Jared Jeffries helped lead Indiana to the 2002 Final Four and spent 11 seasons in the NBA. His daughter Eva had the height, the bloodlines, and the built-in path—and she walked away from all of it.
Eva Jeffries, a 6-foot-3 outside hitter at Sierra Canyon High School in Southern California, chose volleyball over basketball, and her father was the one who encouraged the pivot. "Basketball, you get hurt—fingers, ankles," Jared said. "I didn't want to do all that." What he didn't anticipate was just how quickly his daughter would take to a sport he knew almost nothing about.
The early days were rough. Jared recalls a teenager who was "all arms and legs going everywhere," and Eva herself admits she had to rebuild her athleticism from the ground up—working through a goofy-footed approach to her vertical jump before finding her stride. "I got in the gym and trained," she said. "That made me how I am right now."
Sierra Canyon head coach Stephanie Wigfall has coached Eva since middle school and has watched that transformation up close. "She has worked so hard at being an all-around player," Wigfall said. "Tall, great hitter—but she works on her entire craft. If there's a skill she needs to work on, she works twice as hard." Wigfall added that Eva could have played setter, and that her attention to detail has made her a better coach as well.
Eva plays on a Sierra Canyon roster loaded with Division I recruits, and she is among the most coveted prospects in her class. Her father made one last attempt to influence her decision—nudging her toward Bloomington and Indiana—but Eva committed to the University of Tennessee. "Seeing the campus got me really excited to be there," she said.
Jared, for his part, has made peace with being outmaneuvered twice. "She didn't go to Indiana. I tried," he said. "But she's excelled in so many ways—scholastic, athletic, social. She does a good job staying level. That makes me proud."
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