Holy Family’s Jayden Watts nabs the Daily Camera player of the year

The regular baseball season provided Holy Family senior Jayden Watts with a test of mental and physical fortitude, only to see the first baseman explode in the offseason.

His patience paid off, and the Tigers reaped the benefits through a Class 4A state championship.

Through the four-game playoff run at Air Force Academy, Watts enjoyed nine hits, 14 RBIs and seven runs. Over half of the runs that he batted in (27) this season came from that short stretch, much to the chagrin of teams like top-seeded Windsor and state runner-up Pueblo County. He collected three hits and five RBIs in each of those contests.

The Daily Camera player of the year was the beating heart of the Tigers’ state championship run.

“I know how I can play and how I should be playing, and that was me right there,” Watts said. “It just felt fun. It was love for the game right there. I made myself proud. I showed myself that even through adversity, that I can overcome things.”

That adversity had been nagging him all season in the form of back pain, which Watts said affected his swing, his ability to use his legs and his ability to pitch all year. And, while at times it caused some mental blocks, he did everything in his power to make sure he could still suit up for his team every day.

“I came from basketball and I was just at batting practice one time,” Watts recalled. “My back was tightening up and it just never got better all year. If anything, it just started getting worse. I was doing as much as I could do for it to be tolerable with cupping, going to a chiropractor, just stretching extra and everything.”

Earlier in the year, Watts struggled to produce the way he knew he could. A tough conversation with one of his coaches helped flip his mindset and put him on the path toward a brighter postseason.

His coach, Marc Cowell, said he didn’t see Watts’ late-season power surge coming, but was incredibly pleased when it did.

“He had been steady all season, but he never really broke out,” Cowell said. “I don’t know if it was just postseason time. Everything came together, but he took huge steps. We didn’t see him hit like that all spring. He’d steadily get a hit or two, here and there in games, but everything magnified by a hundredfold in the postseason.

“I think it would have been a little bit tighter along the way, because he was huge in our run production. I think we still could have done it, but nevertheless, he was still a huge reason that we did win it this year.”

Watts will now head to Arizona to pitch for Mesa Community College. There, he hopes to perfect his pitches, develop a slider and put on more muscle as he strengthens his game even more.