Grayslake Central senior Chris Jaimes is hard to miss during basketball games this season.
More assertive than he was a year ago, the 6-foot-6 center often punctuates his presence above the rim.
“It just feels different this year,” Jaimes said. “Last year, it was partly a confidence thing, and I wasn’t able to show all of what I’m able to do. This year, I knew I was one of the most athletic guys on the team, so I wanted to make my last year a really good one.”
There’s no doubt Jaimes is fulfilling that objective. He has been front and center as the Rams (13-6, 5-1) pursue their fourth straight 20-win season and third straight Northern Lake County Conference title. He began the week averaging 16.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks, all team highs.
Outside observers might not have envisioned this from Jaimes, but he hasn’t surprised people in the program.
“We all saw his development in the offseason, so we were fully anticipating this type of season from him,” Grayslake Central coach Brian Centella said. “What’s awesome about Chris is that sometimes you can overvalue a player based on points — and scoring is an important part of the game — but he can impact a game in so many ways, whether it’s grabbing a rebound, playing hard or being athletic.”
Indeed, Jaimes does all of those things that coaches love, but the points are coming. He scored a career-high 27 points during the Rams’ 51-39 nonconference win against Carmel on Dec. 10 and tallied 25 points with nine rebounds during the Rams’ 65-49 conference win against Wauconda on Jan. 15.
Jaimes dunked four times against Wauconda.
“Dunks change the energy of a game,” he said. “My number of dunks have gone up a lot this year. It’s my way of saying, ‘Let’s get loud. Let’s change the atmosphere’. They can get our section hyped.”
Jaimes’ height isn’t the only reason he can dunk so easily. He’s a two-time state qualifier in the high jump.
“In the approach for high jump, you have to be running fast,” he said. “Depending on my feet, I can calculate the amount of jump I need. It’s the same thing with basketball. If I get my feet down, I can get some crazy air time.”
Jaimes also uses his hops in other ways. He has become particularly adept at chase-down blocks, seemingly coming out of nowhere to swat an opponents’ shot. One of Jaimes’ favorites came during the Rams’ 43-40 nonconference win against Libertyville on Friday, when he turned back a dunk attempt by Stevan Gavric, a 6-foot-4 Illinois State football recruit.
“If I didn’t get to that, it could have completely changed the momentum of the game,” Jaimes said. “I have a pretty big wing span, and I’ve gotten really good at timing those when someone is going up.”
Jaimes’ aerial work on defense got the attention of a college coach who mentioned it after a recent game. But his teammates have become accustomed to that sort of thing.
“I don’t know how he can get that high, but I try to celebrate with him after his dunks,” Grayslake Central junior guard Alex Granville said. “After the first couple games of the year, it’s something we expect from him. Not a lot of teams have good big men, so when the other team is worried about him, it makes it easier for all of us to score.”
Jaimes has all but assured he’ll have an opportunity to play basketball in college. He may also have options in track and field, but basketball is his true athletic passion.
Jaimes recalls trying to earn minutes on Grayslake Central’s freshman B team.
“It sounds basic, but I really love basketball, and I was motivated to keep working on my game,” he said. “I always envisioned being a top-level high school athlete.
“Now there are a lot of people who were better than me who I’m better than. If my younger self saw me now, he’d be proud.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter.
