WS Chronicle

Christiana Young is only a freshman at Winston-Salem Christian School (WSCS) but is already racking up accolades and honors. She was named player of the year in the Central Carolina Conference, scored over 1,000 points, and was four points away from being a state champion.

Young began her career on the varsity team as an 8th grade student and went on to score nearly 800 points last season. This year, with an influx of new talent, she led the Lady Lions to a 31-4 overall record.

“Playing as an 8th grader with the varsity team was a really nice experience, especially playing against older girls,” said Young. “I wasn’t nervous or anything, because when I step onto the court, I don’t care who it is against. I just play my hardest and leave everything on the court.”

As the starting point guard, Young’s scoring numbers dipped, but that was mostly due to her having more help this season.

“I have more help this year and they are more experienced players than we had last year,” she said. “We have a new coach and he gets us in really good shape.”

The state championship game was a tough loss for Young. She feels they had a great shot at winning, but lost it in the final minutes.

“It was a good game, we started getting nervous and it really started getting to us,” she said about the championship game. “We started making a lot of turnovers and they were scoring off of our turnovers and we never adjusted. I just learned to continue to play hard to the final whistle and never give up.”

As a child, basketball came easy to Young. She was in the third grade playing on a team with eighth grade girls. Her talent was evident from early on, partly due to her high basketball IQ

Young’s mother, Demetris Jeter Young, says she knew Christiana would be really good on the basketball court as a young child. She admits that she wanted Young to be into dance, but realized that was not her path.

“I wanted to have a little girl so she could do dance and be prissy,” said Jeter Young. “She did cheer one year while her brother played football, but she was always trying to knock him over with her cheerleading uniform on.

“When I went to sign her up for dance, she fought me so hard. We wound up leaving the Y with her being signed up for boxing. So, I noticed then that she had a love for sports. She is just competitive at everything that she does.”

With Young already eclipsing the 1,000-point barrier, she thinks she has a good shot at scoring 3,000 before her high school career is over.

This is head coach Rocky Brundages’ first year at the helm for the Lady Lions. He says it has been a pleasure to coach Young this season. He says she is a hard worker with limitless potential.

“She is an extremely hard worker and the biggest improvement I’ve seen in her this year is in the weight room,” said Brundage. “We put probably three and a half months of time in here in the preseason, which has really made a huge difference.

 “I think she scored more points last year than she did this year, but it’s a different team with a lot more talent than she had before. This is the second time in my career having a player score 1,000 points, but the first time I’ve seen a freshman accomplish that at such a young age.”

Brundage feels the ceiling for Young is very high, because of her work ethic, skill, academics and her positive attitude. Brundage feels when her high school career is completed, she has a good chance to play “mid to high level D-1.”

Young’s favorite subject in school is math. She has dreams of playing for several schools such as Baylor, Notre Dame, UNC Chapel Hill, Wake Forest or South Carolina. She would like to major in sports medicine while attending college.