These three girls’ basketball players helped lead Audenried’s playoff run — while observing Ramadan

For Universal Audenried junior guard Shayla Smith, Ramadan is about much more than fasting from sunup to sundown.

“It’s like a cleanse,” Smith said before a recent practice. “You’re purifying yourself and cleansing yourself. And at the same time, you’re putting yourself in other people’s shoes because there are a lot of people who can’t eat … so you just try to be mindful of that, and it humbles you because you know that [what you have] could be taken away at any time, so you have to make the most of it.”

In some ways, Smith sees how that applies to basketball, but not just because the two-time defending Public League champions’ season came to a close Tuesday night. The Rockets fell, 83-50, to District 2’s Scranton Prep in the PIAA Class 4A girls’ semifinals at Liberty High School in Bethlehem.

“My teammate, Nasiaah Russell, got injured during the season, which hurt all of us,” Smith said. “That just shows that we have to play our hearts out every time we step on the court because we never know when it could be over.”

Russell, a 6-foot-2 freshman who already has garnered interest from Division I coaches, suffered a torn ACL earlier this season.

During a month dedicated to sacrifice, Smith shining a light on an injured teammate in a story meant to be about her seems to fit a theme within Audenried’s team, a squad filled with players who likely would score more points elsewhere but joined forces in pursuit of championships.

“We’ve never been this far in the state tournament,” coach Kevin Slaughter said. “We’re focused on winning, and that’s what it’s about at the end of the day.”

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Smith, the 5-10 offensive savant who averages 25.3 points per game and was named Public League player of the year in consecutive seasons, doesn’t remember her first fast.

She just knows that her parents were abstaining, so she wanted to as well, though she often eventually broke the fast when she was younger.

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is one of the five pillars of Islam and is considered one of the holiest months of the year for Muslims.

Smith explained that those who observe give up more than just food and drink during sunlit hours.

“It means abstaining from anything that could harm me,” she said. “We’re not just fasting from food, but fasting from profanity, from seeing certain things, listening to certain things, so it’s like a cleanse both physically, spiritually, and mentally.”

Smith explained that she became obligated to fast when she was 12. And because Ramadan falls at different times each year, this is the first time it has coincided with her high school basketball season.

Outside of the holy month, Smith wakes up at 5:30 a.m. During Ramadan, however, she rises around 4:45 a.m. for suhoor, or her predawn meal.

Because her day consists of school followed by basketball, Smith says she fills herself with eggs, bananas, oatmeal, cashews, cucumbers, fruit, and five or six bottles of water. For iftar, or the breaking of the fast after sundown, Smith said she focuses on replenishing her body with the proper nutrients that will sustain her for the next day.

When the smell of food teases her stomach during school, it’s her mind that must take over.

“I remind myself that there are people around the world who cannot eat,” she said. “I could get a snack if I wanted to and break my fast, but there’s people in different countries, and even people in Philadelphia, who can’t. They have [no food]. So it’s like I can do this for one month if they’ve been doing it for years.”

Two of Smith’s teammates, senior Sakina Nelson and freshman Taylor Stevens, also observe Ramadan.

When hunger strikes, Nelson, a 5-3 guard, has a to-do list on her phone designed to distract her.

She might also play a game on her phone or study. She has been accepted by 14 colleges and is contemplating a premed track.

Stevens also is a 5-3 guard. When hunger sets in, she focuses on her breathing.

As with Smith, this also is the first time Ramadan has fallen within Stevens’ basketball season.

Last week’s second-round matchup against District 2′s Valley View was Stevens’ first action this season after a serious knee injury.

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Smith says she felt OK during the contest, which began at 6 p.m., meaning she wasn’t able to eat until the sun went down after the game.

She still managed 12 points and 14 rebounds in the Rockets’ 64-46 victory, although Slaughter noticed that her gas tank appeared empty.

“It’s like having a car,” Slaughter said of Smith, who scored 41 points in Saturday’s afternoon quarterfinal. “She needs fuel. She was totally on E. I’ll just tell you like this, she’s never had a game with 12 points. The fact that we won the game tells me the difference between our team this year and last year. We wouldn’t have won a game of that magnitude with her having 12 points.”

Fellow junior guard Senaya Parker added 15 points, while senior Aniyah Howard and sophomore Heaven Reese added 12 and 11, respectively.

Parker scored more than 40 points per game last year at Fels, while Reese averaged more than 20 at Prep Charter.

Currently, they average 11.2 and 7.7 points, respectively. Howard also averages 11.2. Last season, the Rockets lost in the second round to District 3′s Trinity after Smith got in foul trouble.

“The program is growing,” Slaughter said. “A lot of girls want to play with Shayla.”

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The traits that seem to draw teammates toward her, in addition to her obvious skills on the court, have made Slaughter question why Smith isn’t more highly ranked as a recruit.

At first, he wondered if scouts and coaches thought she was just dominating noncompetitive teams in the Pub. Then she twice was invited to prestigious camps held by former NBA player and coach John Lucas.

Smith then excelled on Nike’s EYBL AAU circuit, playing for Philly Rise alongside players such as Westtown’s Jessie Moses, Atlee Vanesko, and Jordyn Palmer, the freshman who recently was named Gatorade Player of the Year.

“[Smith] has everything that a coach would want,” Slaughter said. “She’s 5-10. She can shoot it. She can dribble. She plays defense. Great attitude. She checks all the boxes. She’s a good kid. Has good grades. What’s left? Maybe she’s on a bad team? No, we won back-to-back championships. Now we’re into the state championships.”

Smith shrugged when asked why she thought she wasn’t ranked.

“So for me,” Slaughter continued, “I’m thinking what else could it be? Is it because she wears the hijab? It may not be because she’s Muslim, but maybe it’s the look?”

He added: “Nobody has ever said a negative word about her. And I ask because I’m a realist. If you tell me the negative, I might have her work on that …”

Finally, Smith added her two cents.

“I don’t really care about the rankings,” she said. “That’s fine with me. I’ll keep dominating, though.”

Instead, she seems more focused on representing young Muslim girls in sports.

Smith said she has been inspired watching Jannah Eissa, the freshman guard at North Carolina State who plays in a hijab.

“It feels good,” she said, “knowing that I can go to college and be me.”

Nelson and Stevens expressed similar sentiments.

“When I was younger, I didn’t really see anybody my skin color or Muslim actually playing sports other than at recreation centers,” Nelson said. “So it’s definitely inspiring for me and my younger siblings to see people that look like me playing on these big stages.”

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Added Stevens: “We don’t really get a lot of respect, so I feel like it motivates me to keep going and stick through it to show that girls can do things, too.”

Smith’s father said words couldn’t express how proud he and Smith’s mother, Crystal Manley, are of their daughter. He just wants others to notice how special she is, too.

“I just hope they see someone striving to be better, man,” Jay Smith said in a phone interview. “Her being Muslim is a big part of it, and I hope it’s giving girls inspiration. It’s a positive thing. It gets them out of the streets so they can do something positive. I’m glad she’s leading the pack and setting an example.”