Alia McCoy will make her impact.

If things go according to plan, with her talent and ability, she could be one of the greatest Canyon girls basketball players ever.

With her already polished game and continued ascent, she could be one of the great girls basketball players to come out of this valley.

She wants to make an impact.

She says so.

But not necessarily just as a basketball player.

“I do. I want to be good at the sport I play,” McCoy says. “I just want more than being a basketball player. I want to inspire someone. I want to inspire someone to be better. My character is more important than how I am as a basketball player. That’s the legacy I want to leave.”

No surprise that she would say something like that, says Canyon High basketball coach Chuck Johns.

“I would have been surprised if she said that’s not important to her,” Johns says. “That’s who she is.”

What McCoy is is one of those prep athletes that is beyond her years — beyond her years in her sport and outside of it.
On the court, the 16-year-old is dynamic.

Her long arms, and fearlessness and aggressive nature make her terror on the defensive side of the ball.

On offense, she can dribble-penetrate, shoot from the outside and create space with and without the ball.

In the first half of the Foothill League season last year, she was the best player in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The 5-foot, 11-inch McCoy was playing near-perfect games — scoring points, playing defense and rebounding.

But as exciting as she was to watch, one had to wonder if she had just a little more polish, how good she could be.

Footwork and control were the only issues.

It’s clear to one opposing Foothill League coach that McCoy did some work in the summer.

“I saw her playing against Sierra Canyon (on Dec. 29). The first thing I noticed was she looked more mature,” says Valencia head coach Jerry Mike. “I hadn’t seen her since summer. She looks stronger. She looked totally in control. Last year, she was hitting the ground or shuffling her feet on pump fakes. I didn’t see any signs of that. That’s not a good sign for us.”

Adds West Ranch head coach Randy Smith: “You worry about her when you’re a coach. You’re hoping this is a game where she’s not interested.”

But it’s not in her character to be disinterested.

It wouldn’t reflect well on her.

From most accounts, she’s as dedicated and interested in what she does — whatever it is — as they come.

She’s a 3.6 GPA student who wants to be a psychologist when she grows up because “I want to help people,” she says.
McCoy did just that last March.

Canyon was on the brink of beating No. 1 seeded Rialto at Rialto High in the second round of the CIF-State Girls Division II Basketball Championships tournament.

Canyon’s Jaya Schultz, who McCoy has known since the sixth grade, stepped to the free-throw line with the Cowboys trailing 45-44 with 15.6 seconds to play.

She missed the front end of one-and-one.

Canyon eventually lost 46-44 in an otherwise stellar game for the rising star Schultz.

McCoy approached her the next day at school on March 11.

“She said, ‘Jaya, don’t worry about it. This a learning experience for you. It’s a good thing for that to happen to you. You’ve never been in a situation where the game’s on the line,’” Schultz recalls. “Oh my gosh, she made me feel so much better. I felt so terrible, so down on myself after the game. She was really helpful to me.”

Schultz says McCoy is the most unselfish teammate she has ever had — they also have been playing together on the same club team since eighth grade,

She adds that she’s good at everything on the court.

McCoy says the reason for her success on the basketball court is because she has two older athletic and competitive brothers.

Off the court, it’s her parents, who are supportive and have taught her how others can’t have a bad word to say about you if you have good character.

“Having a good attitude and being a positive role model is far more important than just being a good basketball player,” she says.

Yet, as diverse as her game is, Johns says there is something that could take her to an even higher level.

“She is fearless, but she needs maybe a little more of an edge to her maybe for lack of better term,” Johns says. “But she’s a very humble person — always team first. What are you going to do with a kid like that?”

Not much.

Her numbers from last year — 13.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game — should grow.

The junior still has two runs through the Foothill League left in her.

That’s a lot of time to leave a legacy.

In her first two seasons, she has been an All-Santa Clarita Valley and All-Foothill League first-teamer, an All-CIF-Southern Section Division IIAA selection, a two-time Foothill League champion, a semifinalist in the Division IIAA playoffs and she has won a state tournament game.

There could be quite an on-court legacy when she’s done.

For her, she’d rather be measured by who she has inspired.