Greenway genes: Girls basketball phenom continues to lead despite age
Maddyn Greenway has become a player whose ability is maddening to any opponent she plays, despite her age.
(FOX 9) - The Providence Academy Lions are ready to roar again in the MSHSL State Girls Basketball Tournament. As the top seed in Class AA, one of the top scorers in the state will lead them this season: Maddyn Greenway.
"We’re playing our best basketball right now, and I think it’s at the perfect time," Providence Academy guard Maddyn Greenway told FOX 9.
Maddyn is a player whose ability is maddening to any opponent she plays.
"If we need it, she’ll just turn it on," Providence Academy senior forward Maria Counts said of Greenway’s play.
Greenway is averaging more than 24 points a game this year while clearing the 1,000 career points mark on varsity – all before she actually gets to high school.
"A lot of people are surprised because I play so mature," Greenway, an 8th grader, said. "I know that I put in the work and I am confident from that."
"Eighth grade? I don’t even know what I was doing in eighth grade," Providence Academy head coach Conner Goetz said. "This year, it’s just like ‘Maddyn, we need you to take over’ and she’s ready to go after it."
If her last name sounds familiar, it should. The daughter of Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway is now the next in line of her family’s athletic lineage.
But this Greenway is trying to pave her own way in sports.
Greenway is averaging more than 24 points a game this year while clearing the 1,000 career points mark on varsity – all before she actually gets to high school.
"Last year, there was a lot of ‘oh, that’s (Chad’s) daughter’," Greenway said. "It’s going to happen, people will always say that because he was really good, but I’ll just continue to do what I’m doing to make a name for myself."
"She’s wired differently than most kids," Goetz said. "That comes from parents but it is also self-driven from her and that’s really special."
Maddyn helped bring Providence Academy to the state final a year ago, but the team left with an unfulfilled feeling losing to Albany in the last game of the year.
"We want it so much more than everyone else because we came so close," Greenway said of last year’s ending.
Making this a Providence Academy team with something to prove.
"You can’t take any game for granted," Counts said. "Playing with that mindset will take us pretty far."