2023 AHSAA STATE TOURNEY: Trinity girls' run to title a family affair

The sisters Smith - Emma Kate (12), Maddie (15) and Lilly (1) - have been led by their parents and coaches, Blake and Megan, to the brink of a Class 3A state championship. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

The Trinity girls’ basketball team will be making its first trip to the state tournament since 2014, but this trip will differ somewhat as head coach Blake Smith is joined on the bench by his wife Megan and on the court with all three of his daughters -- senior Emma Kate, sophomore Maddie and seventh grader Lilly.  

“If I would have thought in the story that God’s writing that it would end up with us at a Final Four with my three daughters -- for the first time any of them have been to a Final Four -- I don’t know that I could have written it any better than that,” Blake said. “Because we felt disappointed up to this point. We thought we would have been further than we have been in the past. Obviously, some good teams affected that and people we respect a lot got in the way. You’ve worked this hard and we want to be there, yet all of a sudden you look around and say it makes sense now. And we’ve been able to enjoy it.”

Trinity (30-2) will play Susan Moore (29-3), a 3A runner-up last year, in the semifinals on Tuesday at Legacy Arena at noon. To get there, it took each and every Smith contributing their part, including Lilly, the seventh grader forced into a more challenging role as the season progressed.

“Originally, in my mind, that was probably never going to happen,” Blake said. “But with some of the circumstances that took place with injuries and just watching Lilly compete and her awareness of the game and the things she brought to the table made it pretty simple for us.

“How’s it different for me and us? Honestly, I think it’s made it a little more lighthearted because Lilly’s got such a sweet spirit and the pressure doesn’t bother her. For us, personally, it’s just been a family affair.”

Emma Kate is the record-setting senior who has 2,252 career points and has been the heart and soul of this team for four years after starting her career as a seventh grader, a moment, her dad recalled, that almost didn’t happen.

“Her first seventh grade game, we go to Samson and they’re loaded,” Blake said. “We’re getting ready to go out in the warmup line and Emma Kate looks at Megan and says, ‘I don’t think I want to do this.’”

By the time her younger sister Maddie broke into the lineup as a seventh grader, Emma Kate was a veteran freshman and eager to help her younger sister through those awkward moments.

“I kind of like it that we’re together, that she led the way,” Maddie said. “It’s easier for me in the seventh grade to step out on the floor because I know she’s there. I don’t really care when people say I’m her little sister. I kind of take pride in that. She’s so good, so I like being in the same sentence with her.”

This year, it was Lilly who took the floor as a seventh grader playing for the varsity.

“I was always trying to get ready to play with Emma Kate,” Lilly said. “That was the dream. At the beginning of the season, we were like, OK, we’ll just see how it goes, play some JV games and see if it goes good. Then when Jayden (Mitchell) got hurt, it was crazy because now I’m playing the whole game. But it’s easier for me because I have Emma Kate and Maddie there that can help me through it.”

Mitchell’s season-ending knee injury in mid-January changed the whole outlook for the youngest Smith, who went from an occasional player who was learning her craft to a starter forced to make meaningful contributions on a championship-caliber team. 

“She doesn’t care what other people think, she just goes out there and plays as hard as she can and she just lives with it,” Emma Kate said. “Basketball is such a mental thing. There’s so many things we could do if you didn’t think about it and just played. That’s why I think Lilly has done such a good job. She doesn’t think about it like, ‘Oh no, this is varsity and I’m a seventh grader.’ She’s ‘these are my friends and I like basketball.’”

And while they look similar on the basketball court, each has a distinctively different personality that can challenge the head coach at times. 

“Emma Kate is that first born, wants to do everything right, perfectionist,” Megan said. “Maddie just wants to beat you, just wants to win and Lilly is just along for the ride, enjoying it. It’s funny, she doesn’t seem to be feeling the pressure, I guess because her sisters are there.”

“In some ways, it’s different because we’ve treated them differently,” Blake said. “I think one of the reasons Lilly feels so free is because we haven’t put the pressure on her to be good. Emma, you fuss at her and she absorbs it; you fuss at Maddie and she fusses back at you; and you fuss at Lilly and she smiles at you and says, ‘I got it.’”

It’s not easy managing three sisters on a basketball team, but Megan says Blake rarely ever brings the sport home with him at night.

“Most of the time, it stays at school,” Megan said. “Every now and then, especially if he gets to watching film, he’ll say, ‘Wait, come here, come look at this.’ But for the most part, he’s worked hard at trying to leave it here and just enjoy the girls at home and just be dad.”

As Emma Kate approaches the end of her career, the deadly 3-point shooter has scored less points with each passing game and taken on different roles to help her team win. Often, her role is to guard the other team’s best post player, reducing the opponent’s points while taking them away from the post when Trinity is on offense, opening up scoring opportunities for Emma Kate’s teammates. 

“For several years, Emma Kate scoring 20 is what it took for us to compete,” Blake said. “Now, we’re allowing her to take another player out of the game. I’m not necessarily running as much stuff to get her freed up and she embraces that. Her number of shots has probably gone down over the last couple of years eight or nine shots a game. But she’s the most valuable player on our team and we all know that. What she’s able to do, there’s not a lot of people that are able to do.”

And while Emma Kate may be the most valuable player, Maddie’s effectiveness on the court is hard to ignore. As the team’s most intense defender, she can limit an opposing guard’s effectiveness. As the best ball handler, the Wildcats go as she goes.

“She is so good at seeing the floor,” Emma Kate said. “Half of her turnovers are because she sees stuff that other people don’t see so they don’t even know to look for the ball. Her basketball IQ is really high. She always has a reason for doing something. She’s a really good ball handler. And defender. I could literally go on and on about her. It’s been really fun having a buddy or a partner to go through my basketball career with her.

“She is so competitive, she gets so into the game. If you knew her outside of basketball, you’d be like, ‘This is the nicest person I’ve ever met.’ She is so sweet. Then you get in a game and you’re like, ‘This girl is a beast.’”

Then there’s Lilly. With opposing teams respecting the roles of sophomores Mya Moskowitz and Francie Morris, there’s a tendency to pick on Lilly, who had a career-high 10 points in her last game against St. James in the regional final. 

“In the beginning, it was kind of like along for the ride, but now it’s different because I’ve had to step up and play a lot more,” Lilly said. “But it’s been fun with Emma Kate and Maddie around me. It’s helped me get better and push me through it.”

Morris said each brings a different dimension to the team -- along with their distinctly different personalities. 

“They definitely push each other, and all of us, every day,” she said. “They’re such high level basketball players. (Lilly) has matured so much. And it’s so crazy because both (Emma Kate and Maddie) kind of get a little nervous but Lilly is just so calm. She’s been amazing. Maddie is more aggressive than Lilly and Emma Kate. She has that drive to get it done and doesn’t care what other people think.”

Blake’s job is to push the right buttons in each at the right time to keep the Trinity machine churning along effectively. 

“There’s no doubt that Maddie’s fire shows up a little more,” Blake said. “Her motor is really, really high. You’re never trying to get Maddie fired up, you’re trying to slow her down a little. Emma Kate, you’re probably trying to fire her up, but the flip side of that is that’s why Emma Kate stays so calm.

“Emma Kate, because she’s at a steady pace, she can play a whole game and doesn’t even look tired. Maddie’s like a gnat, her hands are always active. She frustrates people. She can burn herself out. In some ways, that’s affected her at times. Lilly is a mixture of both of them. She’s got the calmness of Emma Kate and the intensity and motor of Maddie. I’m really now appreciating what she’s doing, stepping into the environment she stepped into (at the regional finals) and the calmness for which she does it with.”

Megan’s role is a bit more subdued at game time. Like the problem solver she is at home, she is often the calming voice in the huddle during a timeout, particularly if it’s an intense moment for Blake and Maddie. 

“We do yell at each other a lot,” Maddie said with a laugh. “She stands in between us, so we have to yell across her.”

The Wildcats have won 17 straight games since losing to 4A state semifinalist Prattville Christian 60-52 on Dec. 20, 19 of 20 since losing to 7A regional semifinalist Bob Jones 41-37. Given the environment and what’s at stake, Susan Moore will be tougher than any previous opponent this season. 

Win or lose, it’s been a special journey for the Smiths this season, one they can never repeat. 

“I’m trying to take it all in because I know next year Emma Kate won’t be here, so this is our last season -- and first -- all together (at the state tournament) as a family,” Maddie said. “It’s fun and it’s sad. I don’t want to look to the end, but just thinking about how I’ll never get to play at Trinity with Emma Kate again, I’m just blessed that God put the time here that we can all be together and enjoy it with the people around us.”

Each player on Trinity’s team has an obvious goal of winning a state championship, but the lone senior starter at the end of her high school journey has another goal this week.  

“I just want to go out knowing I gave it my all and trusting that God took me as far as He wanted me to go,” Emma Kate said. “I just need to play my hardest and trust in whatever is going to happen.”

Blake thought for a moment when asked if there were any special goals for the family on its only trip together to the state tournament.

“For the Smiths, it’s never been about the Smiths, it’s been about winning a championship for Trinity Presbyterian School, to do something here that no one’s ever done because this place has been good to us and we want to give back to it,” he said.