On the basketball court, Taylor Olson is like juggler.

Bouncing the ball with either hand, he uses the other to point his teammates to holes in the defense. He looks first for others cutting to the basket for a layup or a kick-out to the corner for an open three.

If his defender is screened, he'll drive down the lane himself. Or stop and pop. Always looking ahead, his eyes toward the goal, he rarely loses the ball or makes a wrong move.

"Playing point guard, I sort of set the tempo for our team," says Olson, 18, the versatile senior leader of the Jefferson boys who play for a state tournament berth Tuesday night against Cedar Falls. "And I try to hold the team together, to keep everybody calm. If someone gets down to pick them up. I've always been that way."

Off the court, too.

"Taylor is such a good kid," says his aunt Melissa Olson. "He thinks of others before he thinks of himself. I'm pretty prejudiced, I know, but he's one of those kids that makes everyone else around him a better person."

She was her nephew's first basketball coach. A player herself at Prairie High School, Melissa remembers being at Waterloo West when big sister Stephanie was in the hospital to have her first son.

"I rushed back to Cedar Rapids and took him a little basketball," she says, "so it would be the first thing he touched. It was my dream that he be a basketball player."

When his little brother Jacob was born two years later, the game became his destiny, too. He's now a sophomore on the J-Hawk varsity who sees considerable playing time, sometimes the first one off the bench and usually taking over as point guard.

Melissa took both of them to the Stoney Point YMCA when they were little boys and was their coach on the AAU youth league team. She still goes to the gym with them to work on rebounding.

"Without kids of my own, they're like my sons," she says.

Without a father in the house, Stephanie Olson says raising two boys while she's always worked full-time as a bank mortgage specialist has been a family affair. Besides her sister, her parents Larry and Jan Olson of Atkins have always been involved.

"We're all very close," says Taylor. "I couldn't have asked for any more support growing up."

But his mother says that from an early age, her older son has taken care of others, as well.

"When the boys were out playing around Harrison (Elementary), Taylor made sure all the little kids got to play. Really, he's always been wise beyond his years. Very level-headed. Very caring. I think that's kind of unusual for a teenager."

And he's a role model.

"I've always looked up to him," says Jacob, 16, his spitting image on and off the basketball court. "He's always been there to help me. He's never let me down.

"And he's very, very smart. He helps me with my school work."

With a 3.8 grade point average and a schedule that is packed with advanced placement classes, Taylor has his sights set on becoming an engineer. Calculus is his favorite subject.

He doesn't know where he's going to college yet, although he's almost certain to earn scholarships both for basketball and academics.

"I'm wide open right now," he says. "I'm just focusing on high school. I've had a great four years at Jefferson. It's a great school. I've had really good coaches and teachers.

"We moved when I was in eighth grade so Jacob and I could be in the Jeff district. It couldn't have been any better. I feel like I've been blessed."

It's a message he passes on to younger folks, beyond his own brother and teammates. Last year he was asked to spend some extra time once a week after school with a neighborhood fifth grader he's known from J-Hawk basketball camps. The boy is a whiz on the basketball floor, less dedicated as a student.

"We talked some hoops," Taylor says. "But mostly we talked about his school projects and making sure he got his work done."

And this year he's been going to Taylor Elementary on Monday mornings to read books to a class of third graders.

"I remember when adults did that when I was in grade school," he says. "I always thought it was neat that they'd do that. And I love being around the little kids. We have a lot of fun.

"I tell them basketball is very important to me and has been all my life. But it's not the only thing. School's more important. And getting grades is the most important thing."

While his mom and his aunt Melissa are pleased with his accomplishments on the basketball court, they're prouder still of the young man he's become.

"Taylor has worked so hard," says his aunt. "He's unselfish. And he's humble. He appreciates everything he has. And he deserves whatever he gets."