Lakewood's Nesmith wins Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week after leading Lady Gators to victory over Lake City

It can be hard for an eighth-grader to adjust to playing varsity basketball.

Sometimes it takes a few games, sometimes a few weeks, and maybe they never get a handle on playing much older competition.

For Lakewood's Lauryn Nesmith, her breakout came a week and a half into 2024.

The eighth-grader put the Lady Gators on her back against Lake City last week, putting up 15 points in a 45-37 win over Lake City. That performance also helped her earn Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week honors.

"It feels good since it's my first year playing," Nesmith said of the support from the Lakewood faithful.

While Nesmith was able to have a breakout performance last week, it came after a challenging adjustment period. Playing against seniors as a middle-schooler can be a daunting task, so the early portion of the season was about building confidence as much as it was about developing as a basketball player.

"At first, it was a little bit of a rough start," she admitted. "When I saw my teammates had my back, I just got better and was willing to see that I could play at the varsity level.

"I just have to play my game, not anybody else's game."

Head coach Joey Footman, who is in his first season leading the Lady Gators, warned Nesmith that the beginning of the season would be a grind, but he was confident things would click for his young guard.

"I talked to her mom over the summer, and I told her that if she's going to play at this level, she's going to have her bumps and bruises on varsity. Her mom understood what I was saying because with her playing middle school, that would've created a lot of bad habits for her because she probably would've been hands down the best person on the floor," Footman said. "She started out rough because things that worked in middle school didn't work on varsity because it was more fast paced.

"I kept telling her to find her spots, and it got to the point where I told her if she wanted to get better, she was going to have to spend some extra time in the gym, and thank God I have some great assistant coaches. We ended up getting her in the gym, getting shots up and explaining the game. She finally saw it and started having fun and the shots started going in, and her confidence grew."

In the matchup with Lake City, once a few shots started falling, Nesmith got into a groove. She scored four points in the first quarter but took over after halftime, scoring 11 points to help put the game away.

"Me seeing my shots falling and seeing that I was taking the shots that were more comfortable for me," Nesmith said of when she started to get a feeling she was in for a big night. "I had tall players on me, so I knew if I took a layup, I was going to get blocked. I started to take floaters."

As simple as it is, Footman reiterated how important it is for a young player to see that first shot go in the hoop.

"Being young and after not seeing your shot go in so much in the beginning, once it starts falling and you get comfortable, you settle down and kinda figure out where your sweet spots are," Footman said. "I think she got a couple of layups early and knocked down a midrange jump shot, and it went from there.

"I joke with her because I think she should've had about 23, but her being so fast, she was over-running the ball and blew a couple of layups here and there, but that comes with the growth process."

Region VI-3A is an extremely competitive region, highlighted by the top-ranked team in 3A, Camden and South Carolina commit Joyce Edwards. Last week's win helped Nesmith and the Lady Gators think they could string a few wins together against a tough crowd.

"I was able to show my teammates that I have their back," Nesmith said of her growing confidence. "We just need to keep having confidence."

Footman has preached self-confidence religiously this season.

"I tell them every day that they're better than they think, and their actions are going to have to start matching what I say," Footman said. "We already believe in them; they have to believe in themselves, and once they believe in themselves, everything will start clicking.

"We're not far off. I think we're right there at the line. We just have to have the confidence to step over that line and make the adjustments and keep playing hard. I think, at the end, we'll be right there in the picture."