By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Sportswriters usually wait until someone has been tested in college before describing an athlete as a “generational talent.” Perhaps it is premature, but Watauga High School women’s basketball senior Kate Sears could well be the deserving exception.
CONSIDER:
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- It was the ultimate compliment on March 7, 2025, in what became Sears’ final high school game, when Lake Norman double- and triple-teamed her from start to finish in the NCHSAA 4A West semifinals. Holding the Watauga point guard to “just” 18 points (well below her season average of nearly 28 points per game) allowed the No. 2-seeded Wildcats to move on to the 4A West bracket final against No. 1 McDowell and potentially winning a state championship.
- Sears is the only player in 2025 to be voted All State by the North Carolina Basketball Coaches Association for three consecutive years (2025 balloting has not yet been completed or announced). She was voted 1st Team All State in 2024, her junior season. She was voted 2nd Team All State in 2022 and 2023, her freshman and sophomore seasons.
- Sears was voted District 11’s “Player of the Year” in her freshman, sophomore and junior seasons. Will her senior season follow?
- She was named 3A/4A Northwestern Conference “Player of the Year” AND the conference tournament’s “MVP” for each of those first three seasons.
- Sears’ growth and impact is reflected in Watauga’s team accomplishments:
- Four consecutive Northwestern Conference regular season championships
- Four consecutive Northwestern Conference tournament championships
- Finishes in the NCHSAA 4A Women’s Basketball Championship playoffs:
- Freshman year – Sweet 16
- Sophomore year – Elite 8
- Junior year – Final Four
- Senior year – Elite 8
Evidence of Sears’ basketball skills surface in the numbers. Without getting into the specifics, it is remarkable that Sears leads Watauga in every statistical category maintained by MaxPreps (scoring, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, as well field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage).
According to MaxPreps, Sears is among the Top 20 players nationally in assists per game (No. 2), double-doubles (No. 19) and free throws made (No. 14).
Also according to MaxPreps, Sears ranks in the Top 25 of eight statistical categories in all of North Carolina, including assists per game (No. 1), double-doubles (No. 2), free throws made (No. 2), charges taken per game (No. 8), points per game (No. 8), rebounds per game (No. 17), field goals made (No. 17), and 3-pointers made (No. 24).
In the NCHSAA 4A West division, which includes 54 competing large schools, Sears’ dominance is even more commanding, including rebounds per game (No. 1), free throws made (No. 1), assists per game (No. 1), charges taken per game (No. 1), double-doubles (No. 1), points per game (No. 2), field goals made (No. 4), and 3-pointers made (No. 6).
In the 6-team Northwestern Conference, the Pioneer senior is No. 1 in points per game, rebounds per game, field goals made, free throws made, assists per game, blocks per game, charges taken per game and double-doubles. She is No. 2 in 3-pointers made and steals per game.
MaxPreps doesn’t publish records for players recording triple-doubles, but Sears has recorded 12 triple-doubles in the 2024-2025 season. Notable performances include:
- 39 points, 17 rebounds, 13 assists vs. East Lincoln (Dec. 14)
- 22 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists vs. North Wilkes (Dec. 17)
- 25 points, 17 rebounds, 10 assists vs. Northern Guilford (Dec. 21)
- 50 points, 16 rebounds, 11 assists vs. South Caldwell (Jan. 31)
- 43 points, 21 rebounds, 15 assists vs. Freedom (Feb. 12)
Since watching Sears embarrass older middle school opponents — as a 6th-grader at Blowing Rock School — our interest in what she might do at the next level has grown with each passing season, level after level.
Recently, Sears announced her acceptance of a scholarship offer to play NCAA Division I women’s basketball at Virginia Tech. As Watauga was preparing to go deeper into the playoffs last week, High Country Sports sat down with Sears for a one-on-one conversation about her basketball career and life plans.
High Country Sports: What is it that drives your passion and performance in basketball?
Kate Sears: I am super competitive and always have been, so it is natural to gravitate toward sports, especially team sports, working together with a group of people who are like minded and want to achieve similar goals. That helps motivate me to try and reach my full potential. I work really hard because I don’t want to let my teammates down. They work hard and I want to hold up my end of the bargain.
High Country Sports: While your ability to take over a game is impressive, you may be best known and appreciated for your unselfish play, getting your teammates involved.
Kate Sears: I am going to do whatever it takes to win. That might be different every game, depending on the matchups. I am going to do my best, whether that is rebounding or finding an open teammate for them to score, because an opponent may be keying on me. I believe in my teammates. They work hard in practice, taking a lot of shots to be ready to hit them in a game. I trust their work ethic.
High Country Sports: In an earlier interview a few years ago, you credited your older brother, Jake, for being a significant influence on your early development as a basketball player. Can you expand on that?
Kate Sears: Growing up, I was always super competitive and playing outside with my older brother, Jake. Well, I always wanted to beat him. I try to take that same kind of competitiveness out onto the court against other people — almost making it like I am trying to play against my brother and I want to beat him. He has been an important influence, watching him grow up and go on to play for the Watauga men’s team and getting to go to his games. As the younger sister, I have always been excited for my moment to be out there and playing. Jake has always been so supportive and he still comes to my games here at Watauga.
High Country Sports: We also see your mother and father at every game, home and away. What can you tell us about their influence on your basketball career?
Kate Sears: I wouldn’t be in this position if it weren’t for my mother and father. Not only have they been super supportive in taking me off the mountain to play with the travel teams but every day one of them is coming after practice to rebound for me. They have always been supportive of the goals I have and are going to help with whatever it takes to reach those goals.
High Country Sports: You mention travel ball… how is that different than playing for your high school team?
Kate Sears: Travel ball is a whole different world than high school, in good ways and ways that maybe aren’t as good. In travel ball you are coming together with other girls who are really good players and we all have a goal of going on to play NCAA Division I basketball. You don’t practice as much as in high school so you may not develop the same level of chemistry with your teammates. In some respects, it is more pickup basketball. I like high school ball where you are playing with your best friends and you are practicing every day. So you have to make an adjustment to play a different style, but it is something you have to do if you want to play college basketball at a higher level. It is harder to adjust back to travel ball because the speed of the game is usually a lot faster and more physical. It is more similar to how it is going to be in college.
High Country Sports: When you were playing for Blowing Rock School in the sixth grade, then Watauga head coach Laura Barry told us she didn’t want to wait three years to get you on the high school team. You eventually played a couple of years for her then, when she moved on to Davidson College, for your current coach, Bill Torgerson. What can you tell us about the differences?
Kate Sears: Coach Torgerson and Coach Barry are different, but similar, too. Every coach has different philosophies, different things to focus on or not focus on. Torg has been huge in pouring confidence into me. He knows how hard I work and sees the success I have on the court. So he kind of lets me off that leash a little bit. He trusts me and that boosts my confidence even more. You are not always going to agree on everything with a coach but he has always been really good with the two of us talking through things. Maybe he sees something that I don’t see or I see something he doesn’t see. He has allowed me to reach out to him about those things. We have mature conversations about what is best for the team.
High Country Sports: What is it about playing for your high school team that you really treasure?
Kate Sears: I get to play with my best friends. I have played with Julie Matheson and Kaitlyn Darner since second and third grade, so we know each other’s tendencies very well. That helps with our chemistry and played well together. To reach our full potential, a lot of that has to do with the chemistry we have on and off the court.
High Country Sports: Fellow senior Chloe Wilson has sort of blossomed in real time this year after not having played organized basketball, previously. What have you seen in her development and contributions?
Kate Sears: Chloe is a huge piece of our success this year, just in her development as a player and teammate. When summer and fall workouts started, it was a lot for her because she had never played organized basketball and there was a lot to learn all at once. She has been great, really open to Coach Torgerson coaching her and open to her teammates giving her advice. She frequently asks for extra reps after practice and asks for help on certain things. She is getting more comfortable and getting more time on the court. That is huge for us because there are things she can do that no on else on the team can do. For sure, as the biggest and a very athletic player on the court, she takes some of our opponents’ attention away from me as well as from our other shooters.
High Country Sports: Let’s transition to your decision to accept Virginia Tech’s scholarship offer. What went into that decision?
Kate Sears: I love the coaching staff at Virginia Tech. Head coach Megan Duffy recruited me when she was at Marquette, but that was pretty far away from home. I couldn’t see going to Milwaukee. I am not really a city girl. But when she got the job at Virginia Tech and offered me a scholarship there, it was a huge draw because it was not too far from home. Blacksburg is a really cool place and VT’s support for women’s basketball is unmatched. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. As I learned about the women who are there and will be there, it became something I wanted to be a part of.
High Country Sports: What was that recruiting process like? I think you had over 40 scholarship offers, many from Division I, “Power Four” schools.
Kate Sears: Toward the end of my recruiting process, I was considering some schools that are a plane ride away and that would have definitely made it harder for my parents, family and friends. They want to come watch as much as they can. So Virginia Tech became a good fit because they can come watch me play but they won’t be in my backyard. So it was important for me to go somewhere my parents liked as much as I do. Towards the end, the schools I was considering were Clemson, Kansas, Michigan, Princeton, Purdue, Wake Forest… but some of those places I fell in love with other than Virginia Tech involved a plane ride. That was hard for me to think about, as well as for my parents and family.
High Country Sports: Have you thought much about your role on Virginia Tech’s team, playing with other talented players?
Kate Sears: Every team I have been on, I have always had a different role. Even the four years here at Watauga, my role has changed a little bit each season. On a travel team, it may not be ‘Hey Kate, let’s go get a bucket right now.’ Instead, it might be, ‘Let’s get so-and-so the ball because they are on a roll right now. You have that in high school, too, but it is on a different level with travel teams. College will be more like that, too. In college, it will be a big thing to get into their system and learn how me, as a point guard, can play with those other good players. They are all really good Division I basketball players. Depending on what my role will be, I will try to own it and do what I am asked to help our team win.
High Country Sports: A few years ago the NCAA had a great marketing tagline, that the vast majority of college student athletes go pro in something other than sports. Have you thought about potentially playing in the WNBA or what you might like to do after your playing days are over?
Kate Sears: I haven’t thought too much beyond college. I have definitely thought about going into coaching after my playing days are over, largely because of all the coaches I have played for and even those who have recruited me over the years. They have been important influences. So that is something I’d like to share with the next generation, to be a positive influence. We’ll see where life takes me. In college, I plan on studying business and am particularly interested in the business side of things in sports. Whether or not it is coaching, I will probably try and stay in the sports industry. What I have learned throughout the recruiting process is how many jobs there are in sports that have little to do with playing.
A sure bet? Kate Sears is going places with purpose — and competitive drive.
THE MANY FACES OF KATE SEARS, OVER THE YEARS
