When looking ahead at the upcoming basketball season, Sedona Red Rock High School senior Jaiah Grondin has varied goals. He hopes that his Scorpions will make the playoffs and do damage there once again. Individually, he wants to rock the rim.
While he stands only 6 feet tall, Grondin knows that he has the vertical leap to dunk — he’s done it before — just never in a game. Before the season ends, he wants that to change.
“I’ve dunked outside of games and in practices, but getting in a game and doing it is a different level,” Grondin said. “I’ve gotten really close but never really committed to it. I’ve got at a point where my wrist has been above the rim but I’ve never told myself to dunk it. I’ve gotten to that point but I can’t flip my brain to not lay it in.”
Athletics during the 2020-21 school year have been limited. Sports are taking place but the winter and fall seasons have both been shortened while the spring season has already been delayed. But while he may not play as much of one sport as he would in a non-pandemic year, Grondin is getting his share of athletics in his senior year.
In the fall, Grondin double-dipped, swimming and playing soccer for the Scorpions. He’ll play basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. In the latter sport, he hopes that the Scorpions can pick up where they left off in 2020 before the season was canceled. Grondin, who pitches and plays shortstop, is one of several key returning players that will hit the diamond for the Scorpions this season.
“For baseball, I want to make the playoffs and hopefully go further. Last year we had a really strong team until COVID. That really sucked because I think that we were really going to do good with the team we had. But we only lost a couple of guys, so hopefully we will be able to maintain our game and go in strong.”
Playing so many sports hasn’t diminished Grondin’s quality of play in any one of them.
During the fall soccer season, Grondin was named All-Region First Team and the Co-Region Player of the Year [along with Chino Valley’s Angel Sanchez] for the 2A Central Region and was All-Conference Second Team for the entire 2A Conference.
While he didn’t swim at the state meet, he had a lot to do with a state championship from SRRHS. One of the events Grondin swam at the state qualifier was the 200 freestyle relay, along with Eric Schrader, Jamie Alagna and Cody Brefeld. Their time of 1:35.54 was good enough to qualify the Scorpions for state. At state, the quartet of Schrader, Brefeld, Andrew Tate and Carlos Lattanzi won the event.
On the hardwood, Grondin is a returning starter. He’ll have a bigger emphasis this season, with last season’s two leading scorers — Jackson Coughlin and Frank Alves — having both graduated. While Grondin hopes that his Scorpions have a strong season and that he can find time to dunk, he has one simpler hope: That the season will take place and go off and not have any significant delays.
“One goal is to even have a season,” Grondin said. “And trying to stay safe with everything going on and making sure that we try our best to keep our season going.”
Grondin is active away from sports, as well. He’s in the Police Explorers program, which he joined as a freshman to interact with his friends and because he had a lot of interest in police work.
It’s also helped Grondin with what he’s going to do after high school — join the Marine Corps. One of the first sacrifices that Grondin will make when he joins the Marines is cutting his long hair, but it’s something he’s more than willing to do.
“That’s going to be an interesting deal,” Grondin said, laughing. “But whatever’s asked of me, it’ll be good. I’ve had some family that has been in the military and a lot of friends I’ve talked to about it. I’ve always been a very patriotic guy. I feel like I need to do my duty and serve my country.”
