FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Kassie Scott's emotions were all over the place on Thursday, and rightly so.
Scott, the daughter of a head coach and wife of Riverside Prep head football coach Nicholas Garrett, can now join the table on the same professional level.
She was hired as the next Cherokee Bluff head girls basketball coach on Thursday.
"I'm feeling all these emotions right now. I'm letting everything settle," she said with excitement.
Scott has spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach on former coach Lindsay Justice's staff. Justice stepped down on Monday.
Scott now becomes the second girls basketball coach at Cherokee Bluff.
"I was excited. I was ready to get going right then and there," she said about getting the job. "I'm excited because I know these girls. I know all of their capabilities, just as they know what my standards and expectations will be."
Cherokee Bluff athletic director Kenny Hill announced the Scott hire three days after Justice stepped down to move into a district special education role.
"She's going to do an amazing job," Hill said about Scott. "She's the perfect choice for where we are at and where we are about to go. It's exciting to be on this journey together."
Hill said Scott spoke with the team Thursday afternoon.
"It was received with excitement," he said. "The team was super excited that it was her. She had a couple of opportunities to pursue other places, but her commitment to our girls and our school kept her here, and I'm glad she did."
Scott takes over the 5-year-old program that only loses one starter to graduation and has a youthful stable of talent returning for the 2023-24 season.
"The talent we have back is huge," she said. "They're part of that foundation that has been set. It's going to be a new focus on my end, but knowing what their capacities are and knowing I can continue to develop them is the exciting part for me."
Scott knew the solid footing of the program would make an easy transition and is ready to get to work.
"I feel that the foundation has been set here," she said. "Now, it's just continuing to build on that. My players are aware of how I am as a coach. They know I'm intense and what my expectations are. I told them I will always be my authentic true self and always will be vulnerable with them. That's important for them to know that, and they've seen that already. I think that is what makes the transition easy. It's just I'm in a new role."
Scott, an El Paso, Texas native, brings college coaching and playing experience to Cherokee Bluff. Before her post at the Bluff, she was an assistant coach at Bethel College in Newton, KS (2014-2016). She played college basketball at Howard Junior College in Big Spring, Texas, and finished her playing career at Western New Mexico University.
Scott said her college coaching stint and college basketball career has helped shape her as a coach.
"I think that helps because I know and understand it from that perspective," she said. "I have a wide range of experience in the game of basketball. I understand the head coaching position within itself because I'm a daughter of a head coach, and I'm a wife of a head coach. I can relate to the players; they know I've been in the same position. I faced the same adversities and challenges. If I can overcome those obstacles, so can these girls."
So what can Lady Bears fans expect the team to look like next season? Scott says they'll play with a lot of intensity and be in-your-face on defense.
"We will have energy, play with effort, emphasize heart and hustle. If we have that, we can compete with anyone. I'm a defensive mind coach, so I plan to get better at that and strengthen. I believe the tougher team wins in games, so we'll be aggressive, apply pressure, play with high intensity and communicate."
