A man of few words: that’s what Jarrett Anderson (12) is.

On the court he emanates a quiet, burning energy that one feels more than sees, but don’t mistake that for passivity. When he plays, Jarrett transforms. It’s almost an instinct at this point.

“Who I am on the court, it’s like two totally different people,” Jarrett said.

Two of Jarrett’s biggest passions in life are basketball and volleyball. Dedicating day and night and most weekends to playing sports, Jarrett demonstrates his devotion to sports daily.

“Sports is, it’s pretty cheesy, it’s kind of like my life. I’ve been doing sports my whole life, so it’s just always exciting to play a sport, between basketball and volleyball, or pretty much any sport. I always get into it. It always entertains me.”

Starting in 6th grade, where his dad coached the volleyball team, Jarrett has only built upon his passion for volleyball and basketball, starting club volleyball during his sophomore year, something which he cites as one of his most important decisions.

“I plan on playing collegiate volleyball so starting in sophomore year really drew me to want to play college volleyball,” Jarrett said. “Definitely starting club in sophomore year was really important to me.”

At first, he hesitated to dedicate any more time to sports than he already was. Especially being at Harker, Jarrett has felt the pressure of maintaining his academics and balancing both basketball and volleyball, all of which are incredibly time consuming. Still, Jarrett always made a space in his life for sports.

“I’d never want to quit a sport. I’ve always had to figure out, try to balance stuff, like this year I had to sit down with my coach [and] talk to him about balancing basketball and volleyball, possibly missing a practice a week just to prioritize volleyball and stuff like that. So, it’s been really hard but I’ve never thought of quitting.”

Sports are, undoubtedly, ingrained into his being.

“I would say it’s kind of in my blood,” Jarrett said. “My parents played sports. My brother, my siblings played sports, they play collegiate sports actually, so that makes me wanna do it as well. ”

“He loves sports,” Jarrett’s friend of thirteen years, Charlie Molin (12) said. “I think he just enjoys like the competition, and he definitely wants to do things to the best of his ability whenever he’s playing sports, or pretty much any other activity in his life.”

His dedication to sports shows through his reputation on the volleyball team.

“Yeah, I mean, when he goes on the court he’s still not very vocal, but you can tell in his actions that he’s like he’s a leader pretty much,” friend Mitchell Granados (12) said “You can see he takes control of the game, he really inspires his teammates without really talking much, but he does inspire his teammates to do better and he’s very, like, he’s a leader in his own way, you could say.”

Yet despite all the hats he wears in all the facets of his life, there’s one thing his friends can always count on.

“Jarrett is one of those people who like when you first meet him he’s not super outspoken or anything like that, but when you get to know him better, he’s super uplifting to see,” Mitchell said. “He’s very positive [and] funny. If ever I’m having a tough time and I see Jarrett he always makes a joke and I always laugh, he’s just one of those type of people.”

And he’s not the only one who thinks that.

“I guess [that’s] a cool thing about him: he’s pretty comfortable with himself,” Charlie said. “He doesn’t try to be something, somebody, who he’s not, you know? He’s just, he’s just Jarett.”