Jayden Hackett is a man of his word.
Every day since his mother, Jayne, died four days before Thanksgiving in 2020, the former Bay Port basketball standout made a promise to her that he would earn an NCAA Division I scholarship.
The journey has not always been easy. He wasn’t recruited by any of those schools during his prep career. He took a year off after high school and worked at Walmart. His grades in the classroom didn’t always match his output on the basketball court.
He spent the past two seasons at the National Junior College Athletic Division II level, first at Delta College in Michigan and then at Milwaukee Area Technical College, working on his game and doing all he could to prove he had DI value.
Promise made. Promise kept.
Hackett has signed with Central Michigan, a DI school in Mount Pleasant, picking the school over a handful of other offers.
Both longtime Bay Port boys basketball coach Nate Rykal and former longtime principal Mike Frieder believe Hackett is the first boys basketball player from the school to earn a DI scholarship.
“Just looking back on the journey and the sacrifices I had to take, it really is a special moment for me,” Hackett said.
Jayden Hackett shines in NJCAA
The path to the highest level of collegiate basketball was made even more realistic after a dominant sophomore season at MATC for the 6-foot-6 guard.
Hackett was the Region 4 Midwest District A player of the year in 2025-26 and became the second player in program history to be named an NJCAA DII first-team All-American.
He also joined former University of Wisconsin-Green Bay commit Shelton Williams-Dryden and Mason Johnson as the only three in MATC history to be selected to the NJCAA All-Star Weekend, which will take place May 8-9 in Las Vegas.
And why not?
Hackett averaged 17.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 52.2% overall, 44.3% from 3 and 81.5% from the line.
He scored double figures in 32 of 36 games and topped the 20-point mark 14 times for a team that went 31-5 and reached the Elite Eight.
Hackett took his game to another level after a promising freshman season at Delta in 2024-25, when he averaged 16.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and shot 49.3%.
He will now take the biggest jump of his career.
“It’s definitely going to be an adjustment with the competition,” Hackett said. “Obviously, it’s way better competition in Division I compared to JUCO. Everyone is more complete and physically stronger, faster, more athletic. … But going back to the work ethic side of things, that’s what I do. I think I’ll be able to adjust accordingly and do whatever the coaching staff needs me to do over there.”
Hackett picked up other DI offers since the end of the season, including Charleston Southern and West Georgia University.
After being offered by Central Michigan on April 24, it did not take long for him to sign. He liked the coaching staff and the plans they have for him.
“It was just the hospitality I felt when I was on the visit,” Hackett said. “Right when I stepped on campus, it’s only about 45 minutes from Delta, so I’m very familiar with the area. Michigan also feels very similar to Wisconsin, just living here. They feel very similar.”
Former Bay Port guard Jayden Hackett grabs spotlight
Hackett just needed an opportunity to reach this point.
He averaged 16.8 points and 4.8 rebounds as a senior at Bay Port in 2022-23, helping lead the Pirates to a 17-8 record and being named second-team all-conference in the Fox River Classic.
Nobody seemed to notice him. At least the recruiters who mattered.
“Looking back, it was a little disappointing,” Hackett said. “I felt like I was underrecruited, especially in high school. But at the same time, looking back, maybe at the time I wasn’t good enough.
“I feel like I was still underrecruited, but Coach Rykal gave me the confidence to still allow me to play how I played. Going into college and still being underrecruited, that just gave me the chip on my shoulder to continue to work at it every day and stay disciplined and consistent with it.”
Hackett spent his first year of high school at Pulaski before transferring to Bay Port as a sophomore.
During that COVID-19 season in 2020-21, Hackett showed up at the Pirates’ gym unannounced. Rykal had no clue who the kid was when he walked into the door and signed up.
During his first practice on junior varsity, Hackett threw down a dunk during a live drill. Bay Port coach Jerome Allen texted Rykal that night to let him know this new guy was good.
Hackett ended up being one of Bay Port’s best players in his two seasons on varsity.
“He just continually works his rear end off,” Rykal said. “He’s always in the gym. Like, literally, always in the gym. He doesn’t do much else. He does his schoolwork and whatever he needs to do and eats and sleeps. Otherwise, he is a basketball junkie. He has been ever since I’ve known him.
“Always getting into the gym. Always asking to get into the gym. Him and [former teammate AJ Lieuwen] are two of the guys that always, always, were in the gym. Always wanting to use the shooting machine. Always, ‘Hey, Coach, can we do this, can we do that?’”
After taking a year off after high school, Hackett completely fell off the recruiting radar.
No schools contacted him. Instead, he reached out to every junior college in Wisconsin and all the bordering states. Coaches in Michigan heard from him. Illinois and Minnesota, too.
When he sent an email to Delta College, the coach emailed him back within 30 minutes.
It kicked off a relationship that continued to build and led to Hackett playing college basketball.
The time away from the game didn’t change his work ethic or belief in himself, although there were a few lonely nights when he’d find himself questioning what he was doing.
“I was just taking time to focus on myself, physically and mentally,” Hackett said. “I was going through a little rough part in my life, decided to step away from the sport that I have been playing my whole life. During that time, I was still training every single day.
“I think God had a plan for me, and just trusting in him is what kept the fire in my work ethic. Even though I had no schools recruiting me at that time, something kept telling me, ‘Keep pushing, keep going,’ even though I had zero looks.”
Coming through on a promise for Mom
Losing a parent, especially at such a young age, will forever be one of the hardest things Hackett goes through in his life.
He realized when he played basketball that it was an outlet to get his mind off everything else going on around him. All those times Rykal remembers his former pupil being in the gym, a big part of the reason was because it served as a nice distraction.
Whether Hackett even realized it at the time, it helped build a rock-solid work ethic, consistency and discipline to make him into a better player.
That DI promise he made to his mother looked like it would fall short after he graduated, but he never thought that way.
“I still knew, and felt in my heart, that I was going to fulfill and push myself to the max to fulfill that promise,” Hackett said. “It’s a hard thing you have to go through, but in the end, it ended up just bettering me as a person overall.”
A mother is always going to be biased toward her child, but Jayne really did have a strong belief in her son and his talents.
That’s one of the biggest reasons he made his promise to her, because of her unwavering support.
“I definitely think I’m making her proud,” Hackett said. “But at the end of the day, this isn’t the end. This is just the start.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Jayden Hackett earns Division I basketball scholarship to Central Michigan
Reporting by Scott Venci, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
