Jaylen Harrell just finished his normal 6 a.m. workout when he noticed his cellphone lit up with a text message.

His high school coach Cary Herer was sending Harrell a congratulatory message informing him that he was just named the Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year for Massachusetts. For the 6-foot-6 junior guard from Boston, the award was validation for the countless hours he put in behind the scenes to hone his skills.

“I knew I had a chance to win the award,” Harrell said. “When I saw the text message from coach, I was pretty happy.”

The fact that Harrell learned about the award following a training session came as no surprise to Herer. The head coach at CATS Academy has seen all the time and effort Harrell has dedicated into becoming a better player.

“Jaylen works very hard at his all-around game, he’s in the gym all the time,” Herer said. “He can score at all three levels, he can post up smaller guards, yet he can step out and hit the three.”

As good as Harrell has become, there was a time when he wasn’t sure basketball was in the cards. It was through the prodding of his father, former Madison Park standout Ryan Harrell, that Harrell followed through and eventually became one of the better younger players in the Boston area.

“He was the only one who believed in me early on,” the younger Harrell said. “He kept pushing me, got me to put the work in and I became a good player.”

Like most parents, the tendency is to focus on the positives. In the case of Jaylen Harrell, Ryan Harrell saw there was a lot of untapped potential just waiting to be released.

“I knew early on that Jaylen was going to be a pretty big kid,” Harrell said. “He was always the type of kid who was willing to work hard to become the best at whatever he did. On top of that, he was the kind of kid who would also do what was best for the team.

“He was playing soccer when he was young. I remember one game when he scored three goals then went up to the coach and asked to play goalie. After the game, I asked Jaylen why he did that and he said he wanted to try to keep the other team from scoring.

“That’s the type of kid Jaylen is. I can honestly say he’s never caused me one ounce of trouble growing up.”

Wilson, the city coaching legend, has seen both of them from an early age and said there are plenty of differences between the two.

“First of all, Jaylen is always very calm, cool and collected, while Ryan was a very fiery player,” Wilson said with a laugh. “Jaylen is more of a scorer, whereas Ryan was more of a playmaker type.”

Harrell comes off a season where he averaged 24 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists a game. His performances have not gone unnoticed as he’s cracked the top-100 list of several recruiting websites. He has narrowed his choices down to Wake Forest, Alabama, Xavier, Providence, Rutgers and Virginia Tech and his father thinks a decision could come in the next month.