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By Jed Blackwell

 

Jayce Edwards doesn’t flinch when he drives into the lane expecting contact. He doesn’t hesitate to dive on the floor for a loose ball, or to set a pick, or to dodge elbows on a trap.

He can’t. He doesn’t want to play scared. And it’s remarkable that he doesn’t.

Edwards, Polk County’s lone senior basketball player, has returned to the sport after several seasons away, which included a scary motocross injury in 2020. He was unconscious for an extended period after head trauma, and has undergone an extensive recovery.

He ticks off those injuries matter-of-factly.

“My collarbone was a couple of months,” he said. “I broke my left femur, and was out for about seven months. It took about a year to get my full strength back. My head injury took a little longer. I was almost paralyzed, and it took a while. All-in-all, my injuries still give me problems a little bit.”

The secret, Edwards has found, is to trust his doctors, and to move on.

“You can’t live with those injuries all the time,” he said. “They’re in the past. That’s why the doctors say you have healing time. The way I see it, once they say you’re fully healed, then you’re fully healed. I’m ready. I’m fully capable of doing what everybody else does. So the way I go after a ball, it never comes into my mind that I had an injury.”

Still, there was a little bit of hesitation with Edwards’ return to sports. 

“My dad was a little scared,” he said. “I still race motocross a little bit. These sports aren’t as dangerous, but there’s still a little bit of a scary thought there.”

That step back from motocross wasn’t just due to Edwards’ accident, but to another as well.

“I had a friend who passed away doing it,” he said. “His name was Clayton Sain. I’m not as eager to do it, so I kind of backed away from it. It’s fun. I’m still going to do it. But I’m nowhere near as serious.”

He IS serious about basketball, though. He’s taken on a leadership role as the Wolverines’ resident old man.

“I was chosen as captain, and that’s a big role for me,” he said. “But it’s a fun role, too. I’ve always loved being a leader, I’ve always tried to talk kids up and help them out wherever I can.”

He also has a rare perspective, having not been on the team last season, and can see his teammates coming together after a tough season last year. He saw it from the first game, a dramatic comeback win.

“I think they’re having a good bit of fun this year,” he said. “I think we have a coach that we can build a family with. That first game, with a whole new team, there are guys on this team who have never been together. Other teams build all year, but we came together at the start of school, came out that first game, and got a win. If you can’t build off that… But even when we lose, we learn.”

Edwards himself is learning, and he’s finding out that he wants to leave a legacy.

“I hope that people can see me as a leader for this team, not just now, but in the future,” he said. “I want them to become leaders. I’m going to do everything I can to help these boys stay together.”