A nickname and a friendship: How former Gamecock star helped out a sheriff’s daughter
Alaina Coates had an important stop to make Wednesday before she headed back to Israel and started her basketball season overseas.
Coates, the former Dutch Fork and South Carolina hoops standout, dropped by Chapin High School to make sure she watched Eagles star McKenzie Lott sign her letter of intent to play basketball at USC Aiken. Wednesday was the first day that high school athletes could sign during the fall period.
Coates and Lott struck up a friendship when Lott was a sixth grader and attended a USC Women’s Basketball camp. Coates gave her the nickname “Little Bit” for her small stature at the time and two have remained good friends since.
“I am not good at names but I’m good at faces so I tried to make nicknames. She was small at the time and I asked if I could call you Little Bit, and we have been like this ever since,” said Coates who played this year with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. “I am so proud of her, just watching her grow from watching her from elementary, to middle school till now. It is crazy in a way I feel like a parent. I’m not used to watching people grow like that. I’m so proud of her.”
Lott said she became Coates’ biggest fan and followed her career during the time she played at USC and was part of the school’s 2017 National Championship team. Coates, a first-round draft pick, just finished her third year in the WNBA and plays overseas during the WNBA offseason.
Lott has newspaper clippings from Coates’ games in her room and has made a variety of shirts in support of her.
“She’s supported me through my high school basketball career. It was so special that she was here,” Lott said. “It was amazing how we started out, and now she’s in the WNBA and I’m going to play college basketball. She impacted me as a basketball person by always being tough and intense. My mom always told me I needed to have Alaina’s attitude to not let anyone mess with me.”
Because the two play different positions, Coates didn’t give her too much advice about her game. But Coates thinks Lott has successful traits and intangibles to become a good college basketball player at the Division II level. The Chapin senior averaged 10.6 points and 2.4 rebounds a game last season for the Eagles.
“No one needs to tell her to go to the gym. Those are the types of players that are really valuable and useful,” Coates said. “I am glad she has grown up to be one of those players and however small a role I played, I was glad to help her shape her into a basketball player.”
Lott said Coates was one of many people who influenced her athletic career, and several of them were in attendance at Wednesday’s signing, including her parents Bridgette and Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.
McKenzie jokes she got her height and skills as a softball player from her dad, and her basketball skills from her mom. Leon Lott played baseball at USC Aiken and also played football in high school.
“I wasn’t a great athlete. I was a good athlete. Luckily McKenzie took up that passion and always wanted to play ball,” Leon Lott said. “She is reaching her dream. We have seen her work and sacrifice so much. We know that was one of her goals to play college basketball. And to get an opportunity to do it at USC Aiken.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 12:01 PM.
