This year, senior Jaylen Solich was awarded CVC league MVP for his contributions to Roseville’s basketball team over the winter. But, his success his senior year did not come easily.

Solich began his first year of basketball in eighth grade when he tried out for the eighth grade basketball team at Cooley Middle School.

At the time, Solich had never played basketball and his skills were just developing, causing him to earn very limited court time. Despite most becoming discouraged by not playing often, Solich took it as an opportunity to get better.

“Since I didn’t start due to the fact I never played before, it made me really upset,” Solich said. “So after the season I started to work on my skills so that by freshman year I would be a starter.”

Solich decided to go to Roseville High School. After putting in a lot of work over the summer he not only made the freshman team, but he was in fact a starter and met his personal goal.

Coming into his sophomore year, Solich played for an AAU team, the EBA Pharaohs, where he got to play with players who were more experienced than him, causing him again to work harder to get better. While on the Pharaohs, Solich played in Portland, Oregon and at showcase events for more college exposure to pursue his collegiate dream.

Solich continued to develop during his JV season, being the leading scorer for their team while averaging 11 points a game. He helped to lead his team to a 24-3 record and a league championship.

Having watched Solich all four years of high school, teammate Tyler Edwards recognizes the incredible dedication to the sport.

“He breathes basketball,” Edwards said. “When he’s not on the court playing, he’s watching it, it is always on his mind 24/7.”

Solich’s senior year he helped to lead the Tigers to the playoffs going 20-9. Solich finished off strong his senior year where he averaged 17 points a game, 4.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 2.4 steals.

“Jaylen’s expectations are so high when he does bad it’s noticable, but if me or Bernie [Graves – senior teammate] did bad it would be as noticeable and that just shows how great of a player he is,” Edwards said.

Growing up and playing against other talented people made Solich work hard to get better. At the end of his senior year Solich reached league MVP.

“Obviously everyone wants to have that MVP award and it would be a blessing to be as skilled as he is and he works insanely hard and totally deserves it,” Edwards said.

After his season was over Solich went to play in the Optimist Games at Sac High. The Optimist games is where best players from the Sacramento area get together for an all star game. It was Northern Sacramento vs Southern Sacramento.

In the Optimist game, Solich dropped nine points in the final quarter and his team won the game.

Solich plans on going to Folsom Lake college to continue his basketball career after graduating high school.