Do-everything Kennedy Smith has eyes on the prize for Etiwanda

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – We enter the Etiwanda High gymnasium, and the walls are full of banners. State banners. Regional banners. Section banners. And league.

Fitting for a school that is 44-6 in basketball — girls and boys combined — this season.

Then we scan the lay-up lines, and our subject is missing.

So we hit up Etiwanda coach Stan Delus. Fist bumps.

“Kennedy’s not playing?” we ask Delus of girls’ star player Kennedy Smith.

“You want me to play her?” Delus says. “We play on national TV (ESPN+) tomorrow.”

We settle for a quick interview with Smith, 20 rows up in the bleachers.

GOOD GENES

We’ve seen Smith before. She scores in the post. She drains 3-pointers. She dribbles. She guards anyone.

“My freshman year I started on varsity,” Smith says. “I was voted freshman state player of the year (by SBLive Sports). That gave me a lot of motivation.”

Last season she was named the sophomore of the year by SBLive and Cal-Hi Sports after averaging 18.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. That includes a 44-point outburst against Chino Hills.

Smith was within three points of tying Jaiya Mix’s school record for points in a game when she got the ball with just seconds left.

She took aim and … swish. She does that a lot.

This year Smith averages 24 points and nine rebounds for a team that is 24-2 and has clinched the programs 23^rd consecutive league title. ESPN HoopGurlz ranks her the No. 16 junior in the country and SBLive ranks the Eagles No. 16 in the country and No. 3 in the state.

They travel to Los Osos (19-3) in a big league game on Wednesday.

“We’d like to win a state title and the CIF-Southern Section,” Smith says. “I want to improve my versatility. I’ve been working on my mid-range shooting.”

The genes are there. Smith’s late father, Randolph, played at Eastern Washington University. Her mother, Monica, competed at Cal State Los Angeles. Monica was a college teammate of the mom (Tina Slatinsky Bell) of the Ball brothers — Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo.

HALFTIME HIJINKS

The half ends 44-5 with Upland’s fifth point coming on a banked-in free throw.

Smith’s mom works the concession stand. Daughter makes a beeline and picks up a bowl of nachos. Then she joins in the fun as a man in a bright green shirt swishes a half-court shot to win free hamburgers.

The Eagles deluge the fellow and pound him on the back.

We sit down with Monica Smith and quiz her.

“I thought Kennedy was going to be a YouTuber,” Monica says. “When she was younger, she had her own (make believe) cooking channel. She’d make cakes and cookies and would film herself and wanted to put it on YouTube. But she was too young, and I wouldn’t let her do it.”

Mom also tells of her daughter’s dalliance with cheerleading. She dug the pompons.

“I thought she was going to be a cheerleader,” Monica says. “But basketball has worked out for her. It’s worked out grand.”

BRIGHT FUTURE

The next day Etiwanda plays La Jolla Country Day in San Ysidro. We hope to watch the livestream, but it malfunctions. The Eagles lose 70-65 as Smith scores 21.

No biggie. This week there are league games with Los Osos of Rancho Cucamonga and St. Lucy’s of Glendora. Then comes section play, and perhaps regional, and state, and then … the sky’s the limit.

“I want to play professionally,” Smith says. “I just want to keep playing basketball until I can’t play no more.”