Texas Tech University Athletics
FEATURE: Jalynn Bristow and the West Texas mentality
June 27, 2024 | Women's Basketball
It was St. Patrick’s Day and eight-year-old Jalynn Bristow saw the bright yellow challenge sitting before her in a mall parking lot in Wichita Falls. An almost four-feet tall bollard stood there – just waiting to be cleared. It was evident she could jump over it because the 15-year-old boy did so just minutes ago. How hard could it be for her? She plays competitive basketball in the boy’s league already, so surely, she can scale the parking lot barrier just like the teenager did.
Her family, who just walked through the double doors of the mall, turned around looking for Jalynn only to find her mid-flight over the bollard. In her mind, she already won as she began to clear the yellow concrete pole. Jalynn could taste the victory on her tongue – showing up the boy, seven years her elder, with just one giant leap.
Except, she didn’t plan for one thing… The rubber band on her wrist hindering her triumph. The elastic got caught on the pole just as she went over, yanking her down to the ground face-first. Her chin hit the concrete with a force that split her skin open, blood gushing onto the ground.
Jalynn looked up in shock, making eye contact with her mother, Katrina, through the glass doors of the mall entrance. Her mom just shook her head and said, “Don’t even cry.”
So Jalynn didn’t.
“I wasn't allowed to cry. I didn't drop one tear and even my mom said I didn't cry,” Jalynn said. “My chin is just bleeding. There's a Mexican restaurant that my dad goes into and he brings me these salty chip napkins for my chin. But I did clear the pole though. I tell my mom to this day that I cleared it, but she's like, ‘It doesn't count.’ I can't be anywhere near them. We walk past one, and my mom will look at me still to this day and she’s like, ‘Don’t even think about it.’”
This is just one example of how Jalynn’s mother instilled mental toughness into her. Katrina was Jalynn’s basketball coach and trainer growing up, putting her on a girl’s basketball team her first year playing in her early elementary days.
“I hated it. I cried every game, and I didn’t have one point,” Jalynn said.
After that year, she transitioned to a boy’s basketball team where her hatred for the sport diminished just a little bit more. But, her mind was set on running around a pitch with her cousin, Ashlynn.
“I just wanted to play soccer. I wanted to be a pro soccer player. If I wasn’t going to play basketball, best believe I'll be on that soccer field running. Left forward because I'm left footed… Get me out there and I'm ready,” Jalynn added.
However, basketball started becoming a priority more and more as she got older, a credit to her mother’s teachings and her competitive brothers, Maverick, Keitenn, Silas and Eric. Jalynn, who is the oldest of her four siblings, grew up close in age with her brothers, so naturally, they did everything together and there was always some sort of competition brewing in the Bristow household and surrounding the neighborhood.
“Every day, from just racing to get into the car, to racing to the door, to who was going to be first to make ramen noodles… Whatever it is, we’re going to be competitive in it and we're all going try to win,” said Jalynn.
“We're always hitting each other, trying to beat each other up and trash talking one another. We would settle it playing basketball. No matter what it is, it's going to end in an argument. So, having that competitiveness 24/7 became a different type of bond between us, because then when we finally have time to chill, it's like, ‘Oh, we're actually nice,’” Jalynn added.
The sibling quintet has many childhood adventures that resulted in bumps, bruises and broken bones. But that never stopped them from having fun and forming their sibling bond on George Street.
Like one time, when the older siblings got together and unscrewed Eric’s training wheels off his bike teaching him how to ride until he finally got it down. But immediately after he learned, they forced him down a ramp in the backyard on his bicycle resulting in a lot of crying and scratches all over his body.
Then another time, Jalynn and her brother, Keitenn, decided to dress up as superheroes and jump on a mini trampoline in the backyard that was going to be thrown out. The two were jumping off of it, trying to land on the ground like Batman and Spiderman would – only they didn’t have the superhuman-healing powers like the two heroes above. Jalynn climbed to the top of the fence, diving in a push-up position onto the miniature trampoline that was only a foot off the ground. Trying to outdo her brother would end up breaking her arm in three places.
“I remember breaking it and I remember my mom not believing me either,” Jalynn said. “We waited until the morning to go anywhere. For the night, she put a scarf around me to make me feel better. She thought it was in my head.”
After playing a few years of basketball with the boys, Jalynn would then move on to middle school where she rejoined a girls’ team to better acclimate herself for seventh grade and on. Once Jalynn and her team got together, they would only lose one game total during their middle school dominance.
Then in high school, Jalynn and her cousin, Ashlynn, were tearing it up for the first three years, going really far in the playoffs before transferring down the road to Holliday High School their senior year.
“We won state that year, and I don't think I've ever been in a high school basketball gym with more fans than we had our senior season. It was crazy. You know how small towns get… I love it,” Jalynn said.
“I feel there's a different connection in Texas than there is everywhere else. Texans take pride in their teams and in everything we have. So having that here in Lubbock, you can already feel it with the coaches, already feel it with the girls. I just know that the fans are going to have our back ten toes down as well,” she added.
Being so close to home – three hours and nine minutes to be exact – Jalynn was embraced with welcome arms and a myriad of kind messages from her hometown friends and family after she posted her commitment to Texas Tech.
“They were so happy for me. When I finally posted about it, I just got so many messages. I know a lot of people have bought season tickets already. People are wanting shirts, wanting merch and they want Bristow jerseys and everything. So, whenever I got back home, I got so many messages like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I'm so happy you're close to home.” Now I know where everybody's grandmas live in Lubbock, because they all told me they were going to stay with them when they came down,” said Jalynn.
Her transfer to Tech was an easy decision after Coach Erik DeRoo bestowed her first offer coming out of high school while he was at Abilene Christian. Then, when Coach DeRoo moved to Lubbock to work with the coaching staff for the Lady Raiders, Jalynn felt that connection immediately, making it a difficult decision to choose between here and Iowa State, where she ended up playing her freshman season.
“This was one of the hardest schools… I waited to say I wasn't coming here and all that stuff because the connection that we all had was very strong and I loved talking to the staff and everybody. But then, getting right back on the phone after entering the transfer portal, it was like, yeah, our connection is right back where it was. It was just like we had a couple months pause on it, but we're right back to it,” Jalynn added.
Lady Raider fans are going to see an athletic player, who tries to resemble her game after former WNBA player, Candace Parker.
“The way she stretches the floor… We are kind of the same four build and everything. So, I think seeing her be able to take the ball down, be able to still shoot and still be very mobile, as well as her defense and being able to guard multiple positions… I just feel like we have a similar game,” Jalynn said.
From her mental toughness to her motivation, Jalynn plans to be the best on and off the court thanks to how she was raised and her competitiveness among her and her brothers, bringing a fire to the court every time she steps on it.
“I definitely got my motivation from my mom, with her being really tough on me and raising us kids and everything. She definitely has a mental toughness that, you know, only certain moms can have. So, she definitely instilled that in me as a kid,” Jalynn said.
“My mom put it in me to not be bothered. Because, being the only girl, she's like, ‘The boys are going to get bigger than you. They're going to be stronger than you at some point but have it in your head this isn't going to bother you.’ She always tells me every time we play basketball to walk in the gym and play like you're better than everyone in there – including your coaches, including the fans, including if the men's team is watching, just be the best one,” she added.
And that is what she will try to do each and every day in a Lady Raider uniform.
