Walker siblings shine in lone shared year of high school basketball
Julianna and Tre Walker competed in everything as young kids. From fiery games of UNO and blackjack, to racing to put puzzles together or win a board game, neither wanted to lose.
“They were very competitive,” said their dad, LJ Walker. “They were like that all the time.”
They’re like that to this day, even as high schoolers. Julianna likes to bake cookies; Tre says his cookies are better. But basketball always brought out the most intense competition between the two.
Julianna is a senior at Annie Wright. She was a Tacoma News Tribune All-Area first-team selection last year, after she averaged 34.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists for the Gators, leading Annie Wright to a fourth-place finish in the Class 1A state tournament last season.
She came into the season with 2,491 career points and was on pace to break the all-time state career scoring record, held by former Cashmere standout and current Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith (2,993), who set the record last season. The pandemic-shortened season will prevent her from breaking it, but the Syracuse-bound Walker will still leave Annie Wright as one of the state’s most prolific scorers ever.
Tre, meanwhile, just wrapped up his freshman season at Wilson High School, where he started for the Rams, who went undefeated and won the 3A Pierce County League. Walker averaged 16.5 points, 4.5 assists and two steals in his first high school season.
It’ll be the only high school season that Julianna, 18, and Tre, 15, will share together.
“I was excited for him,” Julianna said. “I know last year, I told people to watch out for him. He was exciting to watch this year. He kind of reminded me of me out there a little bit. I’m glad to be the older sister so he can learn from me and I’ll help him.”
Tre has been learning from his older sister since he first started walking. Julianna got an early lead, with the three-year age advantage. When she was two years old, Julianna would play all by herself on the family’s Fisher-Price toy basketball hoop. LJ and his wife, Junni, would be watching TV in the evening, and they’d hear dribbling on a section of hardwood floor, where they put the hoop.
“I could just hear the ball dribbling, dribbling, then her shooting,” LJ said. “No one else was even there. Her mom was like, ‘Don’t let her dribble in the house.’ I was like, ‘Just let her.’ She was just doing it on her own. She’d probably do 30 minutes of just shooting.”
When she was three, Walker was playing on a team with five-year olds at the YMCA. She was already one of the best dribblers and shooters on the team. By the time she was in first grade, she was playing on a third-grade boys basketball team. Former McDonald’s All-American and Federal Way standout Jaden McDaniels, who now plays in the NBA, was on that team. And Tre, at just five years old, was part of the team, too.
“He’d warm up, be part of the team, had his jersey on,” LJ said. “If we’d get up by a lot, I’d put him in the game, as a 5-year-old. He always expected to be good.”
It took some time for Tre to catch up to Julianna, though. He says he didn’t start beating her in 1-on-1 games until fifth or sixth grade. He said that’s when he started winning every time.
Not so fast, says Julianna.
“He was getting closer,” she said, laughing.
In Julianna, Tre’s had someone to look up to on the basketball court. Despite teams doing everything in their power to slow her down, she still scores at will.
“I’ve seen her keep going every game,” he said. “Getting her shot off through box-and-ones and defenses that are trying to stop her. She keeps scoring and keeps finding her teammates. So I try to take the way she was playing and put it in my game.”
There’s also an “Anything you can do, I can do better” mentality for Tre. Julianna scored 56 points in a game for Stewart Middle School as a seventh-grader. Tre remembered that, and went out and scored 59 points for Stewart in his eight grade season, knocking down 12 3-pointers in the game.
“It’s a rivalry, but they push each other like that,” LJ said.
Their one season playing at the same time was a strange one — a shortened season ending in June, because of the coronavirus pandemic. But the Walkers will take what they can get.
“There was one night, where it was Julianna’s senior night,” LJ said. “She played at 5. Then I run over to Wilson, and Tre’s playing at 7:30. You’ve got a big smile on your face, seeing all the work they put in.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
