With five minutes left on the clock, senior power forward Markia “Barkley”  Smith inbounded the ball to shooting guard Tyrah  Washington to start their offensive drive. It was against the L.C. Bird Skyhawks in the Conference 12 Girls Basketball Championships last season.

“One of my best moments was last year when we won the conference championship,” Smith said. “I was very happy because we had put in a whole lot of work to try and get to the championship and it was very good for all of us.”

Smith is the senior starting power forward for the Lady Royals. Smith’s basketball career started at the early age of five years old when her parents signed her up for a recreational league in Prince George County.

“Basketball has always been that thing that I can go to whenever things are feeling rough,” Smith said. “I would rather my mom take everything away from me besides basketball because that’s just something that makes me happy. I love to play ball with my team and my friends and just have a good time.”

Memorable moments do not always have to be good, the career of a high school athlete is filled with trials and tribulations. True greatness isn’t only measured by how you succeed but how you come back from a devastating event for some this event can be anywhere from missing the game winning shot to dropping the game winning touchdown pass.

“The worst moment was when we got to the regionals last year and the game kind of slipped away from us and that was kind of devastating to the whole team,” Smith said. “After that we all worked during the offseason, we came back, recouped, and set goals for ourselves to get us to this season.”