Houston’s Hunter Jefferson has channeled tragedy into strength

Hunter Jefferson’s mother, Amber, signed him up for basketball tryouts when he was a freshman, trying to inspire in him a shared passion for the game she experienced growing up.

Three days later, Amber Jefferson was dead, after she unexpectedly and unexplainably passed away in the car in the driveway of their home while going out to inspect road conditions one morning.

“He saw the car out there and thought maybe she needed help so he went out there to see and she was already gone but he didn’t know,” said his father Jake Jefferson, who was away for work at the time.

Three years have passed and Hunter is now a senior on the top-ranked 3A boys Houston basketball team as the 2022 Alaska State Tournament got underway Wednesday.

Hunter is determined to leave everything he has on the court every time he steps on it as he is dedicating his senior season to his mother who never got a chance to see him play in high school.

“When I started the season I told myself that I’m going to play every game for her,” Hunter said. “She talked about my senior year all the time and couldn’t wait to see what kind of player and man I would become.”

As the eldest of six children and given the nature of his father’s occupation operating guiding business Black River Hunting, Hunter didn’t really have a choice went it came to being a source of strength for his younger siblings.

“Because I work seasonally I’m gone quite a bit,” Jake Jefferson said. “Grandma and grandpa help out with the kids and stuff like that.”

His father said that Hunter went through the usual rebellious phases that typical teenagers go through.

“The rebellion and figuring out who you are as a young man when you don’t have a mom there, you lose half of your role model,” Jake said.

Despite the struggles and emotional trauma that came with the loss of his mother, Hunter’s father is amazed and immensely proud of how he has “stayed the course” on and off the court. In addition to being a key contributor on the basketball team, Hunter is taking and excelling in advanced placement classes and boasts an impressive 4.3 GPA.

“For what he’s been through, I wouldn’t ever expect him to be where he is,” Jake said. “You would give somebody leeway or cushion for having gone through something like that and tell them ‘If you’re going to struggle its OK given what you’ve dealt with, that’s perfectly acceptable.’ ”

On the court, Jefferson isn’t Houston’s leading scorer but he still averages double figures in points and rebounds. He is a powerful presence in the post and does a lot of the dirty work to help his fellow Hawks soar.

“He is surrounded by three point shooters and he can shoot,” Jake said. “I don’t win at P.I.G at home anymore but he is on a team where the guys with him are shooters so his role is more one where he is not really a scorer.”

The elder Jefferson believes the challenges of everyday life seem miniscule compared to living with the loss of a loved one which makes them easier to manage and overcome.

“When you’ve seen and gone through what he has gone through, some things just really aren’t that bad,” Jake said. “A ‘bad day’ really isn’t that bad. It’s temporary. Having experienced something to the magnitude he experienced it, now you can say to another day ‘This isn’t the worst I’ve seen.’ ”

While both of his parents coached until he was 7 years old, Jefferson said it was his mother who ignited his passion for basketball and kept pushing him to strive for greatness in the sport.

“There’s not a moment when she is not there,” Hunter said. “There were a couple games where I’d look to the stands to find her and sometimes those are downers but I know she’s watching and cheering for me.”

His mother was a stellar athlete in her heyday both at the high school and collegiate level. She was a four-time All Region, two-time NCCAA All-American and All-American Academic team during her time at Grace Christian University-Grand Rapids where she played for her father John Spooner and where she eventually met her husband.

In times of hardship and especially since he lost his mother, Jefferson has leaned heavily on his faith.

“Without God’s help I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Hunter said. “I’ve been through a lot of rough times since then, it hasn’t been and easy road but God has kept me through it.”

When his mother died, he questioned both his love for basketball and his faith because she was the one he leaned and was at the foundation of who he was as a player and person.

“That’s when I had to find my own sense of purpose and really try to figure out what basketball means to me and what does this game do for me and what can I get from it,” Hunter said.