Alex Jarvholm has been on a tear for the LaGrange Academy boys basketball season. The junior started his season with a bang, scoring a career-high 40 points against Lafayette Christian last week.

“I didn’t even feel like I had scored much,” Jarvholm said. “You kind of mentally know when you are playing well, but I don’t keep track of how much I have. After the second and third you don’t really focus on that, you just got to do what you gotta do to win. But I looked at the stat sheet after the game and was a little surprised, I guess just shots kept falling.”

In the past couple of years, LaGrange Academy has asked a lot of Jarvholm. The team did not have the talent around him until this year. Kayde Bradfield, a transfer, and an influx of young players have allowed the Warriors to enjoy more success than in recent seasons.

“I love Kayde to death and we have some other new guys, so it took a little while to adjust, but we are starting to find a rhythm and play off each other,” Jarvholm said. 

The Warriors won just one game a season ago and went 6-11 during Jarvholm’s freshman season. This year, the Warriors are 4-4 and have won three straight games. It has been a relief for Jarvholm.

Jarvholm has been at the center of the turnaround. He is one of the team’s most experienced players and is a leader for the young squad. 

“When everyone’s down, you gotta bring them up,” Jarvholm said. “You gotta keep people focused on the game. Because there are so many times where people go off in their own little worlds, and you have to snap them back into reality.”

Basketball is a year-round hustle for Jarvholm. When he is not playing for the Warriors during the school season, he is playing travel ball or pick-up at the local rec center. He is often not far from a court for very long.

Jarvholm is in a constant pursuit to get better. It does not start or stop during the season, it’s something he carries with him well into the “offseason.”

“I’ve worked this whole summer, making tiny steps,” Jarvholm said. “Nobody sees all the work you do, but they do see the progress that comes along with the work.

“This summer I was working a lot on my ball handling and 3-pointer.”

When Javholm needs to decompress from basketball he plays tennis. He calls it his “getaway sport,” but he is one of the top tennis players in GIAA and is hoping to help guide the Warriors to a state championship this year.

“We have won the region I think four years in a row now, so we are hoping that we have all the pieces to win a state championship this year,” he said. “

LaGrange Academy is home to Jarvholm. The junior has been going to the school since the fifth grade and joined the elementary basketball team at LaGrange Academy that very same year.

The relationships he’s built, including with his head coach Britt Gaylor, have been built up over the years.

“I played for the elementary team, and then I went to the middle school team and then played up on the varsity team my eighth-grade year,” Jarvholm said. “It has been an amazing six years.

“Coach Gaylor has always had my back and I have a lot of people here and elsewhere that have been in my corner this entire time.”