Every sports team in the world likes to proclaim, “We are a family.” But for the Trinity Presbyterian girls basketball team, they really mean it. That’s because the entire coaching staff, along with three of the five starters, do indeed come from the same family. Meet the Smiths.
Dad Blake is the Wildcats head coach and mom Megan is his assistant coach. On the court are daughters Emma, Maddie, and Lilly, who all have played a big part in the Lady Wildcats’ success this year.
With the Smiths leading the way, Trinity Presbyterian is enjoying one of the best seasons in the history of its girls basketball program. They’re ranked sixth in our Alabama girls Top-25 rankings and have advanced to the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Class 3A state semifinal round, or final four.
Sporting a 30-2 overall record, the Smiths and Trinity Presbyterian have pounded their opponents through each round of the state playoffs. In the opening round (the sub-region playoffs), they defeated Randolph County’s girls by a 73-16 margin. Then, in the regional semifinals, Trinity Presbyterian routed the Sumter Central Jaguars by 50 points, 74-24. In their most recent playoff game, in the Central Region finals, the Lady Wildcats won by another large margin, this time a 32-point victory over the Saint James Lady Trojans.
They will face off against the Susan Moore Bulldogs in the state semifinals, with a chance to make it to their first state championship game on March 3. The Class 3A finals will be held at Legacy Arena.
The 2023 team is so far just the second Trinity Presbyterian team to reach the final four, with the 2014 team being the first. That was the third season the Lady Wildcats were led by the Smiths. As he recalls, he and his wife had their work cut out for them when they first got to the school.
“Trinity Presbyterian was never really a big basketball school,” Smith says. “When we first got there in 2011, we had a talented group of 10th graders. By the time they were seniors, they were playing well, and we made it to the final four that season in 2014.”
That team finished 33-4, losing to the Holly Pond Lady Broncos in the semifinals.
The Smith husband-and-wife coaching tandem would then encounter a few lean years from 2015 through 2017, winning just 23 games over that four-year stretch. However, they started the climb back to respectability, building the program to 76 wins over the last four seasons, including a 24-5 record last season.
“We have made it to the regionals four of the last five years,” Blake Smith says.
The Smith family story began with Blake and Megan meeting at Troy University, where he played basketball and she played volleyball. Then, as Smith says, “The kids came around.”
The oldest daughter, Emma Kate, is a senior shooting guard and a two-time All-State Class 3A selection. She set the Alabama state record for the most 3-pointers in a game during the 2021 season. In a game against Booker T. Washington, she hit 14 3-point baskets, breaking the previous single mark of 13 treys in a game. The eldest Smith sibling also scored her 2,000th career point in a game earlier this season.
“Emma Kate is a pure shooter,” Smith says.
She has committed to the University of Alabama at Huntsville to continue her successful basketball career.
The next daughter in the lineup of Smiths is Maddie, a 10th grader at Trinity Presbyterian. She’s the team’s starting point guard, and her father says she is a tenacious player.
“She’s a bulldog,” Smith says.
The Smiths’ youngest daughter is Lilly, a 7th grader. Smith says Lilly was thrust into the Trinity starting lineup due to an injury incurred by forward Jayden Mitchell. She has made the most of the opportunity.
“Lilly runs around creating havoc without a care in the world … always [with] a smile on her face,” Coach Smith says. “She will run to whichever opponent has the ball, defending, diving for loose balls, whatever it takes.”
The lineup of Smiths ends with Lilly, but there remain two more starters who have been a big reason for the team’s winning ways.
“Mya Moskowitz and Francie Morris are our other two starters,” Smith says. “Mya is a 5 foot, 10 inch shooting guard, and she is physical,” he says of the sophomore guard. “She can also post up pretty well and can shoot the 3-point shot. She is very multidimensional.”
The fifth starter on the No. 1-ranked Class 3A Lady Wildcat squad is Francie Morris. The sophomore guard displays patience with the basketball, knowing when it’s just the right time to go to the basket.
“Francie never rushes her shot,” Smith says. “She has such a unique ability to split defenders and get to the basket when she sees the opening.”
Are the Smiths like other husbands and wives who work together, taking their work home with them? Or do they leave it at the Trinity Presbyterian gym?
“The awesome thing about coaching with your whole family is everything that needs to be said is done so at practice. We leave it there,” Blake Smith says. “My wife is awesome. It’s a joy to walk into the gym with her everyday.
“Plus,” he adds, “she keeps me off the referees!”
