Jade Fort has Hamilton High poised to make City title run
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As a freshman, Jade Fort helped her team win a section championship. As a senior, she hopes to do the same.
The Hamilton High girls’ basketball squad never has captured a title at the City Section’s highest level, but the Yankees are the favorites to win the Open Division championship, paced by Fort, a 5-foot-8 guard averaging 23.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 36% from three-point range.
Coach Sherland Chensam calls Fort “an all-around player whose athletic ability and skill allow her to score at any level.”
“From the three-point stripe to her midrange and inside game, she’s able to score with the best of them,” said Chensam, whose star player netted 30 and 26 points in a pair of wins over Western League archrival Westchester. “Jade’s improved greatly in her ability to compete in the midst of adversity. Her maturity this season has given her more of a leading voice on the court and the mindset to win at all costs.”
Hamilton is 18-2, ranked No. 1 in the City and No. 18 in California by MaxPreps and on an 11-game winning streak. The Yankees have eight wins against Southern Section opponents and three more versus teams from the San Diego Section. Fort has two goals: to win City and average 25 points per game.
“I started playing softball when I was 6 but I transitioned to basketball when I was around 10,” said Fort, who played club for Balboa Hills last summer. “I like that it’s a team sport, it’s fast, it’s exciting and there’s a lot of stuff to perfect like dribbling, passing and shooting. I like creating my own opportunities and trying to outsmart other teams. I like it when we have close games. The more I play, the more I learn.”
Now in her third season at Hamilton, she seems to enjoy a harmonious relationship with her coach and teammates.
“This generation of players has shifted greatly as the game’s continued to grow and evolve and the world continues to change,” Chensam said. “Jade’s a coachable player who’s learned through trial and error what it means to not only be a team player but a leader. She’s receptive to what I say and as the years have gone on we’ve built a greater understanding and appreciation for the game.”
Chensam, in her 10th season, believes this is her best team — at least on paper — with a varsity roster made up of 10 seniors and one sophomore. The Yankees hold victories over Windward, Oak Park, Mira Costa, West Torrance, Culver City, Ventura, Saugus and Redondo Union. The coach cites their biggest triumphs so far against Westchester and Palisades — teams Hamilton could face in the playoffs.
Chensam guided the school to the Division II crown in 2018 long before Fort arrived on the scene. The coach piloted the Yankees to back-to-back Open Division finals in 2020 and 2021, falling both times to Palisades.
“It’s the most closely bonded group of girls I’ve had thus far,” Chensam says. “We’re truly a family and Jade’s presence and fun-filled personality is a big part of that. The bond they all share can also be attributed to our on-court success.”
Hamilton boasts perhaps the best backcourt in the City with Fort and fellow senior Kinidi Curl, who scored a game-high 27 points in Friday’s 74-11 win at University. Both Fort and Curl were All-City first-team members as sophomores and juniors. The two played travel ball together at Paul George Elite the summer before their junior year.
“They complement each other well, they know each other’s strengths and they know how to find each other on the court,” Chensam said of her co-captains, who are “guarding” against senioritis and complacency, as most of the Yankees’ wins have been blowouts.
Curl said trust is the key: “We trust each other, we look for each other, we work well together. You can count on Jade to make all of her shots. We’ve played together since our sophomore year but we do have more weapons now and we’re trying to stay in the moment.”
Fort led Hamilton to second place behind Westchester one year ago and scored 20 points in a 66-58 loss to the Comets in the Open Division semifinals. In 2022-23, she and the Yankees took third in league and earned the top seed in Division I but were upset by fourth-seeded Sun Valley Poly in the semifinals.
Fort, who lives in the Mid-City neighborhood, began her prep career at Price. As a ninth-grader she was one of only seven players on a Knights squad that finished 16-3 under coach Jillian Smith and captured the Southern Section Division 5A championship. Fort recorded 37 points, nine rebounds and four steals in a first-round victory over Palo Verde in the Southern California Regional Division V playoffs and was named co-player of the year in the Southern Section along with senior teammate Kaziah Fletcher. She also earned All-State second-team accolades.
Fort transferred before her sophomore year because Price did not have enough players for the following season.
“I was looking to go to Santa Monica, but they were full so I was put on the waiting list, but Hamilton is actually my home school so I ended up here,” says Fort, who enjoys following the Golden State Warriors and the USC women’s team led by JuJu Watkins, who last season set a national record for scoring by a freshman with 920 points.
Fort has scored 20 or more points 15 times and 30 or more five times, including a season-best 36 in a tournament win against Scripps Ranch. Remarkably, despite her aggressiveness on the defensive end, she has not fouled out in 20 games.
“Jade’s dedicated to putting in the work and it shows in the numbers she’s putting on the board,” Chensam adds. “She’s gotten a couple of collegiate looks but her decision post-high-school graduation remains unknown.”
Maybe adding a City title to her résumé will raise Fort’s stock.
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