It’s midway through a long week in the middle of summer in the midst of a lingering heatwave. Exceedingly high temperatures call for some frosty treats, and Graeter’s Ice Cream beckons Laney Smith.
“I love ice cream,” said the Highlands High School senior soccer standout. “Especially when it’s hot out.”
Smith, a University of Dayton commit, is familiar with being hot. She scored a goal in nine of Highlands’ first 11 contests this season. She matched her season-high three goals in a game against Clarksville High School out of Tennessee during a two-win stay at the Lady Colonel Showcase at Christian County.
Through games of Sept. 9, Smith had a team-high 15 goals, propelling the Bluebirds to an 8-2-1 record. Smith also had a team-best seven assists. She has been particularly hot of late with five goals and three assists in her last three games. This followed an early-season hot streak that netted Smith a hat trick and 10 goals in August.
During a break in her busy schedule, Smith performed her coolest feat of the month. The Bluebirds’ recently minted all-time leading girls soccer scorer stepped to the counter inside the air-conditioned Graeter’s Ice Cream in Newport and placed her regular order. She asked for a large chocolate milkshake with no lid and no straw for Kenney Shields, the winningest men’s basketball coach at both Highlands and Northern Kentucky University.
“He doesn’t need a lid or a straw because he uses his own spoon,” Smith said. “It’s a really long spoon he keeps at home, and he likes to use it to get into his milkshake.”
Smith ordered two scoops of mint chocolate chip ice cream in a cup with a spoon for Shields’ wife of more than 50 years, Marie. Smith ordered a scoop of Buckeye Blitz in a cup for herself and headed to Fort Thomas.
“When we share the treats, I go to my grandparents’ house and watch some TV in the living room with them and talk,” said Smith, a second-team all-state pick last season. She’s on this year’s watch list for the 2023 High School All-American Soccer Game Dec. 9 in Charleston, South Carolina.
During the offseason, Smith sees her grandparents about as regularly as she scores goals for Highlands. During the season, the visits are a little more infrequent, making them all the more special.
“I try to do it once a week or once every couple of weeks,” Smith said. “My grandmother and grandfather Shields are really special to me. I love them and I like to spend time with them. My grandfather can’t get around as easily as he used to, and my grandmother had some recent surgery. Getting together with some treats is a great way to check in on them and catch up and tell stories, get some advice and just be around them.”
Smith is sure to get a query or two from her grandparents about Highlands classwork and her play on the soccer field. Last month, they had the pleasure of discussing Smith breaking Lindsey Meyer’s Highlands career scoring record with her 76th goal Aug. 14 against Bellevue.
“They ask me how I’m doing. I tell them what’s going on and I see how they’re doing,” Smith said. “I know I’ll get some NKU stories. My grandfather wants to motivate me and I’m sure to hear some good NKU stuff to help me out.”
When Smith told her grandfather she decommitted from the University of Cincinnati and decided to go to the University of Dayton instead, Shields, a UD graduate, started singing the Dayton Flyers fight song.
“He was really happy about it. He was one of the reasons why I looked into Dayton,” Smith said. “He always had good things to say about it. I’m going to sign there in November.”
One of Smith’s teammates is fellow senior Paige Barber, who, coincidentally enough, also has a family connection to NKU coaching royalty. Barber’s great aunt is Nancy Winstel, NKU’s all-time winningest women’s basketball coach who led the Norse to NCAA Division II national championships in 2000 and 2008. The coaching careers of Shields and Winstel overlapped during NKU’s heyday in D-II.
“She’s my great aunt. But I call her aunt Nancy. And I love her so much,” Barber said. “Even though she may not know as much about soccer as basketball, she continues to coach me, and I want that. My whole family has been involved in sports and I’m so grateful to be part of it.”
When Highlands coach Chris Norris found out who the two soccer players were related to, he got a big kick out of it.
“Two girls on the same soccer team who are related to the greatest basketball coaches in NKU history. I mean, what are the odds of that,” said Norris, himself a former Norse. “When I played soccer at NKU, coach Shields and coach Winstel were absolute role models to me.”
Norris, in his third head-coaching season at Highlands, said Smith and Barber share traits that indicate good coaching in their lives.
“Obviously, the sports IQ is off the charts and the ability to execute runs rampant. Both girls also have a high level of communication,” Norris said. “For me to coach them is a gift. It gives me a chance to give back to coach Shields and coach Winstel. One night when we had an event, they both showed up and were there together and it was amazing.”
With Smith and Barber, Norris said he’s blessed with two outstanding team players from legendary bloodlines who understand the nuanced dynamics of competitive sports. Smith plays forward. Barber is an outside back. They have an uncommon and abiding love for teammates, and both detest losing.
“Laney is an incredible competitor who just won’t quit. She has an innate ability to create in super small windows and score with very little space,” Norris said. “Paige is an unbelievably positive person who always sees the bright side. She’s a spirit animal for the team and the girls love it. She’s one of those players who shows how grateful she is for opportunities and she does what’s needed when she gets in. Paige has overcome a lot to play on one of the best soccer teams in the state and she has more heart than anybody on the team.”
Norris figures this is about the fifth or sixth Shields grandchild he has been associated with through high school sports. He has a passel of Shields grandkids around him right now. In addition to Smith, there’s also her younger sister, sophomore defender Franny Smith. Another sister, Ruby Smith, played for Norris in 2021.
Ellie New, from a different branch of the Shields family tree, is a former Highlands player and currently one of Norris’ assistants. Lucy New played for Norris in 2022.
Norris also has been associated with grandkids of former Norse coach Mote Hils, who was NKU’s first men’s basketball coach. The Shields and Hils families are related by marriage.
“It’s not just the NKU basketball coaches,” said Norris, a Covington Latin High School graduate and a former Boone County coach. “I’ve been fortunate to have associations with Nell Fookes, maybe the greatest girls high school basketball coach in Northern Kentucky at Boone County; Pat Roesel, one of the greatest baseball coaches at Ryle; and John Toebben, who coached men’s soccer at NKU and started a couple high school programs. Sometimes it’s funny how small and connected Northern Kentucky really is. The fabric of sports is so interwoven and I feel blessed to be a small part of it. “
While the relationships are strong, Norris doesn’t see those coaches as often as he used to. With Smith and Barber around him on the soccer field and their legendary relatives on hand for some of Highlands’ games, Norris remains in the company of Shields and Winstel.
“I’m trying to surround myself with coaching royalty,” Norris said with a laugh. “Maybe it’ll rub off on me.”
