Performance: Kent City's Kaitlyn Geers
December 8, 2015
Kaitlyn Geers
Kent City junior - Basketball
Geers, a 5-foot-11 forward in her third season on the Kent City varsity, scored the game-winning basket on a near baseline-to-baseline lay-up (see video below) during the closing seconds of her team’s 59-58 win over Muskegon on Dec 4 – earning her the inaugural Michigan National Guard "Performance of the Week."
The Class C Eagles have beaten the Class A Big Reds during the opening week three seasons in a row, but were in jeopardy of seeing that streak end when Musekgon senior Mardrekia Cook – arguably the top player in the state and a Michigan State University recruit – stole an inbounds pass intended for Geers and scored with 17 seconds to play to put the Big Reds ahead by one. On the ensuing inbounds, Geers instead passed it in, got the ball back and drove the length of the court for the winning score. She finished with a team-high 23 points.
Geers averaged 18.5 points and seven rebounds over two games last week, and 11.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game in helping the team to a 19-4 record in 2014-15. Kent City is a combined 38-9 with her on the roster over the last three seasons. Only a junior, Geers has committed to sign next year with Saginaw Valley State University, where she plans to study athletic training and eventually physical therapy. She also plays volleyball and sprints for the track and field team, carries a 4.0 grade point average and is a member of her school’s student council and National Honor Society chapter.
Coach Scott Carlson said: “Kaitlyn has worked constantly on her game to be the player she is today. It is exciting to see the growth and confidence as she matures. She has the ability to get to the rim that many players do not have, and on top of that she is unselfish. She makes the extra pass to the open player to get her team a better shot. She is fundamentally sound and has an all-around game in that she can post up, bring the ball up the court, pass, rebound and defend. Kaitlyn creates match-up problems for many teams.”
Performance Point: “When I got the ball, I knew I had about 10 seconds to get down the court. I knew I had to get there, get somebody the ball or get to the rim. I knew I didn’t have much time; I tried to keep myself calm and keep my team calm.”
Sign of things to come: “We put a lot of work toward that game. We always talk about preparing for Muskegon in the beginning of the season, getting in shape for running the court and getting ready to run the court and play defense because (Cook) is a great driver. The little things, we really, really work only. (Winning Friday) shows we’re going to get better. We pushed for that big win, and we’re going to push for (every) win at that time, and hopefully we’ll go far.”
On the rise: Geers grew eight inches as an eighth grader, changing her basketball game dramatically. “When I was younger, I wasn’t nearly as fast as I am right now. I was a lot shorter. I was really uncoordinated. I grew into my body a little bit. When I was younger, I was the ninth man, 10th man. I was not into my body yet.”
Train to train: “I love biology and science, and I’m going to major in athletic training and pursue physical therapy. I had some encounters with physical therapy (during the above-mentioned growth spurt) and I wanted to go into the health field – and not deal with blood.”
All-Around Achiever: Geers made first-team all-league in the Central State Activities Association Silver as a sophomore in helping her team to league and District titles, but she also played a big role in the volleyball team’s first league title since 2001. She earned all-league second-team honors for track in helping that team to a league title this spring as well. “It keeps me in shape. Bouncing from one to another, I don’t have to get in shape multiple times. … I always say I don’t like to sit down. Sometimes in class I have to stand up and walk around. It keeps me focused. I like to be busy, I guess. I play basketball, I play volleyball and run track, and I go to school. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. My whole family is like that. We run on sports, friends, family and school.”
– Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Beginning this week and continuing throughout the 2015-16 school year, Second Half and the Michigan National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, respond as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our Nation's freedom, or protecting lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
PHOTO: Kaitlyn Geers defends at the top of the key during last week's win against Grand Rapids Union. (Photo courtesy of Kent City athletic department.)
High School 'Hoop Squad' Close to Heart as Hughes Continues Coaching Climb
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
July 11, 2024
Jareica Hughes had a Hall of Fame collegiate basketball career playing at University of Texas-El Paso and has played professionally overseas, but her most prized possession is something she earned playing high school basketball in Michigan.
A standout at now-closed Southfield-Lathrup High School during the early-to-mid 2000s, Hughes proudly displays a signature symbol of Lathrup’s Class A championship team in 2005.
“I have my state championship ring on me right now,” said Hughes, now an assistant head coach for the women’s basketball program at UTEP. “I wear this ring every single day. Not so much for the basketball aspect. Inside of the ring it says ‘Hoop Squad.’ It’s more the connection I’ve had with those particular young ladies. Friends that I’ve known since I was kid. Every once in a while when we talk, we go back in time.”
Believe it or not, Hughes and her high school teammates next year will have to go back 20 years to commemorate a run to the title that started when they were freshmen.
It was a gradual build-up to what was the first girls basketball state championship won by a public school in Oakland County. Lathrup, which has since merged with the former Southfield High School to form Southfield Arts & Technology, remained the only public school in Oakland County to win a state girls basketball title until West Bloomfield did so in 2022 and again this past March.
Lathrup lost in the District round to Bloomfield Hills Marian during Hughes’ freshman year, and then after defeating Marian in a District Final a year later, lost to West Bloomfield in a Regional Final.
When Hughes was a junior, the team got to the state’s final four, but a bad third quarter resulted in a heartbreaking one-point Semifinal loss to eventual champion Lansing Waverly.
A year later, when Hughes and other core players such as Brittane Russell, Timika Williams, Dhanmite’ Slappey and Briana Whitehead were seniors, they finished the job and won the Class A crown with a 48-36 win over Detroit Martin Luther King in the Final.
However, the signature moment of that title run actually came during the Semifinal round and was produced by Hughes, a playmaking wizard at point guard who made the team go.
Trailing by three points during the waning seconds of regulation against Grandville and Miss Basketball winner Allyssa DeHaan – a dominant 6-foot-8 center – Hughes drained a tying 3-pointer from the wing that was well beyond the 3-point line.
Lathrup went on to defeat Grandville in overtime and prevail against King.
Hughes said the year prior, she passed up on taking a potential winning or tying shot in the Semifinal loss against Waverly, and was reminded of that constantly by coaches and teammates. “I just remember in the huddle before that shot, that just kept ringing in my mind,” she said. “That was special. I cried for weeks not being able to get a shot off (the year before) and leaving the tournament like that.”
Growing up in Detroit, Hughes got into basketball mainly because she had five older brothers and an older sister who played the game. In particular, Hughes highlights older brother Gabriel for getting her into the game and taking her from playground to playground.
“I’m from Detroit,” she said. “We played ball all day long. Sunup to sundown. When the light comes on, you had to run your butt into the house.”
Hughes played for the Police Athletic League and also at the famed St. Cecilia gym in the summer, developing her game primarily against boys.
“My first team was on a boys team,” she said. “I was a captain on a boys team.”
The family moved into Lathrup’s district before she began high school.
Once she helped lead Lathrup to the 2005 championship, she went on to a fine career at UTEP, where she was the Conference USA Player of the Year twice and helped lead the Miners to their first NCAA Tournament appearance.
Hughes still holds school records for career assists (599), steals (277) and minutes played (3,777). On Monday, she was named to Conference USA’s 2024 Hall of Fame class.
After a brief professional career overseas was derailed by a shoulder injury, Hughes said getting into coaching was a natural fit.
“I had to make the hard decision, and I knew as a kid I wanted to be around basketball,” she said. “Once I made that decision (to quit), I knew I was going to coach.”
Hughes started coaching in the Detroit area, first serving as an assistant at Southfield A&T from 2016-20 and then at Birmingham Groves for a season. She then served as interim head coach at Colby Community College in Kansas before being named an assistant at UTEP in May 2023, a month after her former coach Keitha Adams returned to lead the program after six seasons at Wichita State.
While fully immersed in her job with UTEP, Hughes’ high school memories in Michigan certainly aren’t going away anytime soon – especially with the 20th anniversary of Lathrup’s championship coming up.
“We are still close friends because we all essentially grew up together,” she said. “They are still my friends to this day.”
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PHOTOS (Top) At left, Southfield-Lathrup’s Jareica Hughes drives to the basket against Detroit Martin Luther King during the 2005 Class A Final; at right, Hughes coaches this past season at UTEP. (Middle) Hughes, second from left, begins the championship celebration with her Lathrup teammates at Breslin Center. (UTEP photo courtesy of the UTEP sports information department.)