\u00a0 \u00a0Sinclair\u2019s Javell Redwood isn\u2019t quite seven foot, but at 6\u201911 the sophomore is a valuable asset to the Tartan basketball program and a puzzling spectacle to those who are amongst average sized human beings.<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0A gentle giant, Redwood\u2019s towering frame can often overshadow his composed personality and laid back demeanor inherited from his home country\u2019s culture.<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0There were no scouts from anywhere pursuing him. Towards the end of his high school career, he began considering the possibility of quitting high school basketball. <\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cYou don\u2019t feel left out, coming here and knowing nobody is weird,\u201d Redwood said.<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0Redwood is healthy and able to play again but this unfortunate event caused him to lose all of his offers.<\/span> Jeff Allen<\/strong> Meet… \u00a0 \u00a0The seven footer has been a coveted commodity to the basketball realm for decades and an anomaly in civilization for centuries. \u00a0 \u00a0Sinclair\u2019s Javell Redwood isn\u2019t quite seven foot, but at 6\u201911 the sophomore is a valuable asset to the Tartan basketball program and a puzzling spectacle to those who are amongst average […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":23213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2114,2104,2110,2107,3],"tags":[1392,3086,3085,3084,822,1383,978,1419],"class_list":["post-23208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-entertainment","category-local","category-sports","category-tartan-news","tag-basketball","tag-jamaica","tag-javell-redwood","tag-jeff-allen","tag-sinclair-basketball","tag-sports","tag-tartan","tag-tartan-spotlight"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/IMG_1924-copy.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-62k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23218,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23208\/revisions\/23218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span> Why he\u2019s interesting\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n
\n<\/span> Redwood, born and raised in Jamaica, was part of a middle class, hard working family. He never remembers going hungry, but being far from living in lavish. He describes the primary motivations within the culture being simply family, money and education.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cBasically everyone is just trying to make money to survive and create better opportunities for their children,\u201d Redwood said. \u201cOnce you have money, you can go anywhere you want in life. Once you have money, your family\u2019s going to be okay.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0From an early age, he knew that he wanted more for himself and his family, as those values drove his motivation to pursue bigger opportunities. He watched his mother and father work very diligently, as his desire to prosper increased.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0Redwood didn\u2019t want to stay in Jamaica. As he began to grow, he slowly started to see basketball as a way out.<\/span>
\n<\/span> Sports wasn\u2019t often a priority in his country because of the economic state. But his size grabbed attention from his community as he grew up and garnered the nickname \u201cThe Mountain.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0Redwood began playing basketball through his junior year of high school after mainly playing cricket and got local attention, but he didn\u2019t initially produce the results he wanted to see. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/ball-basketball-basketball-court-1752757-300x196.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t going to get him financial gain, or any further opportunity, then he wanted to focus on something that would.<\/span>
\n<\/span> But just as he started to look elsewhere for the means of his future, he was discovered by a missionary from Hamilton, who contacted the Sinclair basketball program. <\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 In 2017, Redwood relocated to Ohio after accepting a scholarship offer to play basketball for the Tartans as all of his aspirations started coming to life.<\/span>
\n<\/span> \u201cI was just thinking, \u2018who doesn\u2019t want to go to America,\u2019\u201d Redwood said. \u201cThere\u2019s better education, and if I can get someone who pays for my school and all I have to do is play basketball, I\u2019m going to do it to the best of my ability until I can\u2019t anymore.\u201d<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 His transition to America these past two years has been quite easy due to his prior visits to New York for vacation and basketball oriented events. But he has noticed differences in the cultures like speech, values and all around personalities.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0It was also eased by the friendship of his fellow peer and teammate, Nicoloy Bailey, who played on the same high school team and grew up in the same town as Redwood. Bailey\u2019s presence definitely comforted him.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span> Dayton Daily News wrote a feature on the duo\u2019s arrival to campus last fall.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0Redwood\u2019s first year playing basketball was decent, showing many flashes of his athleticism and racking up offers. As he tried to adjust to the JUCO game, he was paced along only playing 10 minutes a game. But his per 30 minutes stat line was close to a double double.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0However, just as he was making major progress in his development as a player, Redwood caught a stomach virus that caused him to lose almost a hundred pounds. He had to sit out his second season while he was home getting treatment. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/athlete-ball-basketball-1451362-1-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/span> Redwood was able to attain a medical redshirt though and will receive an extra year of eligibility which means he\u2019s ready to fully display his skills and regain those offers.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0Most of them were Division 2 with some low D-1, but it\u2019s all the same to the young center who will go where he can to learn and achieve. After so much perseverance, Redwood cherishes any shot he gets.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cOnce you get an opportunity where I\u2019m from, my community, that may be the only way out,\u201d Redwood said.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0He has no car right now but stays at an apartment close to campus with a friend. His hobbies consist of hanging with a few of his closer friends he\u2019s made since coming to Sinclair, playing basketball and seeing his few family members that are in Ohio.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0Redwood works on campus doing various things, and they provide him with enough of a wage to keep busy sometimes, but he relishes the chance to indulge in his studies. <\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0He\u2019s majoring in liberal arts until he transfers. Then he wants to pursue business and marketing, and later maybe even seriously explore coaching.<\/span>
\n<\/span> Although he is a surefire D-2 big man prospect, he acknowledges the ultimate importance of an education and a degree.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cIf I break my ankle tomorrow, I\u2019m not going to be able to play, the only thing I could rely on is my education,\u201d Redwood said. \u201cIf I can go overseas and play, I\u2019ll take it. But if not, I have my education, a degree, and a job so I\u2019ll take that too. I\u2019m up for either one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Reporter<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"