Kaylee Yarbrough started her time on New Hope’s varsity basketball team as a seventh grader.

She may have made it look like an easy task, but Yarbrough remembers having some reservations.

“I was very scared for my seventh and eighth-grade year,” Yarbrough said. “I was like, I don’t want people to think, because I’m not like this type of person that’s going to brag and stuff like that, but it was very overwhelming.”

With a pair of Final Four appearances, over 2,000 points and plenty of individual honors along the way, any high school basketball fan knows the standout left no doubts behind her in compiling a historic career.

Yarbrough signed to continue her basketball career at Samford on Thursday at New Hope High School, making it official with the program she committed to play for over a year ago and becoming the first female athlete at New Hope to sign with a Division I athletic program.

The senior also held offers from Jacksonville State, North Alabama, Chattanooga and Lipscomb, but was immediately impressed with how welcoming and caring the coaching staff was in Homewood.

“They’re always calling, texting, checking up, just random conversations; they’re not even about basketball,” Yarbrough said.
”That’s what I love about them, they know how to talk about life in general, and, I can tell that they’re like that with everybody because the people when I go watch them and or at practice and stuff, everybody tells us that ‘We love them, they’re going to take care of you.
They’re not just going to push you to the side.’”

Yarbrough’s impressive career on the basketball court has seen her become New Hope’s all-time leading scorer, setting the program record for three-pointers in a game (10) and earning honors on multiple all-state and all-region teams; her single-game personal best for points is 43.

While the numbers place her among the best in the north Alabama area, what’s impressed coaches and those close to her is how hard she works, even when nobody’s watching.

“She’s constantly got a ball in her hand, she works and trains two or three nights a week,” New Hope coach Matt Nelson said. “She’s constantly playing and she works, and that’s a coach’s dream. I can’t say enough good things about her because she’s the perfect, perfect athlete for a coach, especially because she’s constantly in the gym and working.”

In looking back on her best memories and what’s helped make her high school career special, she thought back to her sophomore season with the program and that year’s team that went to the Final Four.

“We still had a bunch of older people, seniors and stuff, and we were pretty good; we made it to the Final Four,” Yarbrough said. “The bond that we all had together, we were so close, because I joined when I was in seventh grade and they were all still older than me and brought me up like a little sister. It was nice getting to play with something like that.”

Yarbrough credits Nelson and former New Hope coach Craig McGill, now at Skyline, for her success on the court and the team’s strong run of success; Nelson also coaches the boys’ basketball team.

Over the last five seasons, the program has gone 104-40, with 90 of those wins coming in McGill’s four seasons at New Hope; the girls have won five straight area titles in that span.

“We didn’t have a coach really after coach McGill left, and coach McGill was a big, big part and he helped me so much in who I am as a person and just as a player; he built my confidence,” she said. Forever grateful for him, and then coach Nelson: he’s coaching the boys, he didn’t have to take our job, but he did and that shows a lot.”

Even while she was learning the ropes at the program, the now-senior was changing the culture at New Hope.

She’s been named to the Class 4A all-state every year since she was a freshman, averaging 19.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game last season.

“I think the year before she got there, they may have won one or two games, and then as soon as she gets there they immediately start winning and have gone to state twice, been in the regionals for the last four or five years,” Nelson said. “It’s unreal what she brings to the table and how far she’s carried this program.”

The Samford signee has already started the season strong, totaling 41 points in New Hope’s three-point loss to St. John Paul II on Sunday.

Regardless of the stats, she has a key goal as she plays her final year of high school basketball.

“I just hope people can look at my journey and be like, ‘Anything is possible as long as you work hard for it,’” Yarbrough said.