Success is Earned: Behind the Jersey with High School Star Leah Macy

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Rise Up Sports Media Magazine – Summer 2023 Issue 06.

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Life began to change for Leah Macy on June 1, 2023.

A rising high school junior out of Louisville, KY, Macy has been a household name in the local basketball community for years now. She stands at 6-foot-2 in the post and has established herself as one of the top recruits in the entire country. ESPN has ranked her as a top 25 prospect from the class of 2025 for nearly two years runnings. She’s arguably the best rebounder in the entire state of Kentucky. Pick a Power 5 college from anywhere in the country and there’s a good chance they’ve at least expressed interest in recruiting Macy.

But June 1, was when the floodgates opened and reality began to hit. That was the first day that college coaches could directly reach out and make contact with class of 2025 recruits. The phone calls and text messages poured in from the moment the clock struck midnight. Macy always knew she had the talent to play high-level college basketball, but the rush of interest to start the month of June confirmed her beliefs — this is real.

“June 1, it got crazy,” Macy said in a one-on-one interview with Kentucky Sports Radio. “I would say that’s the time that recruiting really, really started. I’ve had my first offer since eighth grade, but on June 1, it got real. They could start contacting me. I was like wow, this is crazy and this is awesome. Because it was a lot. But I was so happy to see I’ve come this far.”

Smaller, in-state schools such as Murray State, Eastern Kentucky, and Western Kentucky were the first to extend full-ride scholarships. The big-name local schools, Kentucky and Louisville, got involved shortly after. Then the big dogs started to reach out — UConn, South Carolina, Maryland, Notre Dame, you name it. “Literally everybody” is how she described it. She took a visit to Notre Dame soon after our interview.

But June 1 was a big day for another reason. Macy received her driver’s license. She learned to drive from her Papaw, a man named Carroll Swartz, who also bought Macy her first car. The first thing she did as a new driver on the open road was visit him. After that, it was right back to basketball for Macy, who went to work at a summer skills camp the same day. No matter what’s going on in her life, she’s never too far away from a ball.

Looking back on Macy’s childhood, it feels like basketball was always meant to consume her life. Her Papaw built an asphalt court in the backyard of her parent’s house years ago, which she still uses to this day. It was a way for Swartz to bond with his granddaughter through something they both loved.

“Me and my Papaw, we have a really, really close relationship,” Macy said. “He’s a big part of my life. He owns a paving company in Louisville. It’s called Riverside Paving. And we’ve had this court for, I would say, six or seven years now. He didn’t really surprise surprise me with it — I don’t really remember. I guess he kind of did surprise me with it, but he loved it. He always comes down and shoots with me. And we just have a blast with it.

“He loves to see that I have a passion for the game. And so he’s always at all my games. Especially when I played softball, he loves softball too. So he would come, he would travel — they’re (her grandparents) a little bit older now and COVID kind of slowed them down a little bit. But thankfully, with technology, they can watch online still. So they still watch.”

Macy’s head-over-heels love for basketball came even before she was gifted with her own personal practice court. It began at Valley Creek Baptist Church in Elizabethtown, KY with a church league. Macy played with boys and girls from around the time she was five or six, but mostly against boys. She also attended the local grade school and suited up for the Elizabethtown Basketball League. Macy was used to playing on a 10-foot goal, but the league’s baskets were set at 9 feet to help the younger kids, which she admitted was an adjustment. Already ahead of the talent curve, she played multiple years up, so those boys were typically two years older than her.

“I think that’s where I get my physicality from in my game,” Macy said. “I had to fight a lot against boys. So that had a large impact on me. I think that shaped me into the player I am today. It really, really helped me.”

By the time she was in third grade, Macy was already on the path to being a potential star in the state. She joined the well-known AAU program Kentucky Premier, where she’s played with and against some of the country’s top female talents. Macy actually recently finished playing at the prestigious Nike Nationals event in Chicago, IL for Kentucky Premier. While there, she averaged 18.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game on impressive shooting splits of 56.7/58.3/92.0.

Macy got her start playing varsity high school ball as a seventh grader at Elizabethtown. A breakout showing at the Blue Star 30 Camp, another prestigious event for middle school and high school players, around the same time made her realize that basketball is something she could do for the rest of her life.

“That was the time that I was like, wow, I can really do this. I’m something special. And I can take my game — I can get my college paid for through basketball. Yeah. So that was the moment when I was older that the light switch was turned on.”

That light has yet to be switched off. The only thing that’s changed is the added pressure of being such a highly-touted high school hooper. Or, at least that’s what you might think. Macy doesn’t get that sense — not yet. The way she sees it, she’s been preparing for the situation she’s now in for nearly a decade. It’s the constant dedication to her craft that has fueled her confidence.

“I would say I really don’t get stressed or overwhelmed, for any part of basketball, whether it’s on the court or recruiting,” Macy explained. “I would say, I’ve just put so much hard work into it and preparation, I feel so prepared. I don’t have to be nervous about, did I work on this stuff? You’re gonna make mistakes, but I put so much time into it. I just love being in the gym. I love weightlifting. I do different workout sessions, multiple a day. And I’m just so competitive. I think that there’s no pressure there.

“People are like, how are you going to maintain this? But it’s just seeing all my hard work pay off and just having fun with it. Especially when it comes to recruiting. It’s a job, but it’s really not. You just get to know them as people and they get to know your family. It’s like a friendship, I guess you could kind of say, it’s not a job, which I really like. You really have fun with it. Just building the relationships is the best part. It’s not even nerve-racking talking to them. You can be yourself and just have fun.”

During the school year, Macy will wake up and work out from 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. every single morning before heading off to class. After school, you can find her on the court that her Papaw built, getting up shots and perfecting her craft. She doesn’t have to force herself to do any of it, either. Macy legitimately enjoys the grind of getting better each and every day.

It’s only going to get tougher though, but she understands that’s what comes with being a five-star recruit. Macy is in no rush to make a college decision. The span between now and the start of her junior season will be spent talking about her recruitment with the rest of the Macy family. If there’s one thing outside of the hardwood that she thoroughly enjoys, it’s spending time with those she’s closest with.

“I’m very close with my family, I would say outside of basketball, I’m always spending time with my family,” Macy added. ‘So it’s just my sister (Loren) and I and then my parents. So the four of us are really close. They’re all very, very involved in my basketball career and recruiting and everything. So it’s been awesome to get to go on visits with the four of us. It was very good quality family time.

“My parents are very happy that I’m getting my college paid for but we get to go do these experiences that most kids, they don’t ever get to do this. But it’s awesome that all of us can go and do that. We were hoping that my Papaw — he’s a big Kentucky fan, so we were gonna try to take him to Big Blue Madness this past year, but he didn’t get to go. But we want to try to take him on a college visit because he doesn’t — he doesn’t really comprehend this whole recruiting thing. He’s never had anybody experience that.”

Macy is particularly excited to take her Papaw through the recruiting process. Carroll Swartz is no stranger to basketball — his brother, Dan Swartz, was a member of the Boston Celtics NBA championship team back in 1963 when he was 28 years old — but what Macy is experiencing in 2023 is an entirely different animal.

It’s also a valuable learning opportunity for Macy’s younger sister, Loren, who is going into her freshman year of high school.

Loren isn’t as highly recognized on the recruiting trail at this stage in her basketball career as Leah was, but she’s still a talented player in her own right. The two were able to play on the same team as each other this summer for the first time since they were in elementary school.

Interestingly enough, the two sisters possess very different skill sets. The 5-foot-9 Loren, who also plays for Kentucky Premier, is familiar with operating in the paint like Leah, but she’s growing more into a guard as her on-court talents develop. On the flip side, Macy is a post player through and through with the ability to stretch the floor beyond the arc.

“Loren could care less if she scores 20 points,” Macy said. “She just wants to be a role player and have an impact in ways that people might not notice, doesn’t stand out on the stat sheet. She’s gonna get in your face and play defense on you. She’ll make you mad. She has physicality like me too. She’s still growing, she has a lot of growing to do so I think she might get kind of close to me in height. That’ll be funny, because she was doing really good rebounding in June on the high school team.”

Leah is able to act as a role model for her younger sister, who has the perfect teacher to show her the ropes both on and off the court. It’s been a full-circle experience for Leah in that way. She recalls being the young kid on the sidelines of AAU games watching the older girls play 17U and thinking the world of them. Only now, she is that older girl, and there are plenty of little girls (her younger sister included) that look up to her.

But as she begins the second half of her high school career, there isn’t much time for reflection. Life is going to get quite busy in the coming years, especially once she takes the next step and heads off to college. There are still some things she hopes to cross off the list before that time comes though.

First and foremost, Macy wants her name etched into the history books. Winning the Girls’ Sweet 16 Tournament at Rupp Arena is certainly up there. While playing for Mercy, she made it to the quarterfinals in 2022-23 before bowing out to Henderson County.

But Macy also has a realistic shot to go down as Kentucky’s all-time best high school rebounder.

“One of my main goals is to break the state rebounding record,” she added. “Right now I’m on track to do that. I don’t know how many it is. And I don’t know how many I have. I am on track to break that. Rebounding is an aspect of my game that’s huge and sticks out to coaches. So that’d be really cool to break that and hold that in Kentucky. So that’s what I’m hoping to do.”

The current record for most career rebounds, according to KHSAA, is held by Muhlenberg Central’s Sherry Gish (1978-84), who pulled down 1,978 boards. Including her time playing varsity for Elizabethtown in seventh and eighth grade, Macy is on pace to break that record with relative ease. She’s currently at 1,197 career rebounds after recording 448 as a sophomore, meaning she needs just 781 more to tie the record. If she can grab at least 391 rebounds in both her junior and senior seasons, she’ll move past Gish near the end of her final high school year.

Macy clearly has high expectations, but she set most of them herself. It’s a mindset that’s been ingrained in her ever since she could dribble a basketball — work harder than anyone else and you’ll achieve your goals along the way. It all goes back to a quote her family has used time and time again. A quote that sits with Macy to this very day.

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”