The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Kennedy Smith
Etiwanda, Sophomore
Etiwanda sophomore Kennedy Smith had a lot to live up to this season.
After all, Smith was named the girls basketball state freshman of the year last year by Calhi Sports.
Her sophomore year did not disappoint.
In leading the Eagles to their first CIF Southern Section girls basketball title— and in the Open Division, no less — Smith continued to develop her game and has earned IE varsity player of the year honors.
“To be honest, it wasn’t necessarily the physical, but it was the mental (that improved),” Etiwanda coach Stan Delus said. “She used to get extremely emotional as a freshman. The leadership portion of her game this year transformed immensely.”
When one of the two seniors on the team, Daisia Mitchell was injured last spring then suffered another essentially season-ending injury in January, more of the on-court leadership fell on Smith’s shoulders.
Smith wasn’t shying away from the leadership, or top competition.
“I want all the smoke,” she said. “I want to play the best competition. I definitely didn’t expect to go 29-1. What we did was amazing. Everybody worked so hard. We’ve done what hasn’t been done at Etiwanda before.”
The 6-foot Smith averaged 18.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks per game.
There were many highlights along the way, including tying a school record by scoring 44 points against Chino Hills. When Etiwanda announced itself as a national level program by winning the Nike TOC in Arizona in December, Smith led the Eagles by averaging 13.3 points in the four games.
“Before we went to Nike TOC, we were a nationally-ranked team,” she said. “I heard people say, ‘are they California good or national good?’ I feel like we stayed humble.”
Despite being smaller when compared to most elite post players in high school, that’s who she was matched up with most often. Twice in the playoffs, Smith faced 6-2 Juju Watkins of
Sierra Canyon. In the CIF-SS championship game, Smith had just four points and three fouls in the first half, but scored 15 points after halftime and did not foul out.
“She’s always stepped up to the challenge against bigger players,” Delus said. “She’s 6-foot These are 6-3, 6-4 players and she’s able to play at an extremely high level.”
Her game is evolving from being almost exclusively a post player as she entered high school to the small forward or shooting guard she will be when she enters college.
“Last season, I felt like I wasn’t handling the ball like I could,” Smith said. “I definitely wanted to work on that during the summer. This year I did a soso job. I was somewhat happy. I’m always hard on myself.”
Her outside shooting also has been improving in success and confidence..
“I’m definitely getting the confidence. I take a lot of shots during the game and I still have confidence to shoot them, even when they’re not going in,” Smith said. “One of them’s going to fall.”
Delus sees Smith as making more progress next year.
“I think this next year she’ll look to be more perimeter-oriented, off the dribble attacking,” Delus said. “And continue to improve her outside jump shot, of course.”
That’s bad news for Etiwanda’s opponents next year.