Straughn junior Jacie Williamson reaches 1,000-point milestone

Jacie Williamson doesn’t like being in the lime light.

The Straughn junior guard had no choice in the matter Friday night when it was announced that she passed the 1,000-point milestone during a 29-28 victory over Brantley during Straughn’s annual Thanksgiving tournament, where she was crowned the most valuable player.

With her 20 points in the Lady Tigers’ 62-16 win over Excel last night, Williamson now has 1,044 career points.

She said she couldn’t have reached this accomplishment without her teammates.

“That’s how I got here,” Williamson said. “It doesn’t really matter how many points I score.”

Getting to this point in her career took a lot of hard work for Williamson. It all started when her father, Jimmy, would stand side-by-side with her to teach her the proper mechanics of the game.

“Jacie got her a ball goal, and I would make her shoot correctly,” Jimmy said. “She would stand there and throw it up. If she didn’t do it right, I told her I was going to take the goal down and throw the ball away.”

Williamson said it was a little tough at times learning under her father, but his experience really shaped her game.

One thing people might not notice on the court is that Jacie is, and always has been, a shy girl.

Jimmy said when she’s around her friends, it’s different.

“Around people she knows, she’s a clown,” he said, laughing. “She’s always been shy.”

That shyness almost turned Jacie away from basketball, Jimmy said.

“When she was young, (SHS teammates and juniors) Paige (Taylor) and Katelyn (Kinsaul) had to talk her into it,” he said. “She didn’t want to go out there and do anything.”

Williamson started playing basketball when she was in about the fifth grade. By the eighth grade, the junior was a starter for the Lady Tigers.

Her father said he remembers a game where he didn’t realize that Jacie’s name was being called as one of the starters.

“I don’t know why, but I’ll always remember. (Wife) Kellie, (daughter and Jacie’s sister) Jordan and I — we drove to Samson and I sit down, and I’ll never forget when we heard that Jacie’s name was called as one of the starters in the starting line up,” he said. “Kellie said, ‘did you know about this? Don’t look at me?'”

Williamson has been a big part of Straughn’s girls basketball team in recent years.

Last year, Williamson played on the team that made it all the way to the Class 3A Final Four in Birmingham.

This season, she is the leading scorer on a 7-1 Lady Tigers basketball team.

Williamson said she was surprised when her coach, Scott Kinsaul, gave the news in between games.

“I hoped one day that I would (reach a 1,000 points), but it doesn’t really matter,” she said. “It’s not a big deal.”

To her father, though, it means a lot.

“I’m very proud,” Jimmy said. “Even though I got a scholarship to play basketball, she’s already done more than I ever did.”