“That junior year, when she mentally went to a different level, and I think for me, that’s when I really saw that she could play at the next level,” Young’s coach Krissy Harper said. “To play high D1 basketball, you have to not only be talented and skillful, but you also have to be mentally at a certain point.
“Last year for her was that turning point and it really opened everybody’s eyes. For her the sky is the limit.”
Jones has been a varsity player for all four of Harper’s seasons as the Dolphins’ head coach. The former Young standout took over for Corry Irvin when she headed off to the collegiate ranks after the 2018-19 season.
Harper knows what she has in her star wing and how hard she’s worked to get to where she is today.
Where that is is a place that has given her the opportunity to play in arguably the top women’s college basketball conference in the country: the Southeastern Conference (Sec).
While playing in the SEC was obviously a big draw for Jones, there was a lot more that led her to decide to take her talents to Columbia, Missouri.
“When I first stepped on campus, I immediately felt at home,” she said. “I knew it was the place for me because when I left, I immediately wanted to come back.
“I had a great connection with the coaches, my family and I bonded with them instantly. It didn’t feel forced. They’ll be able to improve me not only as a basketball player, but as a person.”
Jones averaged team highs of 16.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.6 steals and 3.0 assists per game last season for Whitney Young, which won the Public League title and reached the Elite Eight in Class 4A before losing to Benet in the super sectional.
Mizzou coach Robin Pingeton and her staff have let Jones know what they hope to see from her during her senior season and what they’ll be looking for when she steps foot on campus in the fall of 2023.
“As a freshman, not all freshmen are guaranteed to play,” Jones said. “The coaches told me they want me to be an impact player. They want me to make sure I’m ready to do what I have to do to impact the game and not waste any time. They want me to use my senior season as a preparation for that.”
But before she can get down to CoMo, she and her Dolphin teammates have some business to take care of on the hardwood.
Whitney Young last made it downstate in the 2015-16 season when it finished fourth. Despite winning sectional titles in both of Harper’s non-Covid seasons, the team has fallen one game short of making it to Normal each time, losing to Benet in last season’s super sectional by seven and to Bolingbrook by three in 2019.
In order to accomplish the goal of making an even deeper state run, Young put together a tough schedule for itself right out of the gate. The Dolphins start their season with a doubleheader against O’Fallon and Edwardsville, which has won two state trophies since 2016-17, Evanston, Incarnate Word (Mo.), which was recently named the country’s top preseason team, and Barrington, which took second at state last year, in the Chicago Elite Classic the following day.
“That start will help build us into a better team for later in the season,” Jones said. “The reason we have such a tough schedule at the beginning is to prepare us for the harder games at the end.”
“I’m excited for that,” Harper said. “I’m happy it’s early too because it’s really going to show us what we need to work on before we see those downstate teams later in the season,” Harper said. “It should be interesting.”
**This is one of many Chicago Public League Student-Athlete College Commitments. The site will be updated with more stories as they come in.
