For those who know Brooklynn Haywood, the junior point guard is a name on the girls basketball scene.
For those who know her better than others, and perhaps those who don’t know her outside of basketball, she owns a black belt in karate and can belt out a Jonas Brothers hit as her go-to karaoke tune.
“I’m always so straight faced and don’t really have an emotion on the court other than when my teammates make a play,” Haywood said. “I don’t let anything bother me, but off the court, I’m just loud and singing and dancing all the time.”
For the record, Haywood, Union High’s standout point guard, makes noise on the hardwood, too. She recently surpassed 1,500 career points behind three straight 40-plus-point efforts to close out December. Union is 10-1 entering 4A Greater St. Helens League play next week.
Haywood’s dedication, discipline and determination in basketball dates back years before the sport became a best friend. At age 10, she earned her black belt. But basketball quickly became her full-time focus.
Originally from Alaska, the Haywoods — including her parents, Mark and Jennifer — relocated to Clark County in 2021 so their daughter could pursue more basketball opportunities. It came after meeting Prairie High graduate and local basketball trainer Matt Conboy at a Las Vegas camp. Haywood now trains with Conboy, also her godfather, regularly.
Her junior campaign 11 games in — averaging 35 points, eight rebounds and five assists per game — has Union coach Gary Mills searching for the words to describe what he’s seeing. Because the most skilled player he’s ever coached has taken her game to another level, he said, from a more-developed mid-range game to knowing how best to be effective on the floor.
Mills first became a high school head coach in 2004 at Evergreen, his alma mater, and few players he’s coached have as high of a basketball IQ as Haywood.
“And what she has to go with is the mindset of an assassin,” Mills said. “She feels like she can make a shot at any time, and that confidence is there almost all the time that she can do something great.
“A smart basketball player knows when it’s their time to go and their time to shine, and then they also know when they need to get their teammates involved.”
So far, what’s been off the charts is efficiency. Haywood is shooting 46 percent from 3-point range on a team that’s on pace to shatter the program’s 3-point shooting percentage team record.
A big spring and summer with CalStars Basketball on the Nike EYBL circuit raised Haywood’s already high stock on a national scale. Playing alongside current high school seniors like Jazzy Davidson (USC commit) and Addie Deal (Iowa) as club teammates broadened Haywood’s game and strengthened her leadership qualities entering her junior season, she said.
Currently, Haywood is the No. 24-ranked player nationally in the Class of 2026 by ESPN HoopGurlz and holds more than two dozen scholarship offers from NCAA Division I schools.
But rankings aren’t the only place where her name is visible. Haywood has 55,000-plus Instagram followers on a basketball-centric account run by her father, and that exposure launched opportunities in the new world of name, image and likeness (NIL) for high school athletes. Most notably, she has a partnership with Invisalign, a teeth-straightening alternative to traditional braces. The package includes $5,000, plus no-cost treatment benefits.
Most state associations allow high school athletes to monetize their brand without losing amateur eligibility. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association permits NIL activities unaffiliated with a school team, school, WIAA district or WIAA.
As grateful as Haywood is for NIL opportunities, she lets adults focus on the behind-the-scenes business side so her focus can be elsewhere: maintaining her 4.0 grade-point average and pushing forward on a goal-driven basketball mindset.
“I just try to live as much of a normal life as I can — just be a teenager,” Haywood said. “I just hoop and have fun.”
So far, it has, and tested Union in big ways through 11 games. The Titans took top-ranked Davis of Yakima to overtime before a 74-73 loss on Dec. 19 behind 42 points by Haywood. Then, they rallied back from an 8-point halftime deficit to top Ida B. Wells of Portland on Dec. 30 to win their bracket at the POA Holiday Classic.
No Union team under Mills is off to as good of a start through 11 games like this year’s Titans, who don’t have a player taller than 5-foot-9 on the roster. Outside shooting is a team strength; the entire starting lineup is shooting 33 percent or better from 3-point range.
Senior guard Carli Christensen, a friend and teammate of Haywood’s for three years, said a teammate like Haywood elevates others in multiple ways.
“It brings up the whole team to a new competitive level,” Christensen said. “Having a player like that sets a new standard.”
And a new standard the Titans want to achieve ends in March. Union’s last state tournament appearance came in 2020 when the program placed fifth in Class 4A for its first state trophy. The Titans’ season the past three years ended at bi-districts.
“We all have that same mindset,” Haywood said about reaching state, “and so all of us are going after the same goal. That has helped us come together as a team, win games and be on the same page. All the things you need to be a great team — and not a good team — is what we’re trying to get to.”
