Maximizing his Potential
Written by Justin Jarrett | Photographed by Rob Kaufman
Since he first picked up a basketball and shortly after was tossed a football, Jaylin Linder has been That Guy. You know, the one who catches your eye in pregame warmups and makes you go, “Who’s that guy?”
In the past year he has developed into The Man.
Motivated to make the most of his opportunities following the sudden death of his cousin and lifelong friend, D.J. Fields and spurred on by a fiery new football coach at Bluffton High School, Linder had a breakout senior year on the football field and starred on the basketball court for the Bobcats this winter. He will continue his promising football career as a wide receiver at South Carolina State next fall.
But first, the unfinished business of claiming an elusive state title: his last shot is in May at the South Carolina High School League Track & Field Championships, where he was the Class 4A runner-up in the long jump a year ago.
“Since I made second at state, I have to come back hungrier and get my speed up so I’m ready for college,” he said.
The goal to continue to stay motivated is spurred by the loss of his best friend.
Linder was out of town on March 5, 2021, so like many people who knew D.J. Fields, he had a hard time believing the news he was hearing.
His cousin, best friend and teammate since they were toddlers was gone. Just like that. The victim of a drive-by shooting and a tragic case of mistaken identity. Two more of his best friends were in the car with D.J. and were injured in the shooting and ensuing crash. If Linder had been in town, he very likely would have been in the car with them.
“I was devastated. It still felt like a dream,” Linder recalls. “Ever since then, it was like, all right, we have to come as one, and we have to do this for him. Because he was like a brother to everyone, no matter who you were. He was a brother that we all looked up to.”
The pain and loss unlocked something in Linder, and he says he wasn’t alone.
“Not just me, like everyone wanted everything more,” he says. “It made us hungrier to get to the next level of everything that we do.”
‘I needed to be that guy’
Despite an imposing physical presence and impressive athleticism, Linder’s impact was limited during his junior season in large part due to a rash of drops that turned potential game-changing touchdowns into momentum-crushing incompletions. Then he and his teammates languished through a difficult basketball season, going winless in region play.
But when new Bluffton football coach Hayden Gregory came to town — actually, before he even got here — everything changed. Gregory called Linder when he found out he was going to be coaching the Bobcats and spent about an hour on the phone trying to convince his new star receiver how good he could be.
“That’s when I really noticed I had to step up,” Linder says. “There were going to be shoes to fill, and I needed to be that guy.”
Gregory explained in no uncertain terms that the team would be built around Linder and fellow senior Camauri Simmons, who will play at Navy in the fall, and let him know the rest of the team would be counting on him.
“That put a lot of pressure,” Linder recalls. “I was like, all right, I have to help my team get there. I’m gonna have to do a lot of work, like, no plays off. Because if I take a play off, that’s letting them down, and it’s something that can change the momentum.”
Gregory and assistant Jared Carkuff put a renewed emphasis on the weight room and impressed upon Linder that his size — he’s now listed at 6-foot-5 and 185 pounds — was his greatest asset and helped him perfect using it to his advantage.
They also encouraged him to return to the track team for the first time since middle school, primarily to hone his speed and explosiveness. He wound up finishing second in the state with a long jump of 21 feet, 11.7 inches — and the champion and third-place finisher were seniors.
It has been a long time since someone doubted Linder’s athletic ability. It’s no coincidence he had a basketball in his hands at an early age and joined the Bluffton Bulldogs football team at the coaxing of his uncle, Dwon Fields, D.J.’s father.
But it wasn’t until he made the decision to maximize his potential that he morphed from That Guy into The Man.
Linder says he is grateful for all the coaches and mentors who helped him along the way, and he’s motivated to finish his high school career with a bang before rejoining former Bobcats teammates Rakim White and Kylan Simmons at S.C. State, where he expects to compete for a starting role as a freshman.
Regardless of whether he secures that gold medal this spring or that starting spot next fall, Linder now knows the process is more important than the result, because his race is only now beginning.
