Five high school seniors had last Saturday off. No practice. No scrimmage. No obligations. Time to sleep in, right?

Not for a handful of Lehighton Area High School hoopers.

Cole Dietz, Blake Roberts, Talin Fairchild, Aiden Solt and Caden Meek hopped in the car early in the morning.

They weren’t heading to a workout. They weren’t going to open gym. They were driving 45 minutes from Lehighton to Weisenberg Elementary in Kutztown — to watch their head coach’s 7-year-old daughter play basketball at 9 o’clock in the morning.

Lehighton head coach Trevor Miller had no idea they were coming.

“I was pretty surprised,” the ninth-year Lehighton head coach said. “We scrimmaged on Friday, so I gave them off Saturday, and I just expected them to be able to have a rest day. I was not expecting five 18-year-old kids to walk into her game on Saturday morning, so I was pretty shellshocked too.”

Assistant coach JC Dietz helped make the moment happen. Miller had sent him Shay’s schedule a couple of weeks earlier — no big deal, just keeping his assistant in the loop. But Dietz quietly shared it with the seniors, and they picked a game. All five of them carpooled together and walked into that gym as a group.

And then 7-year-old Shay saw them walk into the gym.

“She just lit up, man. It was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” Miller said. “I’ve never seen her like that before. She was just so happy, and we’re four or five days past that now, and she’s still saying, ‘I can’t believe the boys came to watch me play.’”

This is what nine years of building a program looks like when it finally comes full circle. Miller has watched these kids grow up right in front of him — not just as basketball players, but as people.

He’s seen them develop from freshmen getting their first varsity minutes to seniors who run practice, hold each other accountable, and drive 45 minutes on a Saturday morning to watch a 7-year-old play basketball.

Miller took over a Lehighton team that went 3-19 in 2017-18. Then 6-16. Then 4-18, and no deep playoff runs.

But Miller kept showing up and coaching. And he kept making his family a part of everything he did — because that was always the point.

Miller said Shay has been at practices since she was a baby, sitting in her car seat carrier watching the ball bounce up and down. She grew up with these kids. She tells them how great they played after every game, win or lose. She is their biggest fan.

“No matter if we win or lose, when she sees those guys the next day, she’s always telling them how great they did,” Miller said. “She’s just so proud of them, and she really does look up to them. For them to do that, it was really a special moment.”

Now, Miller’s seniors have accomplished quite a bit, which includes earning a third-straight District 11 appearance. They police themselves at practice and hold each other accountable, as Miller said they make his job easy.

But what happened Saturday morning in Kutztown? That’s different. That’s not basketball.

“There aren’t many high school kids that are up at that hour of the day,” Miller said. “For them to get in their cars together and drive 45 minutes to a game is something that I’ll never forget.”

When asked to describe this group in one word, Miller landed on character.

“They’re just really high-character kids,” he said. “They take the game of basketball seriously. They really rely on the preparation; they hone in on the things that we talk about. But just as important is when they go into school, and they go out in the community, I never have to worry about them. And I can’t say that every single year, but I can say that about this group. I truly believe when you have high-character kids, that also comes with success on the floor too.”

The proof of that showed up at 9 a.m. on a Saturday in Kutztown.

“The fact that they would show up for a 7-year-old’s basketball game proves to me that they get it. That’s stuff that I’ve tried to instill for the nine years that I’ve been at Lehighton. And this special group just shows how much that’s a part of what we preach and what we talk about.”

Friday night, those five seniors head to William Allen High School as the No. 6 seed to face Allentown Central Catholic in the District 11 4A quarterfinals.

And no matter the outcome, they’ll surely have a fan for life in Shay Miller, as the past couple of seasons have been a true core memory. For everyone.