Jazmine Cardwell help lead the Vallejo High School Redhawks to a 2024 League Championship. (Chris Riley/Times-Herald)
For a few years, Vallejo High School coach Branden Harris has been putting together the building blocks for a successful girls basketball team.
To quote Harrison Ford in “The Fugitive” he found a “big piece” last summer.
Jazmine Cardwell transferred from Armijo High to Vallejo before her senior year and immediately fit right in with her new Redhawks’ squad by averaging 17.2 points, 11.6 rebounds, 2.9 steals and 2.1 blocks per game.
She also helped provide a lot of wins.
Vallejo went 9-3 in the Tri-County Athletic League Stone Division, earning a spot in the playoffs for the first time in 14 years. Although the Redhawks lost to Pinole Valley in the first round, it was a complete turnaround for the Vallejo program.
Cardwell is one of five Times-Herald female athlete of the year nominees.
“At Armijo I didn’t have the chance to build up my confidence because there were so many seniors above me that had more experience,” Cardwell said. “My freshman, sophomore and junior years I had players on my team with more experience. When I transferred to Vallejo I had more experience so I knew I had to make something out of it.
“Because it’s my senior year you know. Every time I hopped on the court I learned how to be patient. However my teammates really helped me, both on and off the court.”
It didn’t take long for Cardwell to adjust. In a one-week stretch in December, she played exceptional in a win against Hercules by scoring 29 points and adding another 15 rebounds. A few days later she scored 25 points and had 21 boards in a loss to Alhambra.
Despite her big numbers, Cardwell was still shy as a new player on the team.
“That changed about three weeks in of my summer league,” Cardwell said. “I started to see some players were looking up to me.”
Cardwell could see that not only did she fit in, she was the go-to player with Vallejo, thanks to a lot of improvement, especially in the paint.
“I think most definitely the area of my game that has grown the most is my rebounding,” Cardwell said in December. “I used to get a rebound and be scared to go right back up for a put back.”
That isn’t a problem anymore.
“I just love being competitive. When I walk on the court and see a player taller than me I single her out,” Cardwell laughed.
The 18-year-old said that although she likes scoring, she takes more pride in her rebounding, saying, “I can help others that way.”
Harris said his first impression of watching Cardwell play in summer league was a good one.
“She’s a workhorse,” Harris said in December. “She’s always diving into the stands and hustling for loose balls and she is great at all facets of the game. When watching her play you notice everything. It’s her rebounding, her scoring, her hustling, her blocked shots. She’s everywhere.
“I just think of her the same way I think of LeBron. When she puts her head down and goes straight to the hole it’s tough to stop her.”
As the wins kept coming, Cardwell said she was having more fun than ever.
“It was my favorite year of my four years of playing basketball for sure,” Cardwell said. “I think my favorite moment came in the summer before my senior year when our team won our first trophy, the first of our medals. At that point we started to have more trust on the court with each other. That’s what made Vallejo close.”
While Cardwell helped protect the rim at Vallejo she will soon be helping protect the United States at the Naval Academy in August. She said she wants to study social work in college and eventually help out kids with foster care and other areas.
Although she won’t be playing basketball there, she said the game will never leave her.
Harris, for one, will never forget his time coaching Cardwell.
“She was a leader on and off the court,” he said. “I think her leadership came naturally. The girls kind of rallied behind her because they saw the effort and the tenacity she gave every game. And her energy, that was something the team really fed off. She had a high basketball I.Q. and her effort.”
Harris also liked that Cardwell gave everything she could all season long and left everything on the court. In the playoff loss to Pinole Valley, Cardwell — who finished with a team-high 17 points — gave the home crowd a reason to celebrate with a big blocked shot despite being down by 43 points at the time.
“Oh my God, she’s a workhorse,” Harris said after the game. “As you could see on that last block in the fourth quarter down, what, 40 points? She’s always giving 100 percent no matter what the score is.”