A new basketball ‘Big 3’? At Queen’s Grant Charter, they have one from the same gene pool
It’s not hard to tell how close the Smiths are. Get the Queen’s Grant high school basketball players, and siblings, together and the laughter — and the stories — flow freely.
Charles and Chase Smith are on the boys basketball team. Casey Smith is on the girls.
Both teams won conference regular-season and conference tournament championships and played in NCHSAA second round playoff games Friday night. The boys beat Winston-Salem Prep, 67-53, at Carole Hoefener Center in uptown Charlotte. The girls won, 72-66, at Thomas Jefferson in Mooresboro.
All three Smiths are key players on those teams — and are also on Queen Grant’s Honor Roll (“Bs are not acceptable at home,” Casey said).
Charles, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, is most likely to stay up all night watching TV and cook for himself. Chase, a promising 6-8 freshman center, is most likely to eat the most “Takis and Ramen,” Casey said.
There were lots of “friendly” fights growing up at home, which Casey — a 6-1 junior forward — said she usually won. Those spats, she said, also often ended up with all three kids in a precarious position; “Mom used to make us all get into the same shirt and spend a lot of time together,” Casey said.
“They’re just a great group of kids,” Queen’s Grant boys basketball coach Joe Badgett said. “They work hard and it’s a good balance. They were raised well. Chucky is a very mature kid for his age, and it balances out Chase. He does a great job of keeping everybody grounded, but Casey is the same. The biggest thing with them is improvement. They’ve gotten better this year and they do their school work and they don’t get in trouble. I mean, they just do what they’re supposed to do.”
There is something else the Smiths are doing as well. The school’s first family of basketball is helping build a state powerhouse on the south end of town.
A future ‘Sweet 16’ champion?
Queen’s Grant Charter opened as a K-8 school in 2002, quickly becoming a sought-after destination in Mint Hill. The waiting list is constantly in the hundreds. The high school opened in 2007 with 120 students in a rented space at Garr Christian Academy in Charlotte.
Two years later, the high school moved to its current Mint Hill campus, welcoming 425 students from 40 different schools. Now, enrollment is at 572, according to the latest NCHSAA average daily membership figures.
Today, the high school doesn’t offer football, but has a strong athletic culture and a new basketball gymnasium under construction. Currently, the basketball teams plays most home games at Carolina Courts, a pair of multi-court training facilities in Indian Trail and Concord.
“I think both teams are coming,” said Rick Lewis, a N.C. high school basketball analyst with Phenom Hoop Report and a co-host of The Observer’s “Talking Preps” streaming show. “If you look at the (boys’) team, based on youth, they have the potential to be one of the dominant teams, especially at the 1A level, in North Carolina, and they have a real chance to be one of the stronger teams in the Charlotte-metro area, in any class. I think they could challenge for (The Observer’s) Sweet 16 banner down the road. They’re that good, and they’ve got Joe Badgett coaching them. That doesn’t hurt.”
A fast turnaround in Mint Hill
Queen’s Grant girls went 15-7 in the 2012-13 season but finished 20-157 over the next 11 seasons. That included six years with no wins. This year has been much different. Rookie coach Kendria Holmes, a former coach at Carmel Christian, has led the Stallions to a 21-4 record, a remarkable turnaround from an 0-17 mark in 2023-24.
Leading Queen’s Grant are freshman shooting guard Za’Miya Bynum (31.3 points per game, 7.9 steals, 6.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.0 blocks); Garinger High transfer Misa Garris, a junior guard averaging 22.3 points, 9.1 steals, 6.9 assists and 5.0 rebounds; and Casey Smith, who is averaging 10.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.8 blocks and 2.9 steals.
Casey has more than doubled her sophomore scoring average at Charlotte Country Day last season. Badgett said coaches from Division I N.C. A&T scouted her during Tuesday’s 78-53 win over Draughn High School, from Valdese, in the first round of the playoffs.
“It’s good having my siblings also having success,” Casey said. “We can all celebrate each other.”
When Badgett took the job as head boys’ coach last year at Queen’s Grant, after working as an assistant at Division I Hampton University, the Stallions were coming off a 14-17 season. But the school did have five straight boys’ winning seasons before that.
Badgett, however, has won six private school state championships and sent dozens of players to college. The Observer recently named him one of Charlotte’s best boys’ basketball coaches of the past 40 years.
His Queen’s Grant team is 24-7, setting a new school-record for wins and features four freshmen or sophomores who already have Division I offers, plus a fifth freshman, guard Preston Scott, on his way.
Cannon DeBerry, a 6-8 sophomore, averages 6.8 points and 6.5 rebounds. He has offers from Texas-Arlington and Mississippi State. Guard Mekhi Allen, a 6-5 freshman, averages 9.8 points and 3.4 rebounds. He has offers from Olde Dominion and Drexel.
Bobby Montgomery, a 5-9 freshman point guard with a Wake Forest offer, averages 11.7 points, 3.1 assists and shoots 40% from 3-point range. And Chase Smith — with offers from Mississippi State, California and Central Florida — averages a team-best 13.4 points, 9.9 rebounds plus 2.2 assists, two steals and 1.6 blocks.
“I figured later in the year, we would come together,” Badgett said. “We started three freshmen and two sophomores in our first game, at Ambassador Christian, and they came out and looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. But I think we knew the potential was there. Since then, we have had six losses but we were leading midway through the fourth quarter each time and just inexperience is what hurt us in those games. But they learned and grew from it.”
The big man with the bright future
If the Smith’s are Queen’s Grant’s first family, Chase Smith is its poster boy.
Lewis, the recruiting guru, fashions him a high-major prospect “with great hands, good footwork and a high IQ.”
Chase Smith was about 6-4 when his eighth grade year began at Charlotte Country Day, but his knees kept hurting and when he finally went to check in with the doctor several months later, he had grown to 6-8. Doctors told him and his parents that his growth plates were still open and they could expect that he’ll grow to...
“Around 6-11,” he said.
But for now, Chase Smith is not focused on height, potential or colleges. He said he just wants to help Queen’s Grant keep winning.
“We have a lot of ninth and 10th graders,” he said, “but I feel like our ninth and 10th graders and even our seniors are very smart and know what to do in each moment. We’re very prepared, and I think we’re going to have a long run in the playoffs.”
Hoping to leave a legacy
During a photo shoot for this story, the Smith family kept talking about how much fun this year has been, being on winning teams and getting to cheer each other on.
Badgett said their joy has rubbed off on everyone else.
“They get in here and work,” Badgett said, “and it was an adjustment for them at first because we coach hard and we’re demanding, but they really bought into it, to the point that (Charles) is the team captain, and I don’t do a team vote. I assign captains by watching the guys and seeing who they follow.”
Badgett said all three Smiths have grown as leaders, on campus and in the gym.
“They’ve had a memorable year,” Badgett said, “and we don’t want it to stop.”
Charles, 18, Casey, 17 and Chase, 15, said it’s something they won’t forget.
“I feel like it’s cool that we came in together as a group,” Charles said, “and we’re turning both programs around, and it’s like we were meant to do this and I’m happy were doing it together.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
