Morse High School’s Jayla White: Leading the Charge on and off the Court

Morse High School is well-known for its success in boys basketball.

The Tigers have reached five CIF San Diego Section title games. They won Division 3A in 1983 and '87, as well as Division 1 in 2014.

Cliff Levingston, a very large inside player who later played for Wichita State University was the ninth person picked in 1982 by professional basketball team drafters. He spent eleven years playing with different teams such as Pistons, Hawks and others like Bulls and Nuggets. Lawrence West was the big player on Morse's 1983 team and won CIF Player of the Year.

If Morse's girls basketball team, who started the season with 13 wins in a row and now have a record of 13-1 captures the Division 2 championship then their school will make its first sign for banner.

Senior guard Jayla White, who is the Tigers' top scorer said "That would be amazing" as it would make a huge difference.

This Morse team isn't big and strong. There is one player, Jasmine Zufri who measures 6 feet tall. But the Tigers, led by White (21.3 points per game) and Kyla Palpallatoc's (14.2 ppg), find other ways to make up for not having tall players on their team.

Like when you suffocate a player and force them to turn the ball over with an all-court press.

Coach Brian Wilson, who has made the team win seven times in a row and got 22-6 points last year said "Our defense helps our offense work. It is important to stop players in front of us on court field." If a person from the other team can't move the ball, we will see it in 5 seconds.

"At the half, we were down 15 points against Fallbrook but I wasn't stressed. I said to my team "We can win". Just continue to be aggressive.’”

The Tigers made a small change to their defense," Wilson said, and they won 65-60.

"Olympian brought us to extra time when two of our main players were at home feeling sick and four starters had a total of four fouls," Wilson explained. "Right from the start, we told all the girls that every player is important. It didn't matter if they played for 2 minutes or more than 10 times longer - everyone can handle touching a ball and stopping it in defense! Although our team does well with long distance shots worth three points each, I like getting easier layups close to basket."

The Tigers prevailed 58-55. White got 16 points and helped with six steals, five assists and seven rebounds.

Not bad for a player who many people didn't notice when she was part of a travel group.

"It was a way to learn," said the 5-foot-6 White person, who has a 4.1 GPA (grade point average). "It showed me how to get better at basketball both when scoring and stopping the other team. This helped my understanding of the game." I found out in basketball that everyone has a part to play, and there my job was stopping people from scoring. Defense wasn't highly valued, but I saw how it helped us win. I began to put things together during my first year in college.

White first went to Bishop's, the school that recently beat Tigers for their first loss. Afterwards he moved on to Morse.

Wilson noticed some things in White that others might not see.

He said, "She listened carefully and was very quick. She's a bright kid who quickly agreed or disagreed with what he wanted." Right now, I believe she's the top one-on-one defender in San Diego. She really gets after it.

"First, she was scared to shoot because didn't want miss. Her average went from 5 up to 10 then 17 now it is at least a score of 21. When I finally told her 'okay', she began shooting and isn’t afraid anymore". She's one of the best long-range shooters on her team.

White sees the team as one large family, but not just for playing basketball.

She and some friends from her basketball team helped lead the Tigers to win the Eastern League flag football championship in fall. It was their first season playing this sport.

White played both wide receiver and defensive back. He got 22 touchdowns, which won him Eastern League Player of the Year and All-CIF first-team awards.

White said, "I used to play flag football on the boys' team at Skyline Recreation Center." "I already knew how much fun it was. I liked getting the ball better and winning a league title. I've been playing basketball all my life, and I want to keep it up in college too because some schools let you do that. "

Right now, White is very focused on helping Morse go deep in the Division 2 playoffs. Morse won all 8 games in the league, taking the first championship since White's mom played there during 1992-93. But White and her team were beaten in the second round of playoffs by Mt. Carmel.

"That was very annoying," said White about the Mt. Carmel loss. "It felt so bad when I suddenly knew that I would never play with those seniors on a team again.

"We're getting better in every game this season, trying so we won't have to feel that way again."