Kayla Warren was recently voted to the All-OTM girls basketball team. Her basketball skills have helped her with being a goalkeeper.By Rubin E. Grant
Kayla Warren was in the weight room with some of her Homewood girls basketball teammates in the fall, working out alongside some members of the Patriots’ girls soccer team.
Maddie Massie, senior captain for the soccer team, approached Warren, a junior team captain on the basketball team, about joining the soccer team, even though Warren hadn’t played the sport in high school. Warren had dabbled in soccer a little when she was in the third grade.
Katie Crim, the Patriots’ standout goalkeeper from their 2022 Class 6A state championship team, had graduated and gone on to play at Oglethorpe University near Atlanta, so Homewood needed a new keeper.
Massie figured Warren was athletic enough to replace Crim this season.
Warren figured, why not give it a try. She didn’t have anything else going on in the spring except AAU basketball. She went to tryouts and is now the starting goalkeeper for the Class 6A No. 1 ranked Patriots (14-4-1).
Warren admits she was a little uneasy when the season started.
“I was nervous the first few games,” she said, “but I got a lot of positive reinforcement from my teammates and coaches. The more I practiced with the team, I became pretty confident I could do well.”
Warren has a few of her basketball teammates on the soccer team – junior Susie Whitsett, sophomores Annie McBride and Hollis Tangye, and freshman Ryanne Ezekiel — to make her feel at home.
One of the main hurdles Warren had to overcome was not being too hard on herself.
“I had to learn that not every goal the other team scored was necessarily my fault, that it’s not on me,” Warren said. “A lot of people have been encouraging me that when a goal is scored to keep looking toward the next play.”
Homewood coach Sean McBride said Warren has made steady improvement throughout the season.
“She’s done well for the first time playing soccer and being put in the position of goalkeeper, a specialized position,” McBride said. “She’s a natural athlete and it’s been a learning process for her, where to position herself in the net, when to come out and when to stay back.
“Her game awareness has improved. Every game she’s gaining more confidence and her teammates are gaining more confidence in her.”
Warren doesn’t remember her first save, except she said, “I was just glad it didn’t go into the net.”
She doesn’t face many shots on goal because of the Patriots’ strong defensive backline that includes, among others, Tangye, sophomore Amelia Blish, junior Caroline Petrella and senior Sunny Ferren, who has signed with Longwood University. Ferren is the lone returning starter defender from last season.
“We graduated four of our five starters on the backline, but the newcomers have jelled well,” McBride said.
They have given Warren a measure of comfort.
“Compared to a lot of other teams, we don’t get many shots on goal,” Warren said. “Our defense is pretty good.”
Several Talents
On the basketball court, Warren, a 5-foot-6 guard, averaged 9.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals this past season and was voted to the All-OTM girls team. Her basketball skills have helped her with being a goalkeeper.
“I’m pretty good with my hands, catching the ball, and I’m pretty agile, good at moving my feet and moving to the ball,” Warren said.
But there’s one skill she didn’t possess.
“I was really bad punting at first,” she said. “I had to learn how to do it because it’s so different from anything I’d done. I’m still learning.”
Soccer and basketball aren’t the only two things Warren does at Homewood. She’s also a member of the drumline on the marching band, playing snare drum.
“I was in the sixth grade when I started doing band,” Warren said. “I chose the drums because it is the best instrument for me, the coolest instrument and the most fun to play.”
This spring her beats are coming on the soccer field as the Patriots try to repeat as Class 6A champions. They are a talented group. In addition to Ferren, they have two other players who have signed to play at the next level. Massie is headed to Furman and Grace Studinka is headed to Mississippi College.
“I think we have a good chance to repeat,” Warren said. “Some games have been a disappointment, but we believe in ourselves and we have a lot of talent.”
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