On Point: South Caldwell's Kayla Gross took her game to a new level -  and a new position

As a two-sport coach and athletic director at South Caldwell, Jeff Parham has a part in about everything in the Spartan athletic department. He bleeds Spartan maroon and silver, you could say.

It's only natural, then, that in describing Kayla Gross, his team's point guard from this year, he picks a sports analogy.

“She was a wide receiver last year, and we made her into a quarterback,” Parham says.

The Spartan coach, of course, was referring to the fact that Gross, a sophomore, had been a shooting guard, a scoring threat that liked to penetrate to the basket. This year, however, she made a transition - a pretty smooth one at that - to the point guard spot.

Gross stood out on the county's top team and for that reason, she's been named the Caldwell County Player of Year, as presented by the News-Topic. The honor is sponsored by Kelley's Sports and Awards of Lenoir.

Gross was an all-around threat for the Spartans, who rallied from a poor start in conference play to earn a state playoff berth. They whipped Garinger in the first round, before falling to Grimsley, a team loaded with Division I recruits.

Gross led the team in scoring (13.2 points per game), assists (5.2 apg), steals (2.3 spg) and had a solid, non-point-guard average of 5.5 rebounds.

“I thought she did a great job and just got better each week learning the role of point guard,” Parham says. “I thought she really caught on, and the more she got better, the more we got better.”

In the beginning, Gross had a learning curve to straighten out. She learned last summer that the point guard job was hers for the taking. That meant finding a little more polish for her passing, honing up her decision-making skills and taking control of the ball-handling duties she'd typically been the secondary option on.

“I just had to work on it,” Gross says. “I was still learning what to do. I had to learn so much about passing.”

She also had to be open to the demanding task of playing a key role for the always-intense Parham, who doesn't miss anything that happens on the court. At first, she says, she tried not to look at the bench when a play didn't go as planned, Parham's signature facial expressions certainly trying to get the attention of the coach's extension on the floor. But she found a point guard's job - if the team is going to be worth a darn, anyway - is to actually seek out those instructions and critiques.

She began embracing the responsibility of running the Spartan show.

“It was different,” Gross says. “(Now), I like having control over it. I like having pressure.”

Parham says Gross evolved into the player he envisioned for this year.

“I thought her decision making was so much better,” he says. “When they cut her off, she'd pass it. If not, she'd penetrate. She got good at reading the defense. I felt like she understood what we wanted to do.”

Often, Gross, who is right-handed, would go left, cut into the lane, then kick out for a 3-point attempt for Matison Hall or Kaitie Sharpe. Other times, she'd dump off a pass to Vontenea Williams or Allyson Minton in the post. Gross still scored plenty, too. Of the Spartans' 27 games, she hit double figures 17 times, with a high of 20 against Watauga.

With two years of playing time left, Gross, who is currently playing softball, is excited about the future of Spartan basketball. A strong core is set to return, and the feeder school programs have some talent.

Parham's certainly not disappointed Gross will be in Spartan togs again.

“She did some great things for us, and I just feel like we're expecting even bigger things from her,” he said.