WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Jacob Stevens is a two-time champion with the Houston County Sharks and led them to their seventh and eighth straight titles.
When asked about his game, scoring isn't his primary goal.
"Of course I care about scoring, but I'd rather see everyone else score than me and let everyone else get their points," Stevens said. "I enjoy having the ball in my hands and passing to everybody."
Coach Christy Jones said Stevens empowers others, and it propelled his team to come for a state title in 2020.
"Our defense and our offense weren't playing, but we stayed within striking distance so we could comeback and win the game at the end, so he mentally kept everybody in the game," Jones said.
Stevens' relationship with sports is special. He says sports help him hurdle the obstacles that stand in his way -- a speech impediment and kyphosis, or extreme curavture of the spine.
"When I'm on the court or on the field or whatever, my stutter and stuff is not as bad when I play sports. That's why I like playing sports. I don't know why it's like that," Stevens said.
Now sports will take him somewhere his dad's side of the family has never been -- a college campus.
Stevens signed to play college wheelchair basketball with Southwest Minnesota State University.
"The goal was to go to college and maybe play in college, but for a long time I didn't even think it was possible," Stevens said.
He's the fourth shark to play college ball and the second to join SMSU. It's something Jones said she wants her players to believe they can do.
"You can stream the games so they're starting to see it, and they're starting to believe that they can move on to the next level," Jones said.
Stevens will take his championship pedigree and his belief in his abilities to the Mustangs.
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