EARLY STARTER

‘Student of the game’ gets last go at state title

Reality has set in for Conway’s Asiyha Smith as she prepares for her senior season with the Wampus Cats. “This year has been more of noticing it’s my last year and realizing that I won’t have another offseason or another blue-and-white game,” said the 5-7 Smith, one of eight Wampus Cat seniors, who will start for a third season at point guard. From tearing an ACL and missing her ninth-grade season to becoming the only nonsenior starter as a sophomore, to being the only returning starter and leading the Cats to the Class 7A state-championship game as a junior, it’s been quite a ride, and she wants to make the best of her final CHS campaign. “I’m really excited because we were state runner-up and only lost two people,” said Smith, who averaged 16 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals per game last season. “I am expecting to win state because I know what it’s like to not win.” Individual goals? “To build bonds and, no matter what, to enjoy my last year as a Wampus Cat,” she said. Smith is the River Valley & Ozark Edition’s Girls Basketball Player to Watch for 2018-19. Conway coach Ashley Hutchcraft called Smith “a true point guard.” “She wants to please me; she wants to be a coach on the floor,” Hutchcraft said. “She’s a student of the game. She loves the game.” The summer before her freshman season, Smith was going in for a layup during an Amateur Athletic Union tournament in Texas when she tore her left ACL. She was out until the July before her sophomore season. “We had won conference in eighth grade, and I was expecting to win in ninth grade,” she said. Instead, she attacked her rehab and eventually reached her goal of starting as a sophomore. “I expected to start as a sophomore,” she said. “It was pretty challenging because there were nine seniors on that team, and I was starting over four seniors.” Hutchcraft praised Smith’s leadership in that situation and beyond. “Going into her sophomore year, I had no clue how she was going to do,” the coach said. “You never know how a kid will come off an injury like that, but she really exceeded my expectations, not only on the floor, but also off the floor with her leadership.” Smith recalled stepping up as a leader as a seventh-grader. “I noticed that we did not have a leader on that team,” she said. “I went into [that role] naturally. It wasn’t difficult. Nobody else wanted to do it.” The Wampus Cats finished 23-9 and were a state quarterfinalist during Smith’s sophomore season. That improved to 27-4 and state runner-up last year. “Her sophomore year, we had some talent to go around her,” Hutchcraft said, “but last year, as the only returning starter, the only one with experience, she really led our team to the state finals.” Smith sports a 3.7 grade-point average and will sign Nov. 14 to play college basketball for Division II Texas A&M University-Commerce. She got a lot of offers, including one D1 scholarship. Why Commerce? “It just felt right,” Smith said. Hutchcraft agreed. “I think their coaching staff made her feel like she feels at Conway. It felt like home,” Hutchcraft said. “… She probably could’ve gone Division I. If she’d wait, she’d probably get more offers, but she wants to go somewhere she can play and where she can win a national championship. She’s just a realistic young lady.” Smith said she hopes to study criminal justice in college. Before then, though, there’s one final season to wear the blue and white for her and her fellow seniors, including fellow returning starters 5-7 guards Myia Yelder and Reagan Roetzel. “I really think that our season rises and falls on Asiyha and Myia,” Hutchcraft said. “What’s crazy about them is both tore their ACLs a month apart. Asiyha recovered a little quicker than Myia to come in and play her sophomore year. It took Myia her sophomore year to get going, but last year, those two and Reagan Roetzel really set the tempo for our team.” This season could be even better, the coach said. “Basketball’s so crazy sometimes,” Hutchcraft said. “If there’s an injury here and there, you never know what might happen. But if we stay injury-free, we should win a lot of ballgames.” Either way, count on Smith to be right in the thick of things.