Rusty Wright tries to blend into the crowd at Boyd-Buchanan girls' basketball games. He sits in the back row of wooden stands and talks with the fathers of other players.
But he leans closer when his daughter is in the game.
Every moment is a chance for him to be just a dad, root for the Lady Buccaneers, muffle his thoughts about officiating and cheer for his daughter.
As an assistant football coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Wright has a respectable reputation as a recruiter of the best players available to Football Championship Subdivision programs. But when it came time for colleges to recruit his daughter, he sat back and told every coach, as he put it: "Talk to the ladies in the room."
Those ladies are Maddie and her mother, Kelley Wright, a former UTC volleyball player.
"Maddie made the decision to go to Belmont on her own," Rusty said. "She has very high standards."
His daughter is one of the best basketball players in the area. She has size that can be a force at Belmont, several post moves that can produce points and a 3-point shooting touch when it's needed. She's also the last line of defense when Boyd-Buchanan applies its press.
Wright's skills led to campus invitations from schools across the Southeast, some with gyms as expansive as Madison Square Garden. With all of those options, she chose Belmont University in Nashville.
"I think she will a great player there because she is such a rebounding force," Boyd-Buchanan coach Tracey Walker said. "She has incredible basketball skills and a fantastic basketball IQ."
The size or NCAA level of a school played only a small role in Wright's decision to rest her head in Nashville for her college seasons. She wanted to feel right. She didn't care too much about the size of the city, the expanse of the campus; she cared more about being comfortable.
"She made the decision on her own," her dad said. "I'm happy for her."
She'd better be thankful that some of her basketball triumphs aren't available on websites. Coach Wright said he uncovered some of the first video of Maddie dribbling a ball and shooting it at a hoop in footage from their family's time in Indianapolis.
"It was me on carpet," Maddie said. "It was cute."
Now she's an impressive McDonald's All-American nominee averaging 14.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.
Belmont has an excellent reputation of graduating students into the music industry. With its location, many famous artists frequent games as casual fans. Wright said she has a few of those she'd like to meet after a game at Belmont: Taylor Swift is an obvious choice, and then her next picks to meet are Chris Stapleton and Darius Rucker.
They are all award-winners, and so is Wright.
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamCTFP