Bellefonte boys basketball standout Blair Eckley-Jones’ success all about teamwork, versatility
Bellefonte senior forward Blair Eckley-Jones is calm and reserved when he speaks about his past three seasons with the Red Raiders varsity basketball team.
But when he takes the floor, he changes. His facial expressions are more animated, he gives teammates high-fives and hugs on the sideline and on the court.
It’s a journey that they’ve been on together for years.
“I’ve been playing with these kids since the third grade,” Eckley-Jones said of his team. “We knew what we wanted and we were shooting for coming into the season — to win a league and district title, the first one here. We’re going to just keep going for that goal.”
Renae Eckley has seen her son grow on the court in every way possible. From taking him to Amateur Athletic Union events, where he played with Duke commit and the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2023, Dereck Lively, along with Penns Valley star Zach Braucht, to building his own reputation as a star basketball player, Eckley knew that her son was special.
“It’s been a long haul and he’s shown signs of having talent at a young age,” Eckley said. “He’s always been able to see the floor, and coaches have always called him a really coachable kid. I just watched that progress over the years and he’s gotten better and filled different spots from point guard to center. He’s just really grown in that way.”
His growth in the game
Eckley-Jones’ roots in Bellefonte were long cemented before he was born, with his mother also attending Bellefonte Area High School. He was born in State College and lived there until before he was in kindergarten, and then he moved to Bellefonte.
He grew up as an ultra-competitive child, playing baseball, basketball and football for a number of years. He was an all-star in his recreational baseball league, before dropping the sport prior to his ninth grade year to focus on football and basketball. Then, the future basketball standout decided that he’d put all of his energy into that sport beginning in 10th grade.
He began his career as a guard — developing a game where he had to be a skilled ballhandler and distributor of the ball. As time went on, Eckley-Jones grew to 6-foot-4. Bellefonte head coach Rick Hall moved him to the post, where the forward went on to dominate smaller players who attempted to guard him and larger players who were less agile.
“I became really good in the post,” Eckley-Jones said. “At first, I was a small guard and then I just really started to develop my post game. It’s started to work out and I’m playing better because of it.”
In his sophomore season — his first year of varsity basketball — Eckley-Jones broke his foot and felt that his confidence was down. In the 2019-2020 season, his team finished with an 8-14 overall record and a 3-11 record in Mountain League play.
The following season, the Red Raiders went 7-12 and held a 3-9 record in conference play. While his team was down, he quietly built his confidence and improved on his play — scoring 13.9 points a game and grabbing 3.4 rebounds per game — leading the team in each category.
Finishing off strong
Fast forward to this year, Eckley-Jones is the focal point of Bellefonte’s offense. As a two-time Centre Daily Times Athlete of the Week selection this season for Jan. 10-15 and Jan. 31-Feb. 5, the senior forward had 52 and 30 points in each week, respectively. His team is also 18-4 in the regular season and holds a 10-4 Mountain League record.
Part of what makes Eckley-Jones such a tough person to play against is his positive effect on the rest of his teammates. When he’s given the ball in the post, teams collapse down onto him. Eckley-Jones will either find an open man for the shot, or the ball will be passed around a few more times for another shot.
That was on full display in Bellefonte’s 59-42 victory against Tyrone on Feb. 8. Eckley-Jones got off to a slow start, but his passing ability allowed for teammates Ty Kroell and Alex Ebeling to drill 3-pointers to open up the game. With players leaking out to guard Kroell and Ebeling, Eckley-Jones got to work — scoring 16 points in the victory.
“Everybody is starting to double-team Blair,” Hall said. “We’ve got to go from a good shot to a great shot. Some of those passes — sometimes we look like a pretty damn good team and then we go three minutes, then we don’t. If we go from a good shot to a great shot, then our offense really works.”
The hope for the Bellefonte forward is to head to college and continue his career. He has aspirations of eventually playing pro basketball, but for now his major focus is on his schoolwork. His mother calls him “a natural” in the classroom and she hopes that both his playing and school career can propel him into a collegiate opportunity that will benefit him for a lifetime.
“We hope that he gets a lot of exposure from this year,” Eckley said. “He has some schools and some offers and I think what we’re going to do is look at all of the offers, see where he wants to go, what he wants to study, what coaches and programs he likes. I guess he’ll make a decision around May and get accepted to wherever he wants to go.”
Bellefonte is set to play in the District 6 5A tournament as the No. 1 seed. The Red Raiders’ first opponent is No. 4 Hollidaysburg in a home matchup at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Following his team’s District 6 playoff run, Eckley-Jones has one final chance to cement himself as one of Bellefonte best boys basketball players with a strong performance in the upcoming Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association playoffs.
