Less than 24 hours after becoming a WNBA champion, Ramsay High School grad Jaylyn Sherrod spoke with WVTM 13 Monday while on an Uber ride from Manhattan back to Brooklyn, New York.
“To be on a team that won a championship, I think more than anything, it’s a blessing. Just trying to take it all in,” Sherrod said.
It’s the point guard’s first year playing professional basketball with New York Liberty, yet she acknowledges that Birmingham is the reason why.
“So many people who were a part of my process came from home. I almost think about it like their hard work paid off as well,” Sherrod said.
Her former basketball coach, Ronnie Jackson, is one of those people Sherrod says was a part of her process and journey. Jackson was so happy he texted Sherrod congratulations on the win.
“I was crying on one part, and I was happy on the other because I’m just so excited for our kids to reach a level, a goal that they’ve been trying to get to for so long and to finally get there,” Jackson, former Ramsay girls basketball coach from 2014 to 2019, said.
Sherrod played basketball at Ramsay High School for four years. The school will retire her high school jersey next Tuesday night at 6 p.m. The event, called “Jay Day,” will be held inside the school’s gymnasium.
“It’s crazy to think they think that highly of me. It’s just amazing. I appreciate the support more than anything,” Sherrod said.
Jackson says, off the court, Sherrod dealt with a lot of issues. So, after practice, she made sure to stay behind to perfect her craft so that she’d be the champion she is today.
Jackson said, “She had an injury her senior year, which the doctor said that she might not be able to play basketball again, and she survived that. She ended up playing and got a scholarship to Colorado. Played very well there. Undrafted again? But she never wavered.”
