Jaelin Williams isn’t talkative on the basketball court. But ask him what he thinks about his role on the Shawnee basketball team or anything else, and he has a quick answer.

“It’s just fun to me,” Williams said of basketball. “It comes naturally.”

Yes, the answer might not be long, but it always sounds sincere and goes straight to the point.

Williams was the News-Sun Player of the Year last year as a junior after averaging 17.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 45.9 percent from the 3-point line. He didn’t expect to win the award, but he wasn’t surprised that he had a good season.

“I knew I was capable of doing it,” he said. “I just scored when I needed to score, and my teammates did a good job of putting me in position.”

For an encore, Williams wants to lead the Braves to a second straight Central Buckeye Conference Kenton Trail Division title. And for all that Williams did on the stat sheet, as a ball handler and as a defender, Braves coach Chris McGuire has one request.

“He says I’m too passive,” Williams said. “Like when I catch it down low he wants me to go score, and I pass it out too much. So I’ve got to work on being more aggressive when I get it.”

McGuire said, “I think he will be. He has been in some of the scrimmage stuff that we’ve done. He doesn’t seem like a kid that really is worried about what he gets.”

Two of Williams’ assets are his height — up about two inches to 6-foot-5 — and his long arms that allow him to shoot over defenders, grab rebounds, deflect passes and make steals. Even about his height Williams is honest.

“In the program I’m 6-5, so realistically probably 6-4,” he said.

Whatever his true height is, McGuire said Williams is being noticed by college coaches in NCAA Division II and III. He wants to play D-II, but he doesn’t have any offers yet.

“I don’t want to go too far away from home,” Williams said. “I’m kind of a momma’s boy.”

For now, Williams said he is focused on helping the Braves win the CBC and get past the second round of the sectionals.

“We want to get to UD, we want to get to districts and see what we can do,” he said.

The team that stopped the Braves in the sectional last year, fellow CBC member Bellefontaine, is on the Braves’ minds. The Chieftains beat the Braves 51-32 late in the regular season and 53-36 in sectionals.

“We don’t like it,” Williams said his team hears the name Bellefontaine. “We’ve got a bitter taste in our mouth. They were pretty good last year. They got the best of us twice.”

Williams said there is one opponent who can’t get the best of him — his older brother Justin. In 2009, Justin Williams was the Braves’ star player and the News-Sun Player of the Year.

“If he was still in shape … I don’t know,” Williams said.

Then he thought about it a little more:

“He’s a better athlete than me, but I think I’m more skilled. I think I’d get him.”