According to the
National Center for Education Statistics, there were 1.5 million home-schooled children in 2007.
Jump forward to 2011 and the Maravich Award winner for the very best home school basketball player in the country was a freshman from
Homeschool Christian Youth Association (Houston) named
Justin Jackson, the youngest to ever receive the award.
Justin Jackson, HCYA
Photo by Fabian Radulescu
That summer Jackson became the first home-schooled athlete ever to make the USA Basketball Men's U16 team, helping the USA take home gold at the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championship. Jackson scored 13 points in the finals against Argentina.
In 2012, Jackson came back better and stronger then ever. Not only did he become the youngest player to be named the Sullivan Award winner (nation's highest home school basketball honor), but he also led his HCYA Warriors to HomeSchool Basketball's national championship crown when he and his Warriors defeated the
Oklahoma City Storm in the 2012 Gold Ball Showdown.
All of this was capped off by being named to the
MaxPreps Sophomore All-American Team.
There was no slowing down for Jackson during his junior season. The home school hoops phenom averaged more than 30 points per game in leading HCYA to a 37-11 record. Taking home the 2013 Jefferson Award, he also was named honorable mention on the
MaxPreps 2012-13 Junior All-American Team.
The 6-foot-7, 185-pound senior wing is ranked as the No. 9 overall recruit in his class according to
247Sports and announced before his senior season that he would be taking his lethal mid-range game to the campus of the North Carolina Tarheels alongside
Joel Berry and
Theo Pinson, both top 20 recruits and fellow
McDonald's All-Americans, to form the
3rd ranked recruiting class behind Kentucky and Duke.
HCYA went 30-13 overall during the 2013-14 season. Unlike in 2012, HCYA lost 93-86 in double overtime to the Oklahoma City Storm in what many are saying was the
greatest home-school basketball game ever.
