This week’s Duke Automotive-Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week has already proven herself in many ways.

Nansemond-Suffolk Academy senior basketball star Harper Birdsong has been a key force on the Lady Saints’ varsity team since she was a standout reserve as an eighth-grader, and she has been a starter since her freshman year.

She was committed to playing NCAA Division I basketball for George Washington University before the start of her junior season, and then in that junior season, she led the Lady Saints to their first state championship game appearance in school history.

Following that, she became NSA’s first athlete to win back-to-back state Player of the Year awards.

It might be understandable if Birdsong were to become a little complacent, but she is Player of the Week because she has appeared far from it, leading her team to a dominant tournament win at Virginia Episcopal School.

“I felt really good about it,” Birdsong said of her performances in the two tourney games. The team was coming into the event off only a handful of preseason practices, but she said, “I thought that everybody had really great chemistry — that was the thing I was most proud of.”

In the 61-42 championship game win against Williamsburg Christian School on Nov. 21, Birdsong led her team with 24 points and eight assists and she co-led with eight rebounds. The previous day, her team-high 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists helped power the Lady Saints to a 79-42 semifinal blowout of The Covenant School.

Nansemond-Suffolk coach Kim Aston was expecting these performances out of Birdsong, because she knows what her star guard is up to every offseason.

“To be honest, I feel like every summer she has improved her game, and I can tell she made tremendous strides again this summer,” the coach said.

Aston noted Birdsong is physically stronger this year, and she has continued to work hard on developing her skills.

Birdsong said that between the AAU basketball season and school basketball season, she was faithfully at work in the gym, with her father, McLemore Birdsong, who served as her trainer.

“We just were in the gym every day for about an hour and a half to two hours doing everything,” she said. The main focus was shooting, but “we did conditioning, ball-handling, it was intense workouts, so I think it’s really helped me.”

McLemore Birdsong said that through AAU basketball, Harper gained exposure to some of the best high school players in the nation. Watching what they do well informed the summer workouts with his daughter.

“We just try to work on some of those techniques,” he said.

Harper Birdsong said she is aiming to hone her defensive skills while working to achieve three primary goals during her final year of high school competition.

“Every game, I just want to enjoy it, playing with my teammates; we’re all really good friends,” she said. And competitively, “I definitely want to win two championships this year” — conference and state.