Bearettes' Howard Cool, Youthful Customer On Court

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Rhyne Howard is cool.

She runs the Bradley Central Bearettes basketball team from her point guard position with an ever-present stoic expression on her face, even when under extreme pressure by opposing players trying to rattle her into averageness.

She’s calm whether the game is a blowout or headed for a down-to-the-wire finish.

And, she’s collecting rave reviews because of superlative skills far beyond her 14 years.

Now remember that.

Howard is 14 years old. She played last season at East Hamilton High School and was the Lady Hurricanes’ leading scorer with an 8.04-point average while starting 15 of 18 games in which she played – as an eighth-grader.

“I had to finish middle school ball first,” Howard said.

After the 2013-14 season concluded, Howard and her mother, Rhvonja Avery, who played high school basketball at Brainerd and collegiately at the University of Florida, went shopping.

For a new high school.

They considered Baylor, Girls Preparatory School, Hamilton Heights and, obviously, Bradley Central.

“I needed to be pushed,” Rhyne said. “I wasn’t being worked hard enough and I had to find somewhere else so I would be pushed in practice and could get good college looks.”

The mom and daughter duo whittled the list down before choosing Bradley Central, a perennial District 5-AAA and Region 3-AAA title contender with an on-court success that’s easily traced back to the days of legendary Hall of Fame coach Jim Smiddy, who retired as the nation’s winningest high school basketball coach with a phenomenal record of 1,217-206 – best in the nation at the time – that included five state championships and two mythical national titles.

Smiddy retired after the 1992-93 season, ending a 45-year coaching career. He died in July 1995 of a heart attack at the age of 71.

“I didn’t want to go to GPS because it’s all girls there,” Howard said. “Baylor cost too much. Hamilton Heights isn’t TSSAA.”

Howard’s mother, however, had told her daughter, whose gangling, 6-foot physique – again, she’s just 14 – turns into basketball elegance on the court, not to worry about the cost of school.

“That wasn’t her concern,” Avery said.

When all the analyzing and critiquing were over, Howard joined the Bearettes in time for workouts and camps in the summer of 2014.

“It came down to Bradley’s tradition, community support and the level of basketball Bradley has always had,” said Avery, who played against the Bearettes during her career at Brainerd. “Bradley was our regional rival.”

Avery also played at Florida for three years with former Bearette Camille Ratledge, a former Bearette, so she was keenly aware of what basketball has meant to Bradley Central over many decades.

“As a point guard, I never saw anyone any better than Camille,” said Avery, who was at Florida from 1987-91. “Once we gained a rhythm, she always knew where I’d be on the court and she had the ball there waiting for me.”

So, the mom and daughter basketball show – it’s built on laid-back confidence, a will to succeed and a love of the sport without the slightest hint of showmanship – wound up diving feet first into the black-and-gold world of girls basketball at Bradley Central.

It’s a program with five state championships, all in the Smiddy era and none since 1976. In 1962, the Bearettes and Bears were both state champions.

That’s rich.

The Bearettes produced one Miss Basketball, Brittany Jackson in 2001, and three other candidates for the award – Amy Geren, Paige Redmon and Jackie Pickel.

Their top three all-time scorers – Data Caldwell (3,011 points), Liz Hannah (2,693) and Zandra Ownby (2,455) played for Smiddy when the school, then called Bradley County, was a three-year institution void of freshmen, and they were there in the six-on-six era of prep basketball.

Jody Adams, daughter of former Bradley baseball coach Joe Adams and granddaughter of legendary McMinn County football, baseball and basketball coach J.B. “Ace” Adams, once scored 57 points in a game against Kirkman the Bearettes lost, 112-101, in 1989. The 3-point shot was 3 years old. Bradley had been playing 5-on-5 basketball for less than a decade.

In 1966, Bradley bombed rival Cleveland, 114-38, and Jane Brock made 40-of-67 field goals to score 93 points, the school’s single-game record. She had 50 points at halftime.

Pickel, the school’s No. 9 all-time scorer with 2,221 points, was a 2006 graduate and the first four-year player to crack the esteemed list. Brittany Jackson, ranked No. 5 with 2,439 points, was a three-year player and is one spot ahead of Adams.

More recently, Brooke Copeland finished with 2,232 career points and her “Twin Tower” teammate, Rebecca Reuter, coach Jason Reuter’s daughter, left with 1,108 points. As freshmen, they scored 378 and 211 points, respectively.

Howard goes into Monday’s Region 3-AAA tournament game against Warren County already having scored 415 points in her rookie season, 29 behind leading scorer Halle Hughes, a veteran of two seasons. Hughes averages 17.1 points and Howard puts up 16 per game.

Late last season coach Reuter was searching for a point guard after the loss of junior Chelsie Summars to two surgeries on the same knee that ended her playing career. Summars has spent this season as an honorary coach.

And along came Rhyne Howard.

“Rhyne has been with us since June,” Reuter said. “It was on-the-job training. We had a few practices and took off to camps. It didn’t take me long to figure out I had a special girl.”

Fairly late in preseason practice, Reuter handed the point guard role to Howard.

Did that surprise Howard?

“No,” she answered.

In her first game as a Bearette, Howard scored 24 points against Farragut.

Was that surprising?

“Not really,” the newcomer said. “It was pretty easy.”

In 26 games, Howard has scored double-figures 20 times. She scored 35 and 30 points in back-to-back wins over Soddy-Daisy and Walker Valley in the district tournament and was named to the all-tournament team, along with Hughes and junior Julia Gaither.

Which game did she consider her best game?

“The 30-point game because Walker Valley is a tougher opponent,” she said.

Howard, who turns 15 in mid-April, leads the Bearettes in rebounding (209 total, 156 defensive with a single-game high of 18 against Soddy-Daisy that included 16 on the defensive end) with 8.0 per game, field-goal shooting (51 percent), assists (106), steals (95) and, get this, blocks (60). She is tied with Hughes for the team lead with 35 percent 3-point shooting (41-of-116, Hughes has hit 33-of-94).

On two-point shooting, Howard hits a team-best 62 percent (105-of-169)

Howard’s so good it appears she plays in a melancholy state of mind, but down deep burns with a competitiveness belying her youthful age. Be cool. Don’t get flustered. Be sure to survey the court. Keep teammates involved and when the time is right strike like a cobra.

She can get off a quick-release 3 over smaller guards and demoralize taller players with nifty, knee-buckling moves and never-ending, tenacious battles for rebounds around the rim that end up as high-percentage layups.

Yet, Howard doesn’t really consider herself as a point guard. Not a shooting guard. Or a post player.

“My mom always made me work at every position, so I think it doesn’t really matter,” she said.

Avery helps coach her daughter’s AAU team, along with Hamilton Heights coach Keisha Hunt. In fact, mom has coached her talented young daughter, whom she describes as a consummate gym rat, since the third grade.

Is mom surprised at the quick basketball success Rhyne has enjoyed?

“Not at all,” Avery said. “I’m just really anticipating the time when she realizes how special she is. I’ve coached her all these years and it’s remarkable to see a young kid with such a high basketball IQ who takes all the time in the world to practice and play with the idea of getting better. She has confidence that she’s good. She just hasn’t realized how good.”

Important people do know.

The University of Florida is already recruiting Rhyne, whose brother, RaShawn Avery played prep ball at Notre Dame. So are South Carolina, North Carolina State and Western Kentucky, and that list will continue to grow over the next few years.

Because Rhyne is willing to push ahead and be pushed by her high school coach, who has a 135-22 record with five straight district regular-season and tournament titles, four straight regional crowns, two consecutive sectional wins and back-to-back state tournament appearances to his credit.

“I’ve watched her grow mentally and physically stronger this year,” Reuter said. “I’ve watched her go from shying away from being the ringleader to now embracing it to the point of, ‘Give me the ball and let’s see if (opponents) can stop me. And I think the team respects Rhyne more for that.

“You can imagine her coming in here as a hot-shot freshman and saying, ‘I have arrived.’ She didn’t handle it that way. At times I have begged Rhyne to put up more shots, begged her to drive more. She was like, well, she wasn’t quite sure about what exactly she should be doing. Should I be shooting 20 times a game? I was like, ‘Rhyne, who’s going to stop you?’

“We’ve gone against our freshman boys 12 to 14 times this season and she scores on very athletic freshman boys. She can take the ball from a boy and go coast-to-coast and lay it in while he’s trying to block the shot and can’t do it.”

Reuter played high school basketball in Kentucky and at Lee University in Cleveland. He’s coached boys and girls basketball at Bradley Central.

He knows a thing or two.

“If she doesn’t have a major injury, she’s going to have a plethora of college offers in front of her before she leaves Bradley Central High School,” Reuter said. “She’ll be able to choose from any Division I school, from any state, in America.”

Florida swooped in to sign Copeland while Middle Tennessee State landed Rebecca Reuter, the coach’s daughter, off last year’s squad.

The next big stage for Rhyne Howard and the Bearettes is this week’s region tournament. The Bearettes (21-5) will host Warren County (17-17), the No. 4 team out of District 6-AAA, Monday at 7 p.m. at Jim Smiddy Arena.

Bradley, which has won 10 of its last 11 games, will be heavily favored to win its quarterfinal opener and advance to the semifinals at Ooltewah High School on Wednesday, when the competition gets a little stiffer.

Howard will be leading her teammates, including fellow starters Hughes, Emma Kate Brown, Julia Gaither and Kailey McRee, into a familiar setting, that of a team with a large target on its back.

“I told Rhyne when she came to Bradley it’s a lot different here than at East Hamilton,” Hughes said. “Expectations are higher, but I think she knew that coming in. She knew it would be tougher, that we would be playing really good, competitive teams and she’s handled it all very well.”

Hughes has become like a sister to Howard and they often spend time together on weekends Hughes drives the two to eat after a lot of games.

The entire team has welcomed Howard into the fold.

“I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like Rhyne because she’s so likable,” said Hughes, whose grandfather Dale R. Hughes is a former athletic director and basketball coach at Lee University, ex-Bradley Central principal and currently a real estate mogul in and around the Cleveland area.

Dale’s son, Richie, coached high school ball in Georgia and is Halle’s father.

In the championship win over Walker Valley, Howard got the Lady Mustangs’ attention with a 3-pointer and putback within the first minute of play that helped the Bearettes take a 21-8 first quarter lead. They eventually staved off a Walker Valley comeback and won 58-50.

Rhyne displays an ice-in-the-veins persona on the court, something her mother says “has always been there.” Avery admits her daughter can get frustrated, although it’s difficult to detect. She won’t display negative behavior when it does occur because she’s able to channel that with the help of her teammates and coaches.

Everyone knows the significant role Howard has with the Bearettes.

In four of five Bradley Central losses this season, Howard was held to single-digit scoring. In the other setback, she scored 11 points, as did Hughes and Gaither.

But in her last three games against East Hamilton in the regular-season finale and two district tournament games, Howard scored 92 points, averaging 30.1 points per outing.

“I’m a little surprised she dominated the district tournament,” Reuter said.

Ah, someone has finally been slightly taken aback by something Rhyne Howard did on the basketball court this season.

Reuter then shared a story that better sums up what Rhyne and Rhvonja are all about.

Following the team’s game at East Hamilton on Friday night (Feb. 6), the paired jumped into a car and drove through the night to Gainesville, Fla., in order for momma Avery to play in a Florida alumni game Saturday afternoon.

That morning, Rhyne got up and took her first ACT test at a facility on the Florida campus. They stayed over for the Lady Gators’ game on Sunday against Tennessee’s Lady Vols. As soon as the game ended, the climbed back into the car for the return trip to Cleveland, arriving around 2 or 3 a.m. Monday.

At 8 a.m., Rhyne was back in school.

They’re both driven individuals.

As for the ACT test. Rhyne scored a 20.

She’s cool at more than just playing basketball.

Region 3-AAA Schedule

Monday, Girls

(All Times Eastern, Mandated by TSSAA)

Warren County (17-17) at Bradley Central (21-5), 7 p.m.

Cookeville (11-19) at Walker Valley (20-7), 7 p.m.

Cleveland (16-12) at White County (26-3), 8 p.m.

Soddy-Daisy (14-14) at Cumberland County (24-4), 8 p.m.

Tuesday, Boys

Cumberland County (13-18) at Bradley Central (20-8), 7 p.m.

Cookeville (22-9) at Cleveland (17-8), 7 p.m.

Ooltewah (16-16) at Stone Memorial (14-16), 8 p.m.

Soddy-Daisy (11-18) at White County (26-3), 8 p.m.

Wednesday

Girls and boys semifinals at 4, 5:30, 7 and 8:30 p.m.

Thursday

Girls championship, 6 p.m.

Boys championship, 7:30 p.m.

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)