Full Circle: Jada Wynn’s Journey Back Home

There are times in your life when you really feel that things have come full circle, and for Jada Wynn, this season has been her full-circle moment.

This year, the 6-foot-1 senior guard returned home to Orange County to play her final collegiate season in front of her friends and family. One family member has also been on the sidelines for every game as her father, Derek, is in his fourth year as an assistant coach with the UC Irvine women’s basketball program.

Basketball has always been the family business for the Wynns. Jada’s parents were both assistant coaches at Pepperdine and USC before her mother, Jody, got her first head coaching job at Long Beach State. A decorated player in her own right, Jody was also a standout student-athlete at USC and Brea Olinda High School. 

“I started playing at a young age because I've been around basketball my whole life,” Jada said. “I was kind of born into the gym, but at the same time, my parents didn't want to force me to play basketball. My dad actually made me play every single sport you could think of; he made me try it all, but at the end of the day, basketball is what I ended up loving and what I wanted to do.”

While Jada was exposed to different sports early on, basketball became her passion, and her love of the sport only grew with time. Her parents’ roles as coaches helped that love grow as she was constantly surrounded by the game and the team environment.

“Every year I was around a new group of 15 girls who I looked up to,” Jada said. “I wanted to be around them all the time. I wanted to be in the gym, to be around those teams, and to one day be like them. That’s what inspired me the most when I realized that this can be a reality for me. It motivated me more to make that achievable for myself.”

All the time she spent in the gym from a young age paid off as she went on to star at Troy High School in Fullerton. She then made her way to the University of Colorado, where she played 32 games as a true freshman for the Buffs’ 2022 NCAA Sweet 16 team. Jada then transferred to Texas Tech for the next two years of her career. Entering the portal for her final collegiate season, this time Jada centered her decision on belief and an environment that could bring the best out of her, both on and off the court.

“Coming to UCI has been one of the best decisions I've ever made because I've been able to be coached by people that I trust and I believe in,” Jada said. “They also believe in me, and being back home played a huge part in me coming to UCI. The environment, day in and day out, is something that I don't take for granted.”

The trust and belief from her coaches on the court, along with the support she has in the stands, has been pivotal to her success this year. As an Anteater, Jada is averaging a career-high 15.0 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.7 steals per game. She was recently named the Big West Newcomer of the Year after ranking among the top-10 in the conference in scoring, rebounding, assists, free throw percentage, 3-pointers made, and 3-point field goal percentage. 

“Comfortability plays a huge part in confidence, which is something I've struggled with my whole career,” Jada said. “Having my family in the crowd at every game is something that I couldn’t have before and something that I'm not taking for granted at all. My 80-year-old grandma is in the stands almost every home game. From my grandparents to my sister to my little cousins, everybody's there supporting me. It’s just huge to be around that. It makes me feel so much more confident and relaxed. This is my senior year; all of the work I put in my whole life has led up to this moment. To be able to give back and play in front of the people that have poured support into me my whole life, that was my main goal this year - to bring joy to people who inspired me to play in the first place.”

While coming back home brought a sense of familiarity and comfort, Jada was still stepping into a new role at a new program. She had to make a few adjustments as she took on more responsibility as a leader and primary scorer at UC Irvine. She has put in the work to make that transition as smooth as possible, but it is also her teammates who have helped her grow this season.

“The three-point line is where I had been most comfortable, so having more of a role offensively, I’ve had to develop other parts of my game to be more than just a shooter,” Jada said. “Scoring in the paint has been huge, and creating my own shot instead of having others create for me has been a big adjustment and something that I really had to work on this year. To see someone like Hunter (Hernandez) on our team, who’s very talented at scoring in the mid-range, scoring off the dribble, and creating her own shot, I've learned so much from just watching her and playing with her every day. I think my teammates are amazing people who have brought me in and allowed me to take on more of a leadership role. The culture of this group is really good. They’re so selfless and play for the people around them. My teammates have made my senior year really enjoyable.”

Jada came to UC Irvine after the program graduated five players, all of whom were central to the most successful four-year stretch in program history where they went 90-38 with a Big West regular season and tournament championship. With those key losses, it would have been understandable if the ‘Eaters went through a rebuilding year, but instead they reloaded. Jada was one of five newcomers to join the Anteaters in 2025-26, and the camaraderie they developed with the returners has propelled them to new heights with their second Big West regular-season championship and a school-record 26 wins. Earlier this year, they also put together a program-best 16-game win streak. UCI will enter this week’s Credit Union 1 Big West Championship as the No. 1 seed.

“I feel like the girls are out there fighting for me and Hunter,” Jada said. “I’m really grateful to have a group of girls who are out there playing for me and I’m playing for them – [it shows] how much we want this collectively. It's something we talk about and that’s on the forefront of everybody's mind when we go out there every game. That’s part of the team culture - not only playing for yourself but playing for others, and playing for the people towards the end of their career who won't be able to have these opportunities in the future.”

Although this is her lone season as an Anteater, Jada has been connected to the program through her family’s ties to head coach Tamara Inoue and associate head coach Cecilia Russell-Nava. Inoue and Russell-Nava both coached under Mark Trakh at New Mexico State, while Jada’s parents were assistants for Trakh at Pepperdine and USC. Her connection to UCI grew even deeper when her father joined Inoue’s staff as an assistant coach in 2022. She was in the stands for a handful of games over the years, including when the Anteaters won the 2024 Big West Championship and punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. 

For assistant coach Derek Wynn, it wasn’t easy to miss so many of his daughter’s games through her first three seasons, but it has been a special and surreal moment to now be on the sidelines for her senior campaign.

“She’s been playing elsewhere the last three years, and I’ve only been able to get to see a handful of games each year, which was hard,” Derek said. “I was rushing to the TV to see her and now just to capture every moment has been amazing. One of the games that I did get to see in person was when we played at Texas Tech in 2023. It was the hardest game of my life because I was cheering for her but obviously wanted Irvine to do well. I was torn, but I don't have to be torn anymore. It's been awesome.”

Jada’s decision to come to UC Irvine for her final collegiate season has clearly made a huge impact on the team’s success. The regular-season championship and records broken will be etched in history. She can always look back and be proud of what she accomplished on the court, but the impact her coaches and teammates have had on her growth is also something she will never forget.

“There are not enough words to say how thankful I am to be in this environment, to be surrounded by this group of girls, and to learn from people like Coach T, Coach Cece, my dad, Coach Tyler, and Coach Lauren,” Jada said. “I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity and the trust and belief they've poured into me all season. What I will remember most this season is just how I've developed as a person, a leader, and a basketball player. I've been able to showcase all aspects of my game. I've been able to grow defensively and offensively, both in my scoring and playmaking abilities. When I do look back on this, I'm not going to have any regrets because I've been able to do everything that I said I wanted to.”