LJ g BB: "I tell a lot of jokes"

Guard Jenna Harmeyer shows her

development as a player by using her

left hand to drive toward the basket

in a win over Mission Bay Feb. 7.

Jenna is including this photo on her

senior page in the yearbook.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

Jenna Harmeyer has gotten feedback from people who only see her on the basketball court or the hockey field that she seems awfully serious. "They think I'm angry," she says.

But the La Jolla High athlete is putting the word out that she isn't angry, and that she is a friendly person. "Off the court I smile, I talk, I tell a lot of jokes," she says to clear the air.

This conception of her is partly tied to Jenna's enjoyment and involvement in sports. She gets it, she loves to play, and she wants her team and herself to perform well. So in the heat of competition, she is focused on job one. That's reflected in her facial expression.

But another element entered the picture this past fall. On the field hockey team at the start of the season, Coach Paula Conway named Harmeyer the sole team captain, a new role for her among her teammates. She had to undergo all the changes that anyone being promoted into leadership from among the ranks has to go through.

It is a transition that can be fraught with difficulties. But Jenna seemed to have a fast learning curve--just like the speed she is known for on the field at her positions at left midfield and left inner, on the court as point guard, and on the track as a sprinter in the 100 and 200 meters.

"I felt that the team appreciated me. I tried to focus on keeping the team happy," the 17-year-old senior says, looking back. "Later on in the season, Kelly Collins and Gabby Person also became captains," which spread the responsibility out a little more.

Jenna enjoyed Thanksgiving break by spending time with her older sister Katie, who is majoring in biology at UCLA. The two were teammates in all three sports at La Jolla two years ago. Jenna kind of exploded onto the scene as a new student athlete at the high school, and that can be difficult for an older sibling who has to share the spotlight with the new upstart.

The two weathered that transition and worked things out to where Jenna would like to attend UCLA as well, studying the same major. Their relationship is fine.

"I've always been interested in anatomy," says the younger sibling, who will play at #1, or point guard, in basketball coach Johnnie Horne's alignment. "I've always seen myself as a surgeon or a biological researcher."

A friend on the Viking basketball team, which is undergoing many roster changes, is Sarah Tajran, also a senior. Tajran will play at shooting guard opposite Harmeyer.

Basketball is Jenna's favorite sport. "Every practice, I come home really happy and in a good mood," she says, "no matter how much we had to run. I really think that teams are where you find your closest friends. All the girls always try to help each other out, and that's the group you want to fit into. That's why in college I want to stay in sports, even club sports."

Gastronomically, peanut butter chocolate ice cream gets the nod for dessert, alongside Rigoberto's burritos with carne asada fries for the entrée.

Supported by her sister and her parents, Marilynne and Jeff, she bears the following thought in mind: "As long as you keep trying, you can never do anything wrong."

That indicates a willingness to take risks, and freedom from the scars that can come from risking and failing. "If you're playing and you make some mistakes," Harmeyer elaborates, "but you're always putting in effort, no one can get mad at you because you're trying."

La Jolla High's girls basketball team opens its season at home Saturday evening, Nov. 29, against Imperial High at 7:30 p.m.


Copyright 2014 Ed Piper