A year after playing just seven minutes, the former East Bladen standout leads the Seahawks in scoring

Lacey Suggs doesn’t cry.

At least, not very often.

Yet there she was, with her mother’s arms around her and her father’s hand on her back, wiping tears from her face, hoping the brim of her ball cap would keep everyone from seeing the stream on her cheek.

Her UNCW teammates watched and grinned. Her parents and high school coach, Patty Evers, fought back tears of their own. Karen Barefoot, the Seahawks’ first-year women’s basketball coach, searched for the right words to describe Suggs.

With every sentence, more tears.

Seconds earlier, the players and coaches with the UNCW women’s basketball program were belting out lines to bad karaoke songs, laughing during a holiday party at Barefoot’s home.

The room changed when the coach walked in with a wrapped gift and asked everyone to quiet down.

The speech. The tears. The ripping of wrapping paper. Suggs clinched a framed document in her hands while reading the words – her days as a walk-on were over. When the 2018-19 fall semester starts, she’ll be a scholarship athlete.

“I think that’s why I was so emotional about it because last year was just not a great year. When coach Barefoot came in, she believed in me,” Suggs said. “The stuff that she says about me, it means a lot. For her to do that in front of everyone and have my parents come and everyone for that moment, it meant a lot.”

The moment, now a viral video that’s been played nearly 45,000 times between Facebook and Twitter, is one Suggs never could have conceived. All she wanted was to play basketball. Not long ago, that seemed improbable.

A new home

Mike Suggs called it the blessing and the curse. The Suggs’ youngest child was good at everything.

With two older brothers challenging her, Lacey had to earn success. That at-home training translated to sports. During her four years at East Bladen High School, she played basketball, volleyball, softball and soccer.

She was conference MVP in volleyball her senior year and first team all-conference in softball numerous times. In her lone season of soccer as a senior, Lacey was a first team all-conference pick after leading the team in scoring.

Basketball was where she stood out the most – three time all-state, four-time conference MVP, finishing with 2,166 points and 829 rebounds.

Still, she never leaned one way or another when it came to what she was doing after high school. At one point, Lacey had considered playing softball at South Carolina. Coaches from other sports had shown interest, but Lacey’s indecision resulted in them finding other talent.

“We finally just said, ‘Honey, basketball or whatever sport is going to end one day. You’ve got to go to school where you want to go to school and get a degree in something you want. That’s really the most important thing. If ball works out, it works out,’” Mike said.

Over holiday break during her senior year, Lacey came to Wilmington to watch the UNCW women’s basketball team.

By the time the final horn sounded, Suggs had made up her mind.

“I think that was the moment I was like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to go with basketball,’” Suggs said.

At that point, then-coach Adell Harris and her staff hadn’t reached out. Lacey approached them and discussed what options were available. Because of the timing, all available scholarships were tied up with current or future players, meaning she’d have to be a walk-on.

“In the end, I think she realized that basketball, it’s kind of what defined her in high school. When you’re all-state and you score over 2,000 points, there was never a question in my mind that she should play basketball,” said Evers, who coached her in basketball and softball.

Waiting game

Karen Suggs knew it was a possibility when Lacey opted to walk-on at UNCW.

Coaches spend countless hours evaluating talent, making visits, hosting recruits and trying to woo players that fit their scheme. Going into her fifth year at the school, Harris didn’t have that connection with Lacey. That meant she would have to prove herself in practice.

“As a walk-on, you’re going to have to work 10 times as hard and you might not play this year because sometimes you have to pay your dues,” Karen told her daughter. “Even if you get recruited and have a scholarship, as a freshman, a lot of times you have to pay your dues.”

For a competitor like Lacey, it was hard to reconcile what she was putting in with what she was getting out.

During the 2016-17 season, she made three appearances for a total of seven minutes. She didn’t attempt a field goal, didn’t grab a rebound, committed one turnover and went 2-of-4 from the free throw stripe. Her three appearances included a 36-point loss at Tennessee, a 25-point defeat at Drexel and a 34-point setback at Elon. UNCW had six other games (one win, five losses) decided by 22 or more that Lacey did not appear in. The team finished the year 11-20.

Every time the Seahawks were at home or within driving distance on the road, Mike and Karen were there. All they could do was offer words of encouragement and support.

“She’d just get frustrated at times and I can understand that, looking at their record. I thought that she should have had a shot, but she didn’t get one. That was the most frustrating part,” Mike said.

As the season wore on, Lacey began mulling a word that wasn’t normally in her vocabulary – quit.

With no prospects of seeing the court, stepping away became a possibility. Her parents refused to let her do that mid-season, telling her she had to see the year out before walking away.

The only thing that kept her going was support from those around her.

“To be honest, I kind of doubted if I made the right decision. My confidence level kind of went down. If it wasn’t for my teammates, I don’t think I’d be here right now,” Lacey said.

New beginning

When Evers heard the name, she knew.

After a few months of searching by the school, reports hit the internet that Barefoot was going to be introduced as the new UNCW women’s basketball coach after Harris resigned. Evers had gotten to know Barefoot while being at the Final Four a few years back. She was instantly struck by her energy and passion for the game. Even though they manage teams at different levels, both had similar styles and philosophies.

Evers had been talking to Lacey during the offseason about keeping positive and waiting to see what was going to happen. When she heard the name, Evers knew that opportunity had arrived.

“I just knew Lacey was going to love her. She is one of those blue collar work ethic people and that’s exactly what Lacey is,” Evers said. “I told Lacey when I found out who it was, I said, ‘Girl, you’ve got to stay. If you work hard, she’s going to give you an opportunity. She’s just that kind of coach.’”

During her freshman year, Lacey was often the first player to finish a sprint. In practice, she was tenacious on defense and aggressive on offense. She never backed down from a challenge, even against bigger, more experienced players.

That continued during offseason workouts. When Barefoot began installing her system, Suggs was often the first player in the gym and the last one to leave. She’d stay after and get up extra shots, asking coaches for help in developing her game.

Back home in Bladen County over the summer, she’d ask Evers to borrow the keys to the East Bladen gym when she had downtime. She wanted to get in a few extra hours of work.

“It doesn’t matter what you ask of her, she never has a bad attitude, she never has bad body language, you can get on her, you can do whatever and she just stays the same. She just does whatever it takes for the team to win, literally whatever it takes,” Barefoot said. “If you look up hard work in the dictionary, her name would probably pull up. That’s how I feel about her work ethic. It’s off the charts.”

Back in rhythm

Over her high school career, Lacey made the state semifinals once and the quarterfinals twice. She’d taken part in big games on big stages.

Yet, a Sunday afternoon game with a lower level opponent in front of less than 800 fans had her stomach in knots.

UNCW’s lone exhibition against Division III Greensboro College was the first time the Seahawks would play with Barefoot as coach. It was also the first time Lacey would play significant minutes in more than a year.

With Jenny DeGraaf nursing an injury, Lacey was put into the starting five – 25 minutes, 15 points and seven rebounds later, the walk-on from White Lake was back doing what she loved.

“The butterflies and nerves were there,” Lacey said with a laugh. “I did what I did but if it wasn’t for my teammates, I wouldn’t have been able to do. It was good being back out there and having a feel for the game again.”

Since the season-opener with UNC Pembroke, Lacey has served as UNCW’s sixth-man. She’s been the first player off bench in every game this season.

Lacey leads the team in points scored (144) and her points per game average (14.4) is sixth-best among CAA players. She’s also third in total rebounds (44), first in field goal percentage (52.9) and second in free throw percentage (74.4) on the squad.

Her contributions have helped UNCW get off to its best start since opening the 2010-11 season at 7-2. The Seahawks are 6-4 going into Thursday’s game with Georgia State.

Honored at last

The voting was supposed to be private, but Madison Raque has no problem sharing.

In late October, Barefoot allowed the players, assistant coaches and support staff to vote on who deserved to be permanent team captains for the 2017-18 season.

Raque, the returning leading scorer, and DeGraaf, the multi-talented forward, were among the top picks. And so was Lacey.

“She was my first choice, so I wasn’t surprised at all,” Raque said. “It might be surprising to people in the stands who might not have known who she was or where she came from, but it’s not surprising to me or any of us.”

Emails, messages and questions from those people in the stands have come to Barefoot about Lacey. Several times she’s been asked if Lacey transferred in or where she was last year. Some people thought she was a recruit no one knew about.

Seeing what Lacey has done and knowing where she was last year is something that Barefoot admits she struggles to comprehend. The Seahawks wouldn’t be nearly as successful if Lacey wasn’t on the court doing what she has done.

“The thought that she would ever quit or not play basketball, that blows my mind because she’s such a good role model,” Barefoot said. “She’s just fun to coach, honestly. She buys into the vision. She helps other people do that. She’s that leader every coach has to have when you’re building a program.”

That’s why the scholarship presentation became something the Suggs wasn’t expecting. When Mike and Karen were invited to the team event, they thought it was for a quiet presentation. Instead, the team spent about 30 minutes telling Lacey how much her hard work meant to them.

“It was a tearjerker,” Mike said with a laugh.

Added Karen: “We knew all that stuff, but for her teammates to recognize it and tell it to Lacey, I think it meant a lot.”

It was a moment to recognize Lacey’s dedication through everything that had happened before.

Even with a scholarship, Lacey promises to keep the hard work up. She truly knows no other way. The days of winning sprint battles and diving for loose balls are far from over.

“I’ve even said to people around here that we didn’t win a state championship with her. We probably could have two of those years that we were in the regionals. But I felt like this meant more than winning a state title. That was the feeling of emotion that I had when it was announced,” Evers said. “It’s stories like these and the kids that have the character and the drive like she does to not quit, it’s just an inspiration.”

-- Reporter Alex Riley can be reached at 910-343-2034 or Alex.Riley@StarNewsOnline.com.