CENTREVILLE &045; It was certainly worth a double-take watching Jenae Jackson stroll through the New Orleans setting.

With the NCAA Women’s Final Four calling the Big Easy its home next week, the Centreville Academy standout stood in the center of the French Quarter, albeit 120 miles north of the Crescent City.

It had been more than a month since Jenae had walked across the school’s gymnasium floor and with last-minute preparations for Saturday’s New Orleans-themed prom in full force, it hardly resembled the venue where the 2004 All-Metro Player of the Year dominated.

&uot;It feels different; it doesn’t feel like the gym,&uot; said Jenae, who averaged 19 points, six rebounds and two blocks per game in 2003-04. &uot;It seems like basketball has been over for quite a while.&uot;

That is the high school chapter is completed. What remaining pages the 6-0 post has to write is yet unseen.

We can tell you that Jenae, the Mississippi Private School Association District 4-AA co-MVP and an All-Star selection, is off to Southern Miss next fall.

The Hattiesburg campus wasn’t a place the bubbly teenager thought she’d call home several years ago, simply because Jenae never thought about the game in those terms.

&uot;I liked playing basketball because it was fun. I never thought about scholarships,&uot; she said. &uot;When I did, it was like, ‘Wow.’ (Basketball) never became a job for me. It was always fun.&uot;

The recruiting process surprised Jenae’s parents, Kenny and Jenny, as well. Themselves, Southern Miss graduates, the pair thought the most interested their daughter could stir would come from Division II colleges, such as in-state institutions Millsaps and Mississippi College.

But after Jenae participated in the Southern Miss women’s basketball camp last year, the Lady Eagles offered a scholarship and said Jenae had been on their radar for quite some time.

Kenny and Jenny loved at how well-organized the camp was, with players moving from station to station without &uot;a glitch in two days,&uot; Kenny said.

And when the threesome took Jenae on her official visit last fall, &uot;It was like going home,&uot; said Jenny, who was in awe of how much the campus had grown &045; a fact seemingly trivial to Jenae.

Jenae has already begun the countdown for college life, anxiously awaiting the early morning, summer weightlifting sessions.

She said those mornings have typically been reserved for a 9 a.m. wakeup call, but never being a couch potato for too long.

&uot;I don’t like to just sit around. I usually walk in the morning,&uot; Jenae said.

While filled with traditional summer activities, such as travel and vacations, Jenae’s summers haven’t been laid back since she first participate in Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) after her eighth grade year.

Kenny created that first team made up of local players, but by the time she was approaching her sophomore year, Jenae had moved on to play for the Southern Flames, an AAU squad from Jackson.

The following year she played for the Baton Rouge Tigers, coached by Robert Dallimore, who led Christian Life Academy to the Class 2A title this year. The team dripped with Division I talent, such as Quianna Chaney, an LSU commitment and two-time reigning Class 1A player of the year at Baton Rouge’s Southern Lab.

&uot;She never once complained about the practices,&uot; Jenny said. &uot;She loves basketball. She never once got down on herself. We knew she’d develop as a player and that was the perfect spot for her to do that.&uot;

Months prior to her senior year beginning, Jenae joined another Jackson-based team, the Southern Belles.

Dot Murphy, who remains the nation’s only woman college football coach at Hinds Community College, where she helps with receivers, served as the Belles head coach.

The long drives to and fro’ Jackson and Baton Rouge gave daughter and parents plenty of time to talk, although Kenny admits Jenae would often dose off the minute the tires hit the pavement creating a rhythmic lullaby.

&uot;I got to play with the best of the best,&uot; Jenae remembered. &uot;It definitely made me a better player. It taught me how much fun basketball really can be and the importance of being a family.&uot;

Those lessons were especially important during this season, where Jenae became the primary target of opponents’ zone defenses.

The Lady Tigers had just two players returning with experience (Jenae and Kelly Simpson), and head coach Penny Sawyer believes Jenae could have been more productive than she already was with a veteran cast surrounding her.

As unselfish a ball player as you’ll find, Sawyer and Kenny both stressed to Jenae that she had to develop a nasty streak,

create her own shots and score at will.

&uot;I told her one time, ‘If you don’t get mean on the court, (Southern Miss will) not play you on their court,&uot; Sawyer said. &uot;I think she shares too much. She’ll get over that.&uot;

Jenae embodied her quick maturation during her final game as a Lady Tiger &045; a 20-point loss to Simpson Academy. Already battling the underdog label, Centreville was nowhere near the Lady Cougars’ league. Yet, that didn’t stop Jenae, who clawed for every one of her 26 points.

&uot;I enjoyed knowing I had teams’ respect,&uot; she said. &uot;It made it hard when there were three people on you every time. But that’s when you have to rely on other teammates. We didn’t have any height, didn’t have a lot of great shooters, so it was my job to score.&uot;

While she might not be the threat next year at USM that she has been the past three years at Centreville, Jenae would do good to follow the example last year’s All-Metro Player of the Year.

Former Ferriday, La., standout Monique Jones has played a vital role as a contributor off the bench for Baylor, who needs two wins to make it to New Orleans next week.

&uot;Most people don’t think we can play&uot; in private schools, Jenae said. &uot;I’m starting over in kind of a different way because I’m going from being a leader on a team to now going in as a baby.&uot;