STEENS — Kylie Emerson never intended to play basketball.
One day during her seventh-grade year at Columbus Christian Academy, Emerson was shooting around casually during PE class when principal Terry Walters, who often came into the gym during walks around the school, took notice of her talent.
“He saw potential in me,” Emerson said. “If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be playing basketball, to be honest.”
Walters and PE teacher Jared Garrett told Emerson she should join the basketball team. She thought about it.
“‘I don’t know,'” Emerson told herself. “‘I don’t know.'”
Emerson took some convincing — her brother, Jeremy, and her parents, Jeff and Tonsha, helped — before she agreed. Walters and Garrett thought she could play on the varsity team right away, but Emerson, nervous and inexperienced, chose to play her eighth-grade year with the junior varsity squad. She moved up to varsity the year afterward.
Three years later, Emerson hasn’t looked back. She’s the Rams’ only senior and is their leading scorer. That raw, skittish seventh-grader is five years gone, and the sport “comes natural” to Emerson now.
“I love it,” she said. “It’s so fun.”
‘This is for basketball’
The basketball hoop outside the Emersons’ house in Caledonia has been there as long as Jeremy can remember.
And as long as it’s been there, so has his sister.
Emerson tries to get shots up every day to keep her shooting form, often playing one-on-one with her brother — “I always win,” said Jeremy, a sophomore basketball player at Caledonia High.
Emerson also uses the hoop as a means of blowing off steam and relieving her frustration — as long as it’s not too cold outside.
“Whenever I’m upset or something, that’s my go-to, and I just forget about everything,” Emerson said.
If she and Jeremy get into an argument, which she said happens from time to time, Emerson finds her refuge under that hoop.
“I think it helps her a lot,” Jeremy said. “She really loves basketball and just wants to get better.”
Emerson is on the cheer team, and she runs track in the spring, preferring sprints to long distance. But even that competition, she said, is just a means to an end, just preparation for the sport she really loves.
“If I do run, I’m like, ‘This is for basketball. This is for basketball,'” Emerson said.
During the summer, with neither sport in season, she still tries her hardest to stay in shape, running back and forth down the road outside her house or working out at Planet Fitness in Columbus.
When she’s not working out, Emerson might be riding around town with Jeremy in her Nissan Xterra, often making stops at Zaxby’s or Chick-Fil-A.
But more likely, she’s doing puzzles. They’re Emerson’s hobby, and the more challenging, the better. She even recalled completing a 5,000-piece behemoth before.
“It took me a couple of days, but it was fun,” Emerson said.
In a lot of ways, Emerson’s fascination with puzzles mirrors the career she wants to pursue. She wants to study computer science in college, remembering the coding experience she got while taking a computing class at CCA in seventh grade.
“I haven’t done it in so long, and I miss it,” she said. “I enjoyed it.”
Emerson hasn’t received any basketball recruiting interest just yet, but if she earns a scholarship, she’ll take it. If she doesn’t, she’s not overly concerned — Jeremy can speak to her skills with electronics.
“If it’s meant for me, it’s for me,” Emerson said. “If not, then I’ve got my education. I’m not really worried about it, because it’s not good to worry. You get wrinkles.”
‘A quiet leader’
Not even being the only senior on the team at Columbus Christian can make Emerson worry. She’s used to it.
Last year, she was the team’s only junior. The year before, she was one of three sophomores — then the other two quit the team. She’s been by herself so long it’s become second nature.
“It’s not a big difference,” Emerson said. “They all treat me the same. … I love the game of basketball. I didn’t care that was the only girl in my class doing it.”
As the Rams’ captain and the entirety of a one-person senior class, Emerson has (quite literally) quietly assumed leadership role for Columbus Christian.
“She’s a quiet leader,” Jeremy said. “She doesn’t really say much, but you just know by her actions.”
First-year head coach Jason Williams has only known Emerson since he took over the team this summer, but he’s seen the effort the team has shown under her steadfast leadership.
“She just really gets along with everybody,” Williams said. “She sets a good example for everyone.”
For Williams, that compatibility isn’t hard to attribute: It’s a testament to Emerson’s talent on the court — she leads the team with 16.6 points per game — but it also goes to show her kindness and positive demeanor.
“She’s a really, really good girl,” Williams said. “She’s a really sweet girl, and she’s got a really good attitude. And the fact is that trickles down to everybody.”
If Emerson gets mad on the court, she knows better than to let the anger shine through.
“I know the younger kids are looking up to me, and I just try not to let the negative energy show,” she said. “Just push through and just be an example for them that they don’t have to talk back to the refs or their coaches.”
Emerson and the Rams made the third round of the MAIS state tournament last year, building on the year prior when they reached only the second round of the north state bracket.
This season, she expects to see even more progress.
“I feel really good about this year,” Emerson said. “I felt good about it this summer. And I feel good about us individually, too. We’ve improved a lot.”
For her senior year, she has the same dream of any player, though the Rams’ 3-3 start and a tough field of opponents might make it difficult to achieve.
“I would love to win a ring my last year, but if not, I’m okay, because I’ve enjoyed this year so far, and I know the rest of the games I’ll enjoy,” she said.
Looking ahead
Jeremy transferred to Caledonia this year for a taste of public-school competition, but Emerson chose to stick around in Steens.
“I decided to stay because it’s my last year, and I didn’t want to get acclimated to another school my last year,” she said.
She still gets to watch her brother whenever she can, though playing on the same night can make that difficult. On Dec. 3, when Columbus Christian hosted Marshall Academy and Caledonia traveled to rival New Hope, Emerson scored 11 points in a Rams win and promptly left with her parents to catch Jeremy’s game 10 miles away.
Her brother returns the favor, aiming to be in attendance for Emerson’s games whenever the ‘Feds have an off night.
“It’s been really fun watching her play,” Jeremy said. “You can tell she’s grown a lot in her athleticism and just as a person, too.”
Since that fateful day in seventh grade when her talent was discovered, Emerson has accomplished more than she ever could have thought.
She found a future in a sport she never expected to play, took on a leadership role and gave herself a shot at playing at the next level.
So when Emerson’s high school days are done, she’ll be looking back fondly at the sport she loves.
“I know when I leave here, basketball will be the No. 1 thing that I miss out of everything,” Emerson said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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