Trinity's Emma Kate Smith leads all-CCC Girl's basketball team

She’s a three-year starter at point guard for the Wildcats, but there are times when Trinity coach Blake Smith has to remind himself that Emma Kate Smith isn’t old enough to drive a car yet.

She’s still just a freshman, albeit a talented one that has led the Wildcats to some of their most successful seasons ever. And while fans see a perimeter shooter who can light up the scoreboard with deadly accuracy from beyond the 3-point arc, Blake Smith has a different perspective from his courtside view.

“That’s the part people see,” Smith said. “But to me, that’s kind of secondary to the other things she brings to the table.

“One thing I can say about Emma, she’s just calm, stable. She makes things so much easier for us. There are things that she does that don’t show up on a stat sheet. You just have to understand basketball to understand how the game is smoother and easier when she’s in the game for us. What she makes look easy and unassuming at times is actually very, very difficult.”

Fans may not understand it, but the Capital City Conference coaches saw it, choosing Emma Kate as the Capital City Conference player of the year. And while Blake points out that it’s sometimes difficult separating his role of coach and father to his oldest daughter, it’s also difficult trying to gauge the amount of responsibility you place on a veteran point guard who is still maturing as a player.

“When you want to be good at something, you tend to have these higher expectations at times than you should have for yourself and that can easily lead to disappointment,” he noted. “You think you’re not living up to it. When we step back and look at it, you go ‘you’re in the ninth grade, you’ve got all this pressure on you.’ It’s really quite amazing that she handles it the way she does.”

Blake Smith abstained from voting for the player of the year, but his rival CCC coaches understand Emma Kate’s value. She lifted her scoring average from 10 points per game as an eighth grader to 16 points per game this year despite teams concentrating on her.

“People just know you now, so it’s totally different when teams start pressing for you,” Smith said. “You’re going to have nights where it’s difficult and other people have to score.”

Blake Smith’s ability to devise an offensive strategy that allowed Emma Kate to score and the Wildcats’ 22-8 season – accomplished with two sophomores, two freshmen and a seventh grader among the top eight players – were impressive enough for the CCC coaches to choose Smith as the Capital City Conference coach of the year.

In its 14-year history as a Class 4A program (2001-08 and 2015-present), the Wildcats have never reached the regional round until the past two years, losing four times in the sub-regional round and never making it out of the area tournament in the other eight seasons.

Since ending its 3A stint with a trip to the semifinals of the 2014 state tournament, the 4A Wildcats lost in the area tournament first round twice and the tournament semifinals twice before finally breaking through with trips to the regionals the past two years.

And while five of his team’s eight losses came to a pair of perennial 3A powers (Montgomery Academy and Prattville Christian), rebuilding the Wildcats into a team that can compete on a regional level with underclassmen was no easy feat.

“It took pretty good teams to beat us,” Smith said. “This team plays so hard and they’re so unassuming. It was just a pleasure to coach them. When I look back on it, I’m very impressed with how they played and what they accomplished.”

All-Capital City Conference Girls’ Basketball Team

First Team

Madi Caddell, 5-6, G, Jr., Montgomery Academy

Maddie Smith, 5-6, G, 7th, Trinity

Leighton Robertson, 5-8, G, Jr., Montgomery Academy

Lorren Pharrams, 5-10, F, Sr., Catholic

Seanna Brooks, 5-7, G, Sr., St. James

Second Team

Gabby Ramirez, 5-5, G, Jr., Montgomery Academy

Nona Johnson, 5-7, F, Jr., Catholic

Mary Hall, 5-8, F, Sr., Alabama Christian

KK Hall, 5-7, G, Fr., St. James

Brooke Avant, 5-6, G, Sr., Trinity

Honorable Mention: Rose Costanza, 5-5, F, Jr., Hannah Grace Griggs, 5-3, G, Jr., St. James; Michaelyn Manning, 5-4, G, Jr., Alabama Christian; Mary Alice Sasser, 5-5, G, So., Trinity; Millie Stevenson, 5-6, G, Sr., Montgomery Academy.

Player of the Year: Emma Kate Smith, Trinity

Coach of the Year: Blake Smith, Trinity