‘Just us’ motto guides Ja’Ron Jefferson to state title
Ja’Ron Jefferson’s sweatshirt illustrated his team’s motto.
The Putnam West girls basketball coach sported custom apparel as he stood on the sideline during the Class 6A state championship game, and his assistants matched. Each crew-neck sweatshirt was printed with a group photograph of the team members smiling while wearing their bright yellow uniforms.
Throughout the season, Jefferson motivated the Patriots with a two-word phrase: “Just us.”
The meaning?
“You don’t have to do everything yourself,” Jefferson said. “It’s a team aspect, and it’s just us. So if you lean on each other, then you’ll be fine.”
The third-year head coach used this strategy to manage tremendous expectations. Early in the season, Putnam West landed at No. 21 in ESPN’s SCNext rankings of high school girls basketball teams across the country.
Jefferson heard the hype. He also heard doubters.
To win a Class 6A state championship, Jefferson filtered out the noise and listened to the people close to him. He guided the Patriots to a 41-40 triumph over two-time defending state champion Edmond North for their first state title since 1981, securing his status as The Oklahoman’s 2024 Super 5 girls basketball Coach of the Year.
No other team defeated the Huskies all season. Jefferson and the Patriots (27-1) did it twice.
The day of the state finals, as his phone blew up with messages and fans filed into Lloyd Noble Center, Jefferson created a state of concentration.
“I isolated myself for a while just to be able to focus on what we came there to do,” Jefferson said. “Just going in like, ‘Hey, we don’t want to finish the way we did last year,’ so having that feeling and that desire to want to win, we were able to press through this time.”
In his first high school head coaching job, Jefferson brought Putnam West closer to a championship each year. Stillwater’s Cinderella run ended the Patriots’ season in the 2022 area tournament. In 2023, Putnam West made the state tournament but fell, 45-42, in the semifinals.
The opponent was Edmond North, led by 2023 Super 5 Coach of the Year Pete Papahronis.
As the Patriots progressed through this season, they simultaneously received recognition and flew under the radar. Along with their ESPN standing, they appeared at No. 1 in every edition of The Oklahoman’s Fab 10 rankings. Still, as fans made state predictions, many continued to favor Edmond North, the team chasing a three-peat.
Jefferson, a self-described “people pleaser,” sensed the pressure, but he didn’t feed into the conversations.
“At a certain point, you get tired of hearing about what you can’t do, and then you go show people what you can do,” Jefferson said.
He knew how to secure a state title. Before graduating from Midwest City in 2001, he won back-to-back championships with coaches Terry Evans and Rodney Dindy.
A common thread ran between the 2001 Bombers and the 2024 Patriots, and Jefferson designed it that way.
“Defensively, we were really good at Midwest City,” Jefferson said. “So, defense was our staple this season. Our girls did an excellent job on the defensive end, for the most part.”
The Patriots didn’t have to rely on one defensive specialist. At the state tournament, OU signee Caya Smith said she didn’t think anyone could handle her team’s defensive pressure for 32 minutes, and this was possible because of a synchronized effort.
With Ja’Ron Jefferson skillfully orchestrating everything, the stars collaborated to dismantle the top offenses in the state.
“The most special thing about this season, to me, was how much we learned,” Smith said.
The Patriots hit their stride at the Jenks-Union Invitational, where they toppled Edmond North, 47-45, for first place.
A low point followed. Only three days later, Edmond Santa Fe surprised the Patriots, who blew their first-half lead to suffer a 58-53 loss. It taught Jefferson’s team a valuable lesson.
“I think they were just riding that wave of, ‘ Hey, we beat the state champs,’” Jefferson said. “‘(Edmond Santa Fe is) not North, so we can just show up and win.’ That’s not how the game works.”
After that wake-up call, Putnam West never lost. In a rematch with Edmond Santa Fe, the Patriots emerged with a 57-35 victory.
At the state tournament, the Patriots elevated their game, holding Bixby to a 27.6 field-goal percentage in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Putnam West prevented Owasso from making a single field goal in the second quarter.
In the finals, Edmond North presented the biggest challenge yet, but sophomore guard Da’Nae Jefferson stepped up with the tying basket and the winning free throw with seconds expiring. It was a testament to the principles her father emphasized as her lifelong coach, and she reflected his will to win.
Ja’Ron Jefferson had sought the opportunity to lead a program for years. He started in the Putnam City school district as a bus driver before joining Davia Brock’s Putnam West staff as an assistant coach. After three seasons as head coach, he was the leader of a nationally ranked championship program.
Jefferson leapt onto OU’s court amid the postgame state title game scene, celebrating with the same vitality his players had. His team’s joyous facial expressions, the ones depicted on his sweatshirt, surrounded him in real life.
Jefferson said the moment sticks with him even as he prepares for his new job as Yukon’s boys basketball coach. Fans were cheering in the crowd, but on the court, the celebration belonged to Putnam West’s team.
No one had to say the motto for it to be clear.
Just us.