Coat Check | Catching Up with Haywood Highsmith

Bluecoats feed and the Little Peak behind the Curtain. The plan is to go every other Thursday in those feeds at the current point in time. And on that note, let's introduce today's guest. It's another good one. It is Bluecoat's wing Heywood high Smith, making his second appearance on the Coach Check podcast. So that's a milestone in and of itself. Heywood, but we're happy to have you fresh off of the MBA two K League three for All Showdown. How have you been man? I've been good. I've been good.

How have you been? Not too bad? Let's get right into it, because, like I said, we're recording this on Tuesday, April seventh, so legitimately right off of a unique opportunity for you as part of the NBA two K League three for All Showdown. We'll talk about that, We'll talk about your background as a player. I know you've been on before, but we'll get into some different stuff about

maybe high school, college. We'll get to our healthy Lifestyle segment presented by Christiana care, We'll talk about this season with the Bluecoats, and do our at the buzzer questions as well. All coming up on this show. But in terms of that two K League tournament that you were a part of, let's just run it down for the fans real quick. It was a three on three tournament and a lot of different influencers, pro players, G League players, w NBA players and of course professional two K players

as well. And ironically you played alongside your Blue Coats teammate Michael Bryson, who was our most recent guest here on the Coach Check Pod, and you also were joined by Chelsea Gray of the Los Angeles Sparks out of the w NBA. So what was that tournament experience like for you? Video game style? Yeah, I mean it was definitely fun con out there, you know, playing three ords and three having some fun with um, you know, some

good competitives. We played against skys with professions two K players, so it was definitely a new experience from me since you know, going up against those guys and the definitely you know, talented, you know, and good at the game, and um, it was just fun plan a side Mike and Chelsea. Chelsea's a great WA player and Mike's you know, one of the team as I ever passed two years, so it was definitely fun. I loved it, you know, just couldn't come up with the doub but it's it's

all good. Yeah. Chelsea's a multiple time w NBA All Star and you and Michael obviously have that chemistry of being in Delaware for a couple of years together. I know you play a lot, So how much two K do you typically play? And who are some of the guys on the Bluecoats that play. I don't know how much Michael plays himself, but I know guys like Justin Robinson. Who else are some of the guys who play NBA two K? Yeah, I think, Um, I was there before before he got ways, he was playing some and then

I played Terry once or twice. I know, Julian is pretty good actually, and um yeah, Michael, and then you got Xavier Mouth also plays as well. So there's a couple of guys one team that definitely play Isaiah Miles, Terry Harris, Julian Washburn and Xavier Month for a couple of the Blue Coats from this season. Before we move on to your background and a little bit more about

your journey, you played we mentioned professionals. It was really a family affair because it was the two K League team that's part of the Harris Splitzer Sports and Entertainment family that the Blue Coats, the Sixers and many more entities are a part of. It was seventy Sixers GC, so the professional two K League team that's a part of HBSc. What stood out about the game of those guys on seventy sixers GC, How good were they? Yeah?

I mean it was they just know how to play, you know, you know the little things to do, you know, they know, they just know how to play. On at the end of the day, like they was sitting some tough shots, but they was like making like a lot of their shots. But they just knew their their man's like release down pack like so like on two K you like, it's different releases for each player, So every time they would like get open, they would just knock

down the shot because they did that. Man, with these down pay you can tell you just where you're going stuff like that every day, just knowing your release and just knowing how to play your mom to move it up to the the ball now playing defense. So he was just definitely just sold me. You know, it's a lot of guys out here that just you know, do this for a living and they really are good. So I mean, yeah, for sure. Well, you did get some praise from the

guys over at seventy six ers GC. They they actually said you were controlling the game from the point guard position. Mike was hitting some shots, but they gave you some praise as well for your slashing and dishing ability. But let's talk about real basketball, and we did this with Michael Bryson on the last episode, just kind of taking us back to your upbringing a little bit and a lot of Blue Coats fans. I mentioned it was your second season with the team. They know that you're a

relatively local guy. You're you're from Baltimore. How would you describe growing up where you did. Yeah, I mean bottom wire, a lot of great hoovers. You know, it's a tough place to play. You know, the fans are going to let you know when you're not good, and then they're gonna twenty one you are good. But Baltimore is definitely a tough, hard city. You know, has gritty, grundy players

who just play hard. Play defense is definitely not going to be no easy lay ups for buckets and Baltimore you better take a heart to the whole better play some defense, for sure. So I mean just growing up in here and Bartimore definitely mainly tougher as a basketball player, as a person off the court. Archbishop Curly High School, I think they won a championship this year. Yeah they did,

They actually did. Yeah, So that's your alma mater. I believe that we and I have heard you talk over the years about how you were kind of a late bloomer in high school for sure. For sure, definitely a late bloom Ye. So you ended up at Wheeling University in West Virginia. Wheeling, West Virginia. It was, as you have said, close enough that the family could come out to watch you, but still got away from home a little bit, and of course your family still comes out

to watch you. But yeah, with with wheeling, describe the game against West Virginia the Mountaineers, because that seems like a pivotal part of your journey, Elton Brand checking you out and things kind of falling into place from there. How important do you think playing against West Virginia on that stage was to where you are right now? Yeah, I mean definitely was important for me to just go out there and show that could compete with, you know,

D one guys. My school was a Division two school, it wasn't one of the top Divisen two schools, but I also wanted to show that I can compete with some of the high D one guys, you know, and show them what I guy and show them that you know, I'm not you know, I'm not you know, scrubbing. I can definitely play up there, I feel like when I was in college. So, I mean, it was definitely it was an exhibition game. You know, our coaches wanted us to go there and just play hard, trying to get

better and try to learn from from that experience. You know. I went out there, had a pretty good game. Actually, I actually played without two of my other seniors who are hurt. So that was pretty a pretty tough game. We didn't have our point guard or our starting small forward, so it's pretty tough trying to go up against Press Virginia starting pointing guardians all for But you know, we don't we battle. You know, we show some great and some grounds, so it was fun. Wow, I did not

realize that. Yeah, that's not the type of team you want to play against when you're missing some of your key players, especially when when you're the guy that defense was probably all over you. But I know you still put up some very good stats like you did throughout your career in college and now transitioning. We'll talk a little bit about your professional career in just a second, but let's interject here with our healthy Lifestyle segment presented

by our friends at Christianic Hair. This is an interesting addition of the healthy Lifestyle segment because it's a quarantine addition and like your answer might different a little bit than maybe what you said on media day, where it's what are you up to? What are you doing for the love of health? But given the current circumstances, what are you doing for the love of health? I've seen some posts about running. I know Terry Harris has been running and you were talking to him on social media.

So what have you been doing. Yeah, me and Terterry we um it's actually like a beautiful park in Wilmington that's not too far from our apartments. And we went out there, you know, a couple of times and running get some miles, three or four miles and you know, it's pretty nice. You know, it was some hills. We gotta come up, you gotta go down some hills to a very actually beautiful party. I didn't even know that park existed until you know, Terry told me about. It

was definitely a beautiful park. You know, a lot of families out there, a lot of dogs out there. It was actually a beautiful, nice run and you know it was it was fun, you know, and stuff like that definitely makes a difference, you know, during this quarantine time and you can't really get into a gym or get into a tread mill or try to get your exercise up, like just running outside and stuff like that. Just being just being away year surrounded and trying to just I guess,

just take advantage of whatever you can do. I guess as far as outside and not being able to get to the chump, definitely definitely important to get outside, walking, running, getting an outdoor work out in whatever it might be. Let's do a follow up here in our healthy lifestyle segment. What are some of the healthy options in your kitchen, your fridge, your cabinets. Now I should preface this by saying, we know that you've expressed on social media that you're

not much of a cook. But what are some of the healthy options that you might have or some of the things that you try to eat or drink as part of your your health routine. Oh, for sore fruits and vegetables, you know, can't can't go wrong with that, And I'm just I guess, like greens, broccoli and stuff like that. Oh, I try to make some smovies sometimes. My mother, he's actually very good at making this movie, so she tried to do that from time to time

as well. So I mean smovies, fruits, vegetables, grains, stuff like that, and also like proteins, shakes and milk and stuff like that. What's your favorite smoothie that your your mother makes? Like a strawberry watermelon sometype sometime sometype of Smoothe like that was pretty good. She makes some pretty good Strawberry is actually one of my favorite fruits, so yeah,

that sounds sounds pretty good. So yeah, talking talking about the Bluecoat season a year two, like I said, for you, and you spent some time with the Sixers last year and in summer league, which we'll get to. But you had a number change this year twenty four to seven, and I know that you were number seven with the Sixers. How did you end up with seven? Because I know

you've kind of embraced it. Yeah. I remember when I was on to two, they told me I couldn't wear you know, twenty four because it was retired as a sixer. So they gave me some number outcase. I looked them over and I was, you know, just thinking in my head and seven with the I guess seven stuck out. I guess I would in football when I was warning quarterbacks, I always liked the number seven. You know, Michael Bick

were number seven. Everybody like number seven football. But also when I picked the number seven, I was thinking in my head like oh wow, I was warning twenty four with the Blue Coats and seven with the Sixers. So it was like twenty four to seven, Like, I don't even know how that came to about, but it actually came out of nowhere and that it actually worked, you know. And then eventually I just wished to seven all around,

lucky number seven. It's always been one of those numbers I always like, Actually got to chain put the number seven on it for myself, so it was pretty nice. Yeah, twenty four to seven flows perfectly. And I was going to ask about the chain because I know that it came in I guess before the season or during the beginning of the season. What kind of chain is it?

Describe it for the listeners out there. Yeah, I always wanted to chain and just you to represent me as a person and you know who I am, not just as a basketball player, but just you know, just something that just represents me and makes me feel, you know, like myself. So you know, I got a guy reached out to me, Nolan wanted to do it for me. He's from the DC area, and you know, he told me, you know, he wanted to put Dominds in it. Um, So you know, I got the diamonds put it. He

put them in and I went to go vision. It's it's a pretty nice chain. It actually, like shine's really bright and light and you know it definitely you definitely can have it on you in the water. So it's a pretty nice chain. Definitely not not too expensive, but not it's definitely not she I wouldn't say cheap it off. That's big time. That's big time though. Um In terms of earning the call up to the seventy sixers from the Blue Coats last season on that two way contract,

how does that milestone currently motivate you? Yeah, and of course I want to get back there and you know, and stay there this time. But you know that just I always look at those memories, you know, I's on my phone, you know, pictures and not me playing the NBA game Like that's you know, still that's still the end good to day. You know, it's motivation for me because you know, I was there and I was there

for a reason, so obviously i'd get back there. It's all about putting it together and be consistent and I definitely think, you know, we'll be there and you know, be there eventually. What is your Twitter bio dreams to reality mean to you? I mean, everybody you know, growing up as an athlete, you know whatever, you always got dreams of playing on those big stages in front of

the fans and pecked out the ring. And you know, I've always you know, imagined myself sometimes when I was in class as a young kid, I would imagine myself, you know, being you know, in the NBA or maybe because I was I was younger, I always wanted to play you know, football, basketball, maybe NFL, NBA, But you know, stuff like that. You think back too, and you know, look at me now, like that's that's that was a dream.

You know I made a reality. So that's just it's just crazy how the world works, and I was crazy how God works. But when that was a blessing, and you know, I'm definitely grateful for that. For sure. Good stuff. And we will have some football questions here at the Buzzer as we wrap it up in just a moment. But last thing on the Blue Coats this season, defend runs Share, being the motto of Connor Johnson, the head coach, Matt Lilly, the GM and the whole staff and the team.

Lots of good defenders on the Blue Coats, thinking particularly about guys like you and Zaire Smith and Julian Washburn on the wings. How much pride did you guys take in your defense? Well, I mean you definitely missed the one of our biggest defenders on the big guy, Chris Chris Kumile. Well, well, when you got a big man at the room like that, it's so easy to be so aggressive when the wing because you know he got your back, so he makes out job with so much

more easier. But I mean we're definitely we definitely got good defenders of the wing. Michael Bryce is actually a very good defender as well, so I mean Julian Zay are Michael. We all line from each other as far our defending and tries to be physical. Connor always tells us to be physical, blow stuff up, you know, because we got Chris at the room demo the rim also had novel, so it was just it's just a lot. It's a lot to deal with our defense. This is crazy.

That leads us nicely into our final couple questions at the buzzer. Do you prefer a steel leading to a dunk or hitting a big three pointer? Oh, I mean you said a big three point like I said gang winner, So I don't even know how to answer it. But let's let's Heyward, let's say that both of them are a part of like a big run for your team. But I know there was a certain game against Erie this year where you did have a steal that led to a dunk and that type of thing. So both

of them a big momentum swing. Which one is I think it's still leading to the dunk defense turning into offense. There's just so much beautiful for me. I love playing defense. It's crazy because I hate a playing defense as a younger, but now that I'm playing in the pros like, I love playing defense. I love Trevor people. But yeah, still leading to offense. I'll take that any day for sure. Let's finish up with the Baltimore Ravens. Why don't we? Yeah,

right now, got the Baltimore Ravens. So it goes without staying that you're a Baltimore native and you're a huge Baltimore Ravens fan. When and how did you become a fan? Were you just born into it and you've been a fan of your whole life? It's crazy. The Ravens started in nineteen ninety six and I was born in nineteen ninety six, so that makes two of us. Yeah, oh nowhere, yes, sir, oh, I didn't know that meant yeah, nineteen ninety six six

starts that I was born. My father was always on the TV when I was younger, so obviously I was just I grew up. I grew up in the Ravens house, so I had no turgy come a Ravens fan. You know, I love the Ravens, twenty the best franchises in my opinion, since they started. You know, one won two Super Bowls. I've seen them win two somethings. I love it. You know, I love Lamar. I've actually I'm actually in the Madden League right now playing with the Ravens. But it's not

the real Ravens team. It's a fantasy draft team. But I'll playing with the Ravens trying to bring a ship back to Baltimore and bad right now, So we'll see how that goes. I've heard some complaints from people who are in those leagues that you have to wait for the commissioner to advance the advantage. It's crazy. It's crazy, it's it's fun. You just got to have the right people in the league who can play. Like now, everybody's

in the household. I mean, it should be easy to play, but like currently in my in my league, we just advanced, like we played like so many games in a certain amount of days, like you played like the whole season like a week. Because like we're all in the house and now we're at the super Bowl and I'm kind of about to play a super Bowl against this other guy and I posed a play later today, So we'll see how this goes. But just wish we luck, right, good luck. Who are some of the key players on

your team? If it was a fan of man Christian McCaffrey, Oh my god, he's a dog. Travis Kelsey, such a dog. Who else I got? Oh? Harrison Smith, I don't even know where it is from the plays? Yeah, safety right, yeah, yeah, safety Aj Green as well. But Aj got hurt. I'm sorry but he got hurt. But it's all good. I'm bringing it back to the the bottomre for sure. All right, We're gonna have to circle back on that. I wish we could stream it like we streamed the two K

League show that I wish we could. Yeah, I'll have to catch up with you on that, but that's gonna do it. Thanks for the time. You're a two time guest. Now on coach check and go get a championship in in your Madden League. All right, thanks for having to appreciate you. Now, that's Delaware Blue Coats wing Heywood high Smith, and I'm Matt Murphy. Until next time, take it or leave it at the coach Chick. M