I received some really cool news the other day regarding one of the Southland’s shining stars in girls basketball.
Karli Seay will play on a full scholarship as a sophomore at LSU.
The 2017 Homewood-Flossmoor graduate played her freshman year in junior college at Western Nebraska, breaking one school record that had stood for nearly four decades.
I had a chance to catch up with her Thursday at H-F, where Seay stopped by to work out and visit with Vikings coach Tony Smith.
“A lot happened in this gym,” Seay said. “There was good and bad, but mostly good. Coach Smith prepared me a lot for college and helped me grow as a person.”
Smith is as proud as a coaching papa can be.
“This is a kid who went through a lot and trusted the process,” Smith said. “Just to see her dreams come true — that’s what we (coaches) work hard for, to make these young ladies’ dreams become reality.
“Karli earned it, and I’m looking forward to her doing even more. I think she is going to keep blossoming into something great.”
Her road to LSU has been a bumpy, winding one.
Seay, a 5-foot-7 guard, played a key role during her time at H-F. Especially during her senior year, Smith would always put her on the opponent’s best guard. So while she averaged 12 points, her biggest impact was often made in the points the other teams didn’t score.
The last time I saw Seay play, she was at her best. It came in the Class 4A Mother McAuley Supersectional against Montini. She scored a game-high 16 points, but the Vikings suffered a crushing 39-35 loss in double overtime.
A win there would have given Seay — who had not yet committed — a chance to showcase her talents on the state’s biggest stage.
Seay went through the spring and into the summer without having a college to call home.
“It was pretty stressful not knowing where I was going to go, especially graduating and still not knowing,” Seay said. “It took time.”
It was mid-summer when she finally made her decision, following Smith’s suggestion to start in junior college at Western Nebraska.
“I remember her going down there (to visit),” Smith said, laughing. “Her mom and dad sent me a picture as they were driving down to Western Nebraska. They sent a picture of cornfields.
“Her mom said, ‘This is where you’re sending my baby?’ I felt so bad, but I was like, ‘Hey, this is going to work out. This is good for her. Trust me, she is going to be OK.’”
And to listen to Seay, every word Smith said was true.
“Being there actually made me grow up a little more,” Seay said. “I was not around family and not always asking, ‘Oh, can you do this for me?’ I had to learn how to do things on my own and be more independent.”
And she grew in leaps and bounds as a basketball player.
Seay averaged 14.3 points and 4.9 assists in 26.2 minutes. Four times she cracked the 30-point mark, including a 48-point effort on Feb. 3 against Eastern Wyoming that broke a school record set 39 years earlier.
“One of our key players was sick, so it made me have to step up a little more,” Seay said. “I didn’t know… nobody knew, honestly, at the end of the game that I had scored that much.
“When the reporter guy from our school came up to me and said, ‘You broke the school record,’ I was like, ‘What?’”
That, and her other achievements at Western Nebraska, left the LSU staff saying the same thing.
“Karli is a well-rounded player and she will give us a scorer at the guard position,” LSU assistant coach Aaron Kallhoff said. “But the best thing she brings us is high IQ basketball. She comes from a great high school program and had a successful year of junior college.
“We think she is ready to step in and contribute right away. She’s a great kid from a great family and is just a huge piece to our puzzle at LSU.”
And, at long last, a perfect fit.
