Young picks up where she left off
Published 10:25 pm Friday, December 7, 2018
Nylah Young was voted Suffolk News-Herald Player of the Week after a 33-point performance in the season opener.
Young has gotten off to a hot start on the season for King’s Fork High School girls’ basketball team. She dropped 33 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against Indian River High School in the season opener. She followed that up with another 30-point performance in the Lady Bulldogs’ second win. It was something Young was making a note of when the season started, and she wanted herself and the team to get off to a fast start.
“The plan is to always start fast against anybody that we play,” Young said. “We want to jump out early, and I am happy that we did just that. For me, I have just been a little hot early.”
This season will be the last for Young at the high school level, and she is taking advantage of every opportunity. She is the reigning Southeastern District Player of the Year, an All-Region and All-State player and the Suffolk News-Herald’s Female Winter Player of the Year. It’d seem as if individually Young couldn’t accomplish more than that, but she does not see it that way. One way or another, she wants to continue to ascend as a player. One thing she has accomplished already was surpassing 1,000 career points. The fact that she has been on a scoring tear early is not surprising considering that she was among the top scorers in the area last year.
“I never want to repeat the same things,” she said. “Getting better each year is the goal. That goes for my team and me.”
Spectators believe that the Lady Bulldogs aren’t as strong as they have been in the past three or four seasons. Most will look at Young to take on an even bigger role to get the Lady Bulldogs to where they want to be. She is well aware of the challenge in front of her, and she is excited about the opportunity.
“Roles have changed,” she said. “So, I’m just doing the best I can to step up for my team. The players we have that returned have bigger roles this year, so we are all just trying to step up for each other. We are connecting day by day, and the goal is always the same — to just get better and build our chemistry every day that we can. ”
Young came into this season wanting to improve on her footwork. Continuing to build chemistry with her team was also another goal of hers for this season. She is motivated by a strong family who pushes her to be the best she can be every time she steps on the court.
The senior Lady Bulldog is in the midst of her recruiting process and has offers from multiple NCAA Division I schools. She has given an indication that she will decide soon.