Jamestown natives Jenna Stockwell, right, and Bryan Hodgson, left, are pictured after Alabama won the men’s SEC Tournament championship Sunday. Stockwell, a 2021 Jamestown High School graduate, is second-year manager for the Crimson Tide, specializing in analytics. Hodgson is an assistant coach. Submitted photo

It’s March 2011 and the Buffalo State Sports Arena is nearly empty — except for the Jamestown boys basketball team, which is stationed at one end of the court.

Surrounded by coaches, support staff and fans, the players smile as camera shutters work overtime to capture their elation after knocking off Niagara Falls in the Section VI Class AA championship game.

Among the folks in the sea of humanity is 7-year-old Jenna Stockwell, daughter of Marty and Beth, who has spent countless hours at the gym with her dad, the assistant varsity coach. Basketball is so much a part of her life, in fact, that Jenna literally took her first steps as a toddler on the hardwood at McElrath Gymnasium back home.

But what she can’t possibly know as she sits just feet away from Red Raiders’ star Jaysean Paige — one of her favorites — is that memorable moments on the hardwood will become the rule rather than the exception as she grows older.

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When the University of Alabama knocked off Texas A&M in the Southeastern Conference championship game last weekend, it helped secure the top seed in the NCAA Tournament, which begins this week. For the Crimson Tide (29-5), who also finished No. 1 in the regular-season rankings, the title was their second in the last three years under Coach Nate Oats.

One of the people who has had a front-row seat to it all in 2022-23 is Jenna. A junior at the University of Alabama, the 2021 Jamestown High School graduate is a second-year manager on the team, specializing in analytics. She is the second JHS alum in the program, joining assistant coach Bryan Hodgson (Class of 2005).

“Every summer they have tryouts and, from what I’ve heard, there’s probably about 20 or 30 people who try out to do it,” Jenna said Tuesday afternoon from the Tuscaloosa campus. “We have 20 managers and of our 20 managers we have right now, only four of us actually get to do the analytics stuff.

“They call our group ‘Bama-lytics,'” Jenna added. “We’re basically the crew that does all the cutting (of the video) and the analytics during the game. … At halftime, we give Coach (Oats) reports, and postgame we give him reports. … You have to be able to keep up with the pace of the game and stay on track. After you do it enough times, there’s less pressure. It’s fun.”

What makes Jenna’s role even more impressive is that she is something of a trailblazer.

“The only other female in our program is our nutritionist,” she said.

It’s clear that the 19-year-old has made an impact on the right people.

“Jenna has been an unbelievable asset to our program,” Hodgson said via text message Tuesday as the Crimson Tide prepared for their first-round game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday in Birmingham, Alabama. “She’s been around basketball her whole life. Her knowledge of the game, as well as her math background, has been great for us and our analytics team.”

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Following Alabama’s win over Texas A&M last Saturday that secured the Crimson Tide’s conference championship, Hodgson — acknowledged throughout college basketball as one of the best recruiters in the country — climbed a ladder to cut a piece of the net from the rim. Ultimately, Jenna took her turn, too. That piece of nylon joins the one she trimmed following Alabama’s win over arch-rival Auburn that clinched the SEC regular-season title.

“(Auburn) was up the whole game,” Jenna said. “I thought we were done. Just to get it into overtime and eventually come out on top in front of our fans was a really cool experience.”

She hopes she’ll have more “cool” opportunities in the next few weeks as Alabama seeks to win a national championship. Should that happen, Jenna will have an opportunity to cut down more netting and maybe, just maybe, pose for a team photo just as she did years ago with the Red Raiders.

“She’s going to be a star in this business when she finishes school,” Hodgson said. “She thinks outside the box, has a great rapport with the players, and her work ethic matches her goals. Plus, she has that Jamestown, New York hustle about her that’s going to open a lot of doors.”

Jenna will graduate from Alabama following the 2024 fall semester. She hopes that will lead to a basketball analytics job.

But that’s down the road a bit.

Jenna’s 2023 March Madness journey begins Thursday in Birmingham, which is about an hour from the Alabama campus.

“I’m definitely excited,” she said.