Smyrna High girls’ basketball player Kai Burnette was voted this week’s State News Athlete of the Week.

The Smyrna High girls’ basketball team went into their game with Caesar Rodney hoping to stay near the top of the Henlopen North standings.

Led by junior Kai Burnette’s 30 points, the Eagles easily toppled the Riders 59-23 to improve their record to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the conference. Burnette, who made first-team All Henlopen North last season, made 11 of Smyrna’s 21 field goals during the contest.

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Smyrna won 15 games last year and is looking to improve on that this season.

“No matter what’s going on, we always set high expectations for ourselves,” Smyrna coach Erique Gumbs said last week. “In the first half of the year, we’re kind of figuring out our identity. I don’t think we’ve played up to our potential, but that’s OK. As long as they’re learning and developing.

“The years always bring their challenges. Sometimes, once you’ve seen a little bit of success, you almost feel like you’re going to walk right back into that groove and that’s not the case. ... It usually takes longer than you want but we’re trying to be the best we can be by March.”

Burnette is averaging 18.1 points per game this year, but Gumbs says that she offers a lot more to the team.

“She is a tremendous athlete and has a motor second to none” Gumbs said of Burnette last season. “She is able to help her team win in many ways outside of scoring.”

The Athlete of the Week is nominated and chosen by our readers. The nominating period starts at 2 p.m. on Friday and ends at noon on Monday. A voting period follows from 5 p.m. Monday through 5 p.m. Wednesday.

This process is performed exclusively online. When nominating an athlete, please include name, school and sport as well as a photo and brief description of why he or she deserves that week’s honor.

All nominations must be high school varsity athletes and come from high schools within Kent or Sussex counties. The winner appears in print and online each Sunday.

You can nominate an athlete for next year's award here.