Watson living her mom’s legacy

Kyah Watson was in the process of completing her sophomore volleyball season at Rapid City Stevens when her mother, Carla Allard-Watson, passed away after a battle with cancer that went on for much of her daughter’s life.

Both before her mother’s death and after, Kyah continued to accumulate significant athletic achievements in volleyball, basketball and track and field. The parade of awards and recognitions never really stopped. She was named all-state in basketball three consecutive years, was part of a 2018 Stevens volleyball team that won a state title and was also a top sprinter with the Raiders throughout her time in high school.

In November of 2019, the 5-foot-10 guard officially told South Dakota women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit that she wanted to be a Coyote. Though injuries muddled her first season, Watson has started 19 of the 23 games she has played in at USD, including all 14 she has played in this season for an 11-4 team that will face South Dakota State at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center on Saturday afternoon.

In the time since Carla Allard-Watson died, Kyah has had plenty of time to think about her mother, a terrific basketball player and all-around athlete in her own right whose list of sports accomplishments match up pretty well with her daughter’s.

“After she passed it was very hard for me,” Watson said. “But it was always in the back of my head that she would want me to move forward and be the best I could be. Knowing that, I keep her in my thoughts. It helps me want to be a better athlete and a better person.”

Allard-Watson and Kevin Watson, Kyah’s dad, met while both were basketball players at Rapid City’s National American University (then called National College). Allard-Watson scored 2,835 points at Bennett County (class of 1987), which was a state record at the time. She is in the South Dakota Basketball Hall of Fame and the NAU Hall of Fame.

Becky Flynn-Jensen is the academic advisor for USD women’s basketball. Jensen, who graduated from Wakonda High School as South Dakota’s all-time leading scorer herself in 1992, knew all about Kyah’s late mother. As part of her job, she spends time with student-athletes considering USD. That meant telling Watson about her academic options.

“Before they talked, Becky asked me if that was Carla’s daughter,” Plitzuweit said. “She says ‘I grew up adoring watching Carla play. I wanted to be like her.’ It was pretty neat. When Kyah came on a visit she talked with an academic advisor who’s like ‘You don’t know this, but I watched your mom play and I grew up wanting to be like your mom.’”

Watson is averaging 27 minutes, 4.8 points and 4.3 rebounds a game for the Coyotes, who defeated UND and NDSU by a combined score of 150-84 last week at USD.

This week, of course, the Coyotes can anticipate more difficulty against the state rival and perennial co-contender for Summit League titles. It will be Watson’s first USD-SDSU game after sitting out both contests last year with an injury.

“I’m very excited – I didn’t get to play in any conference games at all last year,” Watson said. “I know there are a lot of fans that are excited about it, along with two great teams that are excited about it. It’s going to be great to be out there playing in front of everyone.”

It will be the kind of crowd that could easily serve as a symbol of the support Watson has received in the years since her mother’s death. It’s plentiful, it’s enthusiastic and she is genuinely grateful for it. The same goes for the support she talks about getting from her father Kevin, her brother T.J., the Coyote coaching staff and her teammates.

It’s clear that, in addition to her athletic attributes, she is blessed with the gift of easily recognizing kindness, guidance and an I-got-your-back brand of loyalty. 

“My parents did a great job of making sure I was always giving my best effort,” Kyah said. “Being around competitiveness – with everything we did, really – also helped. It was always ‘Well, I was always better than you.’ We had a lot of fun conversations about that over the years.”

On the court, she is evolving into the kind of player Plitzuweit was hoping the Coyotes would see. She’s athletic, skilled and can defend guards, forwards and centers. As the lineup changes in the coming years, it’s likely her role in the offense will increase.

“She didn’t get to play much last year and I don’t think early this year she was sure what she should be doing,” Plitzuweit said. “As time has gone on, she’s become more and more comfortable and confident. That might mean setting screens for teammates or hitting the offensive glass or driving aggressively or shooting an open ‘3’. She’s just starting to figure some of that stuff out.”

On a team with several standout senior leaders, it’s not the worst thing in the world for a freshman to spend a lot of time in watch-listen-and-learn mode. She can come off as a little quiet at times, her coach said, but it’s not because of shyness and it’s not because she has nothing to say.

“She’s very witty,” Plitzuweit said. “She’ll say things really quietly sometimes but if you’re standing next to her and hear it, you’re smiling and thinking ‘Well played. That was very well done.’”

After one of the pair of one-sided victories over the North Dakota schools last week, the Coyotes were whooping it up a little in the locker room. With the music playing loudly and the team dancing around, Plitzuweit was holding assistant coach Jason Jeschke’s young daughter, Rylee. Very quickly, it was apparent that Rylee was thinking this kind of sensory overload was best viewed from her father’s arms. Plitzweit recognized as much and delivered the toddler back to her assistant coach.

All of which presented an opportunity for Watson.

“I looked at Coach and I said ‘Oh, you can hold me if you want,’” Watson said. “And I jumped into her arms. She didn’t hold me for very long but it was awesome. Now I might have given her a little hop to help out when she tried to lift me but I’m still giving her all the credit.”

It may be one of the first times in college basketball history that a player publicly credited a coach for being able to lift her. In this case, though, not at all out of character.