Grace Bale loves spending time in the gym to improve her play. (Bruce Nichols Photo)
Her dream has always been to be a college basketball player and it is something she thinks about constantly.
Taylor County sophomore Grace Bale, a 5-7 guard, averaged a team-high 11.2 points per game last year when Taylor went 13-5. She hit 35.5 percent from the field and 37 percent from 3-point range. But the guard also got to the foul line a team-high 146 times and made 117, an 80 percent mark.
I got my first chance to watch Bale play in summer league games last week against Boyle County and Mercer County. She’s someone I’ve interacted with on social media and followed her progress by seeing reports like this from @KyPrephoops: “Lefty, creative finisher, handles with either hand, crossover dribble, mid-range shot and also good range on shot. Distributes the ball and has good basketball IQ.”
It was about two minutes into her first game when she drove right, stopped and hit a left-handed runner. I was impressed and could tell the work she puts in on her own with Hagen Tyler, a former Boyle County High School and Campbellsville University standout, was paying off. He’s now the Taylor Middle School coach.
“He pushes me a lot and has definitely made me better,” Bale said.
She also gets help from her older sister who lives in Taylor County and is a former player. But her competitive nature that has her playing basketball either with a team or on her own almost every day is what really helps her progress.
“I have always been very competitive and I just like being in the gym,” she said.
Bale, a Kentucky fan who says Maci Morris is her favorite UK player, believes her young team will be better this season.
“I was pretty happy with my freshman year but I wish I had scored a little bit more,” Bale, who also runs track to stay in shape for basketball, said. “Defenses would sometimes load up against me, so I have worked on getting my shot off quicker and also focusing more on being a better defensive player.”
That’s why she was eager to play against Mercer’s Timberlynn Yeast, one of the state’s top senior players who has over 20 Division I scholarship offers.
“I like playing against good teams and good players because it shows me what I need to work on,” Bale said. “That’s how you get better.”
It’s also how you impress potential college coaches or an aging sportswriter like myself. It was a fun night to go watch her play and see her obvious love for the sport.
And in all fairness, even if she had not hit 3-pointers, run the court, made some terrific passes and competed like it was a regular-season game, she would still be on my A list because she brought me a case of bottled Ski, my favorite soft drink that is so hard to find locally.
Did she have to do that? No. However, she had seen my plea for help finding Ski on social media and took care of it for me — and that generous attitude is just another reason I enjoyed watching her play.
