COLLINSVILLE — After West Lauderdale High School girls basketball coach Matt Lum found out he would be coaching in the Mississippi Association of Coaches All-Star game, there were some nerves involved.

After all, Lum is used to his Lady Knight players, and he was set to help coach the South team March 24 thinking he wouldn’t know any of the girls on the roster.

Luckily for Lum, the committee selected West Lauderdale junior point guard Maggie Wooldridge — whom Lum calls an extension of himself on the court — as part of the 12-person roster. All of a sudden, Lum’s mind was a bit more at ease.

“I was already kind of nervous about 12 new kids, but it’s certainly comforting to know one of them is yours,” Lum said.

Wooldridge isn’t the tallest player on West Lauderdale’s roster, but her scrappiness and burst allow her to regularly intercept opposing passes and put pressure on teams defensively. Senior Mallory Thompson is usually the Lady Knights’ leading scorer, but it’s not uncommon for Wooldridge to finish with double-digit points in a game as well. Perhaps her biggest asset, though, is her basketball smarts, Lum said. 

“She’s very instinctive,” Lum said. “She understands that, being small, you have to be able to do those things.”

When she was in the eighth grade, it was Lum’s first year coaching West Lauderdale. Eventually, due to an injury, Wooldridge was named a starter during the team’s regional tournament — and she’s stuck as a starter for the Lady Knights ever since. Over time, the player-coach relationship that developed between the two allowed Lum to have a player on the floor who mirrored him in so many ways.

“We’ve come to think alike along the way,” Lum said. “We’re more on the same page than I am with any of the others, and she plays a lot like I did.”

Coaches can sometimes be toughest on their point guards, and Wooldridge admitted Lum will often fuss at her during the course of a game. Of course, with the assistant coach being her mother, Kristy Wooldridge, there’s an added dynamic there, but Maggie Wooldridge said it’s not weird for Lum to fuss at her with her mother nearby.

“My mom is thinking the same thing he’s saying,” Maggie Wooldridge admitted.

Said Lum, “Her mom prefers I get onto her because she might listen to me more.”

Maggie Wooldridge likened the relationship to an accountability partner, or someone who keeps tab on someone else for morality purposes. It’s different in that it’s basketball, but it’s allowed a trust to develop where Wooldridge is almost a coach on the floor.

“You understand they’re trying to help you, so when I think we should run a play, I’ll ask him, and he’ll ask me,” Wooldridge said. 

In fact, Lum said he began asking for her opinion when Maggie was only a freshman.

“She calls a lot of stuff on the floor without having to ask,” Lum said. “She’s really grown up and taken on that responsibility a lot more.”

The opportunity to play in an All-Star game brought a lot of different emotions back when Wooldridge first found out, but she’s glad she’ll have a familiar face near the bench when it’s time for tipoff.

“At first I was surprised and wondered why they picked me,” Wooldridge said. “Then I was nervous because I knew I’d be playing with some really good people, but my teammates comforted me and helped me prepare during games, and they said they’d come watch me.”

A basketball and softball player for most of her life, Wooldridge said sports helps give her an escape from day-to-day worries. It also serves as an outlet to express her Christian faith. In fact, after every game, Wooldridge makes a point to say, “God bless,” to opposing players when they’re high-fiving one another instead of the usual, “Good game.”

“I know in my heart I’m blessed with something, and that it’s God who blessed me,” Wooldridge said. “The best way to spread His word is to play for Him and show my light.”

When she was in middle school, her mother was the coach, and Wooldridge said Lum and her mother are similar in coaching style, and both of them want what’s best for their players.

“He’ll tell you what you need to play your best,” Wooldridge said of Lum. “He won’t tell you stuff that limits what you do.”

Lum recalled an instance when Wooldridge was in eighth grade where her mother got onto her about something and forced her to sit with Lum for the rest of the game. That’s when the trust between the two began to develop, and Wooldridge said that trust is a necessary part of any player-coach relationship.

“Without trust, I’m going to second-guess everything he says, and if I do, there’s no reason for me to be on the court,” she said. “It’s kind of a discipline thing I guess.”