Prospect Spotlight: Jaylen Carter 2021

<p>While Manual Arts High School might not have quite the storied basketball history of Crenshaw, there was a time when the Toilers were contenders in their own right and could go toe to toe with their nearby rival. The Toilers actually knocked off the Cougars in their run to the 1988 California state championship.</p> <p>The landscape is much different today. Crenshaw is in the Coliseum League with other former City Section powers such as Dorsey and Fremont. Manual Arts is now in the Exposition League with Jefferson, Santee, Los Angeles, West Adams Prep, Diego Rivera Learning Complex, and Maya Angelou.  </p> <p>The Toilers had nine straight losing seasons between 2008 and 2016 before Randolph Simpson returned to the program. Simpson was an assistant coach on the ’88 title team and had served as head coach for a period before taking time off. Since he’s returned, the Toilers have improved every season culminating with this past year’s 20-10 record and 11-1 in league play.</p> <p>At the helm and helping to lead the way for Simpson and the Toilers is incoming senior wing [player_tooltip player_id="747091" first="Jaylen" last="Carter"]. This was Carter’s first season with the Toilers after transferring from Dorsey. He put up a strong showing with 24.0 points per game, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.9 steals.</p> <p>Despite being a newcomer to the team, as one of the upperclassmen on the roster, Carter immediately took on a leadership role and did the best he could adjusting to new surroundings.</p> <p>“My role has been pretty much adjusting to having a new team,” Carter told Prep Hoops. “I had to coach my teammates through everything, help them out and encourage them. I’m try to help them become better players.”</p> <p>Carter is most certainly one of the best kept secrets in Southern California basketball. He’s an athletic wing who can act as a playmaker as well. He can play shooting guard and small forward depending on the matchups, and he has good enough court awareness to be a facilitator if need be.</p> <p>He can score from anywhere on the court and he’s got a solid three-point shot that’s near automatic when he’s open. He can create his own shot on the perimeter and make plays off the dribble to get to the rim. Defensively, he gives it his all on the wing and can cause turnovers that lead to offense.</p> <p>Carter was encouraged by the way he was able to fit in seamlessly with his new teammates, but as is the case with all good players, he knows he still has more work to do. This offseason, he’s going to be busy putting in the work to become an even better player.</p> <p>“I’m working on all my weaknesses, I’m trying to get better at everything,” Carter said. “I work all the time. I give a lot of the credit to my dad because he spends all the hours in the gym with me.”</p> <p>In this day and age, players leaving their home schools for private and prep schools or schools in other parts of LA County has become a regular occurrence. But when Carter transferred schools, he stayed local.</p> <p>It’s important to him to show what he can do at a local neighborhood school. He feels as if the Toilers are starting to turn some heads, especially on the heels of their strong season and near-perfect showing in Exposition League play.</p> <p>“I do feel like inner city basketball is underrated. That’s why I’m here, so I can show it,” Carter said. “The season went really well for me. The loss we had, it was unfortunate, but we played through it.”</p> <p>And while it’s still not clear what the high school basketball landscape will look like this season in the midst of a global pandemic, there is one thing you can count on. That is Carter somewhere in the gym putting in the work.</p> <p>“I’m just going to be getting better,” Carter said. “I’m going to be in the gym every day.”</p>