A 6-foot-7 8th-grade girl gets 1st D-I basketball offer in CA
SAN JOSE, Calif. (BVM) 鈥� Jayla Forbes, an 8th-grade girls basketball player , has received her first Division I college hoops offer.聽
San Jos茅 State University Spartans women鈥檚 basketball offered Forbes in early May.
Very excited to have received an offer 馃弨 from San Jose State University in California!
— Jayla Forbes (@JaylaForbes2027)
To put this middle schooler鈥檚 height into perspective, she鈥檚 already taller than Aliyah Boston 鈥� the No. 1 overall pick from the 2023 WNBA Draft. Additionally, there are only four WNBA players on the 2022-23 rosters who are as tall and/or taller than Forbes (Bernadett Hatar, Han Xu, Teaira McCowan and Brittney Griner). Notably, Forbes herself might still be growing.聽
Forbes, 14, won鈥檛 graduate high school until the Class of 2027 rolls around. Next year, she鈥檒l attend in Alabama (Class 7A).聽
鈥淲e are so excited for Jayla receiving her first college offer to play basketball at the next level,鈥� 鈥淚t is amazing to see all of her hard work starting to pay off.鈥�
Forbes plays both power forward and center. According to , she averaged 6.4 points, 0.6 assists, 9.5 rebounds, 0.5 steals and 3.0 blocks per game as an 8th-grader. Highlights of Forbes often show her ability to shoot, touch the rim and block shots (shown below).聽
All Alabama would like to welcome Class of 2027 Jayla Forbes 6鈥�5 Post player out of Alabaster, AL she a huge upside can鈥檛 wait to see what the future holds for this one
— Dameion Hammonds (@CoachDHamm85)
FLICKS FROM THE SPOOKY NOOK can wait till 馃憖Lake Point鉂わ笍
馃摳 lebron king
— Jayla Forbes (@JaylaForbes2027)
Interestingly enough, she’s already had a taste of success with high school basketball. This past season, she had the opportunity to play up two classes (with high school sophomores).聽
Check out 2027 Jayla Forbes () out of Alabama. Standing 6鈥�7鈥� & playing up with the 2025鈥檚, she should be on everyone鈥檚 radar. A total stud!
馃憞馃徏
— E J 馃弨 (@EJayArrow)
Forbes may start racking in more D-I offers pretty soon. After all, she鈥檚 followed on Twitter by head women鈥檚 college basketball coaches Yolett McPhee-McCuin (Ole Miss), Kristy Curry (Alabama), Kim Barnes Arico (Michigan), Amy Williams (Nebraska), Krista Gerlich (Texas Tech), Nicki Collen (Baylor), as well as associate head coach Karen Blair (Mayland).聽聽
She鈥檚 also followed by assistant coaches Raina Harmon (Iowa), Samantha Williams (Tennessee), Ketara Chapel (Auburn), Jennifer Hoover (Kentucky), Itoro Coleman (UNC) and Shay Robinson (Louisville).聽聽
Here are the rules for recruiting that are specific to young basketball players, according to :听听
鈥淚f the coach is truly interested in that recruit, they can extend a verbal scholarship offer. A verbal offer is a non-legally binding scholarship offer, and college coaches can extend verbal offers to a recruit of any age. It鈥檚 essentially a way for the coach to say, 鈥業鈥檓 reserving a spot on my team for you.鈥� However, because verbal offers aren鈥檛 legally binding, coaches鈥攁nd athletes鈥攃an back out of them at any point.鈥�
The future looks bright for Forbes, who according to , has been “professionally trained” since she was 6 years old.聽
