Basketball: Latrell Smiler-Ah Kiong's fiery spirit fuels Hastings Boys' High in courts of contention

Hastings Boys' High School pupil Latrell Smiler-Ah Kiong feels the tug from basketball coach Curtis Wooten but he'll put rugby first despite his court-savvy ways. Photo/Duncan Brown

Quite often consequential choices emerge from shades of grey but with Latrell Smiler-Ah Kiong you somehow get the impression there's nothing but clarity in his conviction when choosing between basketball and rugby.

No doubt, Smiler-Ah Kiong has the propensity to make mistakes in his choices but, akin to scores of teenagers on the cusp of embarking on their formative years, it's okay for the Hastings Boys' High School pupil because it's all part of the journey in life.

HBHS basketball coach Curtis Wooten says rugby is his No 1 sport so where the first XV team finish will determine what extent of input the Year 12 pupil will have with his charges next year.

"The No 1 thing is he's probably got the greatest competitive spirit I've coached at the high school level or even at the national age-group level so that is just unbelievable," says Wooten, after Smiler-Ah Kiong returned from the elite AA grade of the Schick New Zealand Secondary Schools' Championship in Palmerston North early this month.

Point guard Smiler-Ah Kiong averaged 30 points at the nationals but despite HBHS finishing 14th, Wooten says the school New Zealand selectors have shown interest in him for the national under 19 camp.

"The bottom line is it's up to the players and this year if the players didn't want him he wouldn't have joined us but they did," says the former Taylor Corporation Hawks coach.

"There was no hesitation, no nothing. They said, 'We want Latrell'."

What makes Smiler-Ah Kiong's stint remarkable is that when the HBHS First XV rugby season ended he was only able to squeeze in one basketball scrimmage before the premiership.

"I just had no time. Rugby was pretty full on for me," says the teenager who made his debut season for the first XV as a first five-eighth and halfback.

His worthiness in basketball is reflected in HBHS gifting 26 turnovers at the Super 8 competition in August but with Smiler-Ah Kiong's injection the collective whittled that down to eight.

"We had four senior guards so I wasn't expecting it to be an issue but they lost confidence," says Wooten of the disparity from Super 8 before revealing Smiler-Ah Kiong also was the leading rebounder at the nationals, averaging 8.5, and posting an average six assists a game.

The teenager had executed the game-winning shot against Tauranga BHS for the 12-15 playoffs at the nationals before losing to Otago BHS for 14th place although Wooten argues if the rules hadn't been changed HBHS would have fulfilled their goal of finishing in the top eight as eighth.

He says the schoolboy's incremental growth in basketball is as explicit as ring barks on the girth of a sturdy tree from Year 10 to Year 12 in his temperament and mental fortitude.

"He has a little bit of emotion but all the great players have that emotional fieriness in them so whether it's rugby or basketball he's going to go far."

Wooten says Smiler-Ah Kiong dislikes coming off the floor, tries to do everything right and has all the attributes of a little general.

A composed Smiler-Ah Kiong says it's great to know he was the top scorer but for him the main objective was to help the team make the top eight.

Halfback Latrell Smiler-Ah Kiong, does what he does best at the base of the Hastings Boys' High School first XV scrum. Photo/Photosport

"I'd love to be in both [basketball and rugby] but ... yeah, it'd definitely be challenging ... so any time I get it I'll take it," he says.

His goal is to help the first XV make the top four again next year after the national bragging rights in 2017, although it didn't happen this year because of the turnover of senior players.

"It definitely came down to confidence and belief, especially in me to believe I can play basketball again," he says, grateful for the opportunity from the premier basketball teammates to endorse his potential.

Smiler-Ah Kiong suspects the key reason as to why he excelled was because of the faith his teammates and all their family members had in his ability to make a contribution.

In 2016 he was a super sub (10th man) for the HBHS premier side but he turned heads when he sank 38 points against Hamilton Boys' High School in the Super 8. Last year he became the starting No 5.

"He's very coachable and he's got that fiery spirit, which can sometimes be [laughter] but he always comes down from that," says a grinning Wooten of Smiler-Ah Kiong trying to stay out of foul trouble.