Suffolk County Student Athlete Of The Week: West Babylon’s Jaelynn Burgess

WEST BABYLON, NY — Jaelynn Burgess does not just make shots. She changes how opponents prepare.

The West Babylon student-athlete is already a 1,000-point scorer in basketball, an All-County flag football player and one of the most dangerous long-range shooters opposing coaches have to plan for.

This summer, Patch is looking back at the student-athletes who helped define the 2025-26 sports seasons across Suffolk County. This week’s Suffolk County Student Athlete of the Week is Burgess, a West Babylon shooting guard and flag football wide receiver and safety who is entering 11th grade.

Burgess, 16, scored her 1,000th career basketball point on Jan. 20 against East Islip. The milestone was a major moment for Burgess and for West Babylon

“I was really excited,” Burgess told Patch. “All my teammates got together and made posters and got me a bunch of stuff.”

Burgess said she was especially proud because she believes she was the first sophomore in school history to reach 1,000 career points.

“The last was a senior,” Burgess said. “So I was proud and really grateful for my teammates and coaches that helped set that up.”

Burgess’ scoring ability has been built over years. She said basketball has always been part of her family, and that every member of her family has played the sport. Her father Ben introduced her to the game, and Jaelynn said she was on her first team around age 4.

“My dad showed me the game when I was really young,” Burgess said. “Ever since then, I’ve been just all basketball.”

Her shooting touch developed early. Burgess said her father used to take her outside to shoot when she first started playing AAU basketball, and the repetition helped her realize that long-range shooting could become one of her biggest strengths.

“My dad used to take me outside,” she said. “We were shooting all the time, and that’s when I found out it was really one of my strengths because I just always practiced a lot and I put a lot of time and effort into that.”

That time commitment has continued.

“Over the summers I used to go to a lot of camps," she said. "So instead of when everyone is hanging out with their friends and doing whatever, I’m trying to get better, working on my shot, working on my handle.”

Katie Schroeder, the Smithtown West girls basketball coach and Burgess’ former AAU coach, said she saw Burgess’ ability early when Burgess played travel basketball with Schroeder’s daughter, Molly.

“Jaelynn is one of the best long-range shooters I’ve ever seen,” Schroeder said. “Matching up against her is always a DI athlete, which for us at Smithtown West, is usually a lacrosse player. It takes that kind of an athlete and defensive scheme to limit her because of her range.”

That kind of defensive attention motivates Burgess.

“It definitely gives me motivation because they look at me as the main threat,” Burgess said. “It helps me and makes me want to win even more because I want to prove them wrong that they can’t stop me.”

Burgess said that attention has also helped her become a more complete player. If defenses focus too much on taking away her shot, she tries to get her teammates involved. Burgess said the biggest growth in her game, besides shooting, has been her ability to attack the basket.

“I used to only depend on shooting,” she said. “But now I’ve gone into mid-range and driving and all around scoring, not just shooting.”

Her résumé already includes multiple postseason honors. Burgess said she is a four-time All-League selection, a three-time All-Conference selection and a three-time All-County selection in basketball. She also earned All-County and All-League recognition in flag football.

“That was really special to me because it was my first year ever playing flag football,” Burgess said of earning All-County honors. “I’ve always been around football, but I’ve never actually played it, so it was really exciting.”

Burgess said the flag football recognition also gave her the chance to do interviews and go to MetLife Stadium, home of the Giants and Jets.

Flag football has helped her basketball career, too. Burgess said the movements in both sports connect.

“My coaches for flag football, they know that a lot of the stuff is related,” Burgess said.

She credits her father and West Babylon coach Ron Langella as two of the biggest influences on her athletic career.

“They have motivated me throughout everything,” Burgess said. “On the bad days where I didn’t feel like wanting to do anything or get up and get shots, they’ve pushed me harder and they’ve definitely made this road a lot easier.”

Burgess also keeps herself busy away from the court and field. She said she is involved in Athletes Helping Athletes, Math Club, National Technical Honor Society, National Math Honor Society, National Honor Society, Student Association, DECA and Blue and Gold.

“That’s one thing I take pride in,” Burgess said. “I take pride in my grades a lot.”

The hardest part of being a student-athlete, Burgess said, is pushing through the long days when motivation is low.

“The hardest thing is definitely the long days where you have no motivation or you just feel drained,” she said. “But the advice that I would give is just to keep moving forward and keep pushing because even though you may not feel like doing it, the outcome will be greater, and all the hard work will show.”

Burgess said she studies WNBA players such as Breanna Stewart and JuJu Watkins, and she has clear goals for the next two years at West Babylon, with the immediate goal for the upcoming season being to make the playoffs, go further than last year and enter the year with the right mindset.

“I definitely want to get further in the playoffs,” Burgess said. “I want to grow the program moving forward and just get more girls involved. Also, I want to become the leading scorer for points. That would be really cool.”

This summer, Patch is looking back at the student-athletes who defined the 2025-26 sports seasons across Suffolk County. The series highlights standout athletes, team leaders and competitors whose achievements extended beyond the scoreboard.

Do you know a Suffolk County student-athlete who should be featured in a future Student Athlete of the Week profile? Coaches, athletic directors, school district officials and families can send nominations, standout accomplishments and photos to Kepherd Daniel at kdaniel@patch.com for consideration.