[My teammates and coaches] will always hold a special place in my heart.”

Kaegan Young

BELL BUCKLE, Tenn. – Kaegan Young has been in the business of setting records and pushing the limits of what’s possible her entire career at Cascade High School ever since her freshman year in 2022-23. It all culminated in her senior year this season, where she became the Lady Champions’ first-ever finalist for the prestigious TSSAA Miss Basketball Award on Feb. 12.

Nine days later, on Feb. 20, she became the school’s all-time career leading scorer and became the first-ever player at Cascade to surpass 1,500 career points. On Tuesday, she sat with the other two finalists for Class AA – Maliyah Glasper from Gatlinburg-Pittman and Wylie Kee from Huntingdon – inside of the Tucker Theater on the campus of Middle Tennessee, watching Glasper take home the award after she averaged 19.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 4.0 steals per game in the 2025-26 regular season. 

Despite the enthusiasm and hype surrounding the winner, the fact that Young was named a finalist is an incredible accomplishment of its own. Young is the first Miss Basketball Finalist to come from Bedford County in more than 20 years since Alex Fuller in 2004 at Shelbyville Central. This year, near the end of a long and grueling regular season, Lady Champs’ head coach Janie Demonbreum says she found out Tuesday, Feb. 10, before their game at Eagleville, but she could not share that with the team  until the official announcement came out from TSSAA at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. This provided a unique opportunity to think of ideas on how to tell not just Young, but the team as a whole.

“We had originally been called for a film session during Champ Time,” Young recalled about the morning of Feb. 12, “which I thought was a great idea. We walk in and Coach Janie is running around like crazy, and I see Coach Woodson and Coach Kaylee in there saying they’re watching film. Then Coach Janie comes running in and yells ‘NO PHONES!’ We watch two clips and Coach Woodson is talking about them and playing the part, then she [Demonbreum] puts it [the Miss Basketball Finalist graphic] on the screen. At first there was just silence, thinking like, where did the film go?”

“It was complete silence,” Demonbreum interjected.

“And I was just like, ‘Oh, wow…really?’ Then Suzanna [Crews] is like ‘Did you not know?’ and I told her no,” said Young.

“We knew it was going to come out on Thursday, and I found out on Tuesday at 11 the day we went to play Eagleville, and I couldn’t tell anybody,” Demonbreum explained, “We tried to brainstorm the best way to tell them. We thought about telling her privately or calling in her family, but then she would know something is up. We just didn’t know what time it would be announced until we got an email on Thursday morning saying the press release is going to be out at 9:30 a.m. I didn’t want her to find out through text message, I didn’t want her to see it on social media, or for anyone else to break this to her because I knew that her teammates would want to be included in it and that we wanted to include them in that. I don’t think that they all completely understood the magnitude of what it means. It’s a long process.”

“I think for anybody to recognize Kaegan through this past year and what she has brought to our game is just phenomenal and she should be super proud,” she said.

"This also just brings a new standard to our program,” Demonbreum continued, “A lot of these young girls - especially the kids that are on our team right now - they've seen her not just play but her teammates have seen her work and do the things that go into being that good. It's a standard she unintentionally set. This is just her personality. She wants the best for herself, and she wants the best for everything that she touches. It couldn't happen to a better kid after what she's gone through in the last 4-5 years herself."

As her coach alluded to, Young’s high school career has been a personal whirlwind, to say the least. Her freshman year, herself, Suzanna Crews, and Janie Demonbreum all began their first year in the Lady Champions’ high school program. The trio entered a program that was coming off of a dismal 4-23 season in 2021-22. The once-proud Lady Champions’ program had fallen on hard times since the turn of the century, but more recently they had finished with a combined record of 11-63 from 2019-22. They knew a turnaround would take time, but they still maintained big expectations to strive for as a group.

“When we walked in on the first day of my freshman year, we talked about how the last three to four years are not going to be how the next three to four years go, and all of us just bought into that,” Young said, “Even the seniors that left last year, and the ones that have come up since I was a freshman, everyone has just understood that and has completely bought into it. We just took it and ran with it. I feel like we did that.”

“It really hit me – me and Suzie [Suzanna Crews] talked about this in eighth grade – when nobody talked about the high school team,” Young continued, “I had never come to a game or anything. Even my classmates were saying how they go to the guys’ game but don’t want to go to the girls’ game. That struck something in me, like that’s going to be me next year that you’re talking about.”

“It’s a much different environment from freshman year to now,” said Young, “We run out at 15 minutes and there’s people in the stands. There are at least a few students in a student section there. You hear the crowd.”

“It’s not crickets,” Demonbreum said, “Kaemey’s [Kaegan’s younger sister] fourth grade year, I knew I was going to be coaching the high school team soon, and I came to some of those games thinking ‘this is awful.’ I knew what they [Kaegan and Suzanna] were capable of because I was with them in middle school that year, and you don’t want that for them. We were turning things around at the middle school level and elementary school, but you can’t do that in high school without the kids buying in. They did buy into it, and they did make it better.”

In Young’s freshman year, Cascade went 3-25 overall. Despite the record, Young says that some good did come from that first season that permeated throughout the program all four years of her career.

“I feel like we found consistency within each other,” she explained, “We’d battle on the court and find the positives, but our consistency and worth didn’t come from what was on the court. That’s when we started looking at it like yes, we’re a team, but we’re also sisters. What happens between us can stay between us, and we’re going to all rally together and battle it out. Until we find the success that we want, and the change that we want, we’re going to battle it out.” 

In her sophomore season, Young averaged more than 12 points per game, leading the Lady Champions to a 10-win improvement in Year Two of the Demonbreum era. Cascade finished 13-16 overall, and reached the region semifinals for the first time since 2018-19. Things were looking up for Young and the program as a whole. Then, one life-changing day in the fall of her junior year would turn her world completely around.

With practice on the horizon for the upcoming 2024-25 season set to begin on Nov. 19, Kaegan’s younger sister, Kaemey Young, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on Nov. 6, 2024.

"It definitely put everything into perspective," Young said, "Everything turned from 'I have to do this' to 'I get to do this.' It's a privilege to get to play basketball. She [Kaemey] played four basketball games in six days the week before her diagnosis and never complained. It honestly helped me with my fire. I don't really show emotion, but seeing her fight through something so challenging, it had me thinking like why not? Why not risk everything? It’s just her mentality.”

"That whole November-January was a huge roller coaster of emotions,” Demonbreum said, “Kaegan was very fragile at that time. We all had to figure out how we were going to navigate this with her and keep moving forward. Of course we are all getting the updates about Kaemey and it's a lot of positives and then she hits a roadblock. The realization seemed to kind of hit her this past August of this was Kaegan’s last year. We don’t know when Kaemey will get to play again. We all hope that she can, but I think for Kaegan, it was the mindset of, I’m going to do this for her. And her work skyrocketed. She had that mentality of ‘what would Kaemey do?’"

“There was only one specific game where she looked at me and said that she needed a minute, and she cried the entire time she was on the bench at [Murfreesboro] Central Magnet,” said Demonbreum, “Then we go to Gatlinburg, and I think she scored four points in three games.”

“Yea, it was awful,” Young agreed.

“It was probably the worst she has ever played, and it was times like that where we’re thinking as a staff about how are we going to handle this and how are we going to get her through this?” Demonbreum continued, “At the same time as she has her sister going through all this, Kaegan is this far away and is spending all this time with us, so how do we make it better for her? I think this is all a testament of her being able to fight and battle through adversity. This group of girls puts their trust in God more than anyone I've ever been around, and it's simply amazing. You don’t see that every day."

Despite an extremely difficult junior season for their junior star, the Lady Champions nearly found themselves one game away from the state tournament, but instead fell in the region semifinals at home to Summertown in a tightly contested game. Cascade finished 2024-25 with a 14-14 record overall, but the trajectory of the program was 100% moving in the right direction.

“Sophomore year she had to deal with housefire, junior year she dealt with the shock of her younger sister being diagnosed with cancer. That’s two straight years of trials testing you mentally and emotionally,” Demonbreum said.

In June of 2025, Young hosted a blood drive in honor of her younger sister, partnering with the Red Cross through the Leaders Saves Lives program. In that time, they collected 158 units which can save up to 474 lives.

Also off the court, the Lady Champions – including Kaegan Young – are actively involved with the local community, most namely the surrounding elementary schools. Whether it’s reading to the kids, providing an extra set of hands for a teacher, or giving kids extra tutoring, Young and the Lady Champions program have been diligent in their efforts off the court just as much as they have on the court. 

"I love the connection,” Young said about the trips to the elementary schools, “You walk in the school and their faces just light up with smiles and they're so excited that you're back. Whenever we'd help the teachers, I'd go to leave and the kids would come up to me asking when the next time I would be back. They knew my name, I learned theirs...I'd walk in during the middle of class and they'd all get up to hug me and then go sit back down to continue their work. It's just really sweet. We'd talk about the games, like they'd say they would be coming to our games. I hope I can continue to feed into their lives."

As Young and the Lady Champions prepared for the 2025-26 campaign, the sting of that loss to Summertown in the region semifinals drove the program to strive for greatness this season. And from the jump, there was something different about Young and her teammates.

Cascade started out the year at 16-3 after winning their first three games in district play against Loretto, Community, and Chapel Hill, despite their starting center, Suzanna Crews, being sidelined for six straight games in December and January. A big part of their success was the leap forward from their now-senior superstar. After averaging just over 12 points per game in 2024-25, Young’s averages skyrocketed in 25-26. At one point, Young was averaging as many as 21 points per game, and she finished the regular season averaging 18.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 2.7 steals per game on 47% shooting from the field while leading the Lady Champions to a 21-6 record in that time. This marked just the third 20-win season for the program since 2001. Cascade also won the District 9-AA regular season title with an incredible 7-1 record after sweeping preseason favorites Loretto – who ended up making the State Tournament – as well as Summertown in the regular season.

"This year was a little more freeing,” said Young, “Mentally I was more stable. It was relieving to see her [Kaemey] in the stands. She was able to come last year, but she had to sit in the corner, she had to be blocked off, she had to wear a mask. For her to walk in the gym still smiling with no mask, for her to sit up in the stands with my parents where they always have sat, that was amazing.”

“That was the big thing this year. Just play free. It’s fun, just get back to having fun. There’s no burden to carry this time.”

To cap off an incredible regular season, Young broke the Lady Champions’ career points record previously set by Heather Walling in 2000 on the final day in an OT win at Summertown with a 19-point performance against the Eagles. Eight days later, on Feb. 21, Young broke the school’s all-time career scoring record of 1,495 points set by Mark Gilmore in 1981 with a 20-point outing against Community. She ended her high school career as Cascade’s all-time leading scorer with 1,513 career points.

“Breaking the record, it’s just crazy,” said Young, “I never would have thought that was possible until this past summer when my dad told me it was something I could realistically do.”

“If things didn’t pan out the way they did her junior year, she would have gotten to 2,000 for sure,” Demonbreum believes. “Overall, in my eyes, I think when you look at not just the season we had because of her, but also when you look at what our season has gone through in terms of our district. We don’t have a cupcake schedule, so all of the stats that get pushed out there, she’s being hammered all night long every night and still was able to score 18, 19, 20 points. I think that changes the ball game when you look at who we were playing against. They also talk about the stuff outside of basketball, and I don’t know how much of an impact the GPA and everything has, but she carries those too. She’s not only a fantastic athlete and carries herself in the right way, but she’s also a fantastic person and carries herself in the right way in that as well."

“On the court, it’s a no-brainer to say she was the heartbeat of our team,” Demonbreum continued, “She had supporting casts throughout that she built up, and because Kaegan raised her game, it raised their game, and in turn raised our game as a team. She’ll definitely be missed. Her defense, her long arms in any type of press we wanted to use. Her ability to create her own shots, and those shots created shots for other people. Her rebounding will be greatly missed. For four years I’ve had the same person bring the ball up the court. It’ll look different. She’s done a great job mentoring and being that example of what a superior athlete needs to be within our program.”

Part of that mentoring began in Young’s junior year. Despite all the outside adversity she was dealing with personally, she was able to help rally a now-sophomore class that would play an irreplaceable role in the program’s success over the next two seasons both on and off the court.

“We’re all on the same page. We all knew what we wanted for this program,” said Young, “When Lizzie [Keele] and the sophomores came in before last year, they saw it from the start and they ran with it. I feel like we all had that initial connection together [with this year’s sophomore class]. We’d sit down and talk and say what we want for our next two years and y’all’s four, but we also want to start a new outlook on the Lady Champions program. I want to look up in the stands, and to the left of our student section, see all the little kids running around, the middle school kids from their teams all standing up and cheering. That was something we wanted. We wanted to go out in the community and people to tell us that we had a great game on Friday. We wanted people to be like, ‘Hey, you really changed Cascade.’ Even teachers now, they’re excited and can’t wait for basketball season. Coach Liddell and Coach Carter were trying to get us to have a three-point celebration. Just goofy stuff like that…it means a lot.”

“She should be extremely proud of herself. She set a goal with your teammates, and you accomplished many of those goals in four years, and way more than she could have ever thought of. She’s humble and not going to talk highly about herself, and she’s not going to toot her own horn even though we try to get her to as much as possible,” Demonbreum said with a laugh. 

It’s safe to say that Young is leaving behind an impact that will be felt for years to come. Cascade will inevitably hang her #22 jersey from the rafters at some point next fall, and the ovation for the UT-Southern signee when she returns to The Stable will be deafening. She leaves Cascade as not just the greatest player to pass through the Lady Champions’ program in the last quarter-century, but as one of the greatest athletes in the entire school’s 53-year history. This fact cannot be overemphasized, and all of her accomplishments speak for themselves. 

Young – along with her classmate and good friend, Suzanna Crews, and her head coach – is a significant reason why a program that looked like it was left for dead just four years ago now has life again. It’s more than the 18 PPG – it’s the culture that she assisted in creating and implementing. She leaves behind a legacy that goes leaps and bounds beyond just wins, losses, and statistics.

As she heads off to UT-Southern for the fall of 2026 to continue her playing career, she certainly has shown that she possesses the capabilities to overcome any adversity that stands in her way. 

“She has carried the weight of many different chapters in her four years,” Demonbreum said, “and it’s unfortunate that this book technically has to close with how it ended, but at the same time, she gets to write another book.”

“I couldn’t have done this without my teammates and my coaches,” Young concluded. “I love them. They’ll always hold a special place in my heart.”