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Scoring 1,000 career points at any level of basketball is a big accomplishment. When you do it at the high school level around here, it is an even bigger deal. Plus, when you do it while still a junior in high school, that’s a sign you’re pretty good at doing it, too.

Washington High School junior Chaise Smith scored his 1,000th career point in last week’s season-opening win over Goldsboro. He was recognized by the school and his head coach, David Allewalt, before Tuesday’s win over South Central. Smith then went out and scored 20 points in his team’s 70-51 win.

Smith is drawing interest from several colleges and has one particular school he has a high interest in. He talked about his accomplishments, expectations for this season and what’s next.

1. Tell me what scoring 1,000 career points and being recognized was like for you because obviously, it’s a big accomplishment.

“It felt good, and I just wanted to enjoy the win with my team. And I was thanking them because I couldn’t have done it without them.”

2. Talk about the game against South Central. They are a pretty good team and you guys were up by 15 to 25 points on them at one point in the game.

“We were all going into like a revenge game. And it was like, we gotta go out there and go ahead hard once the tip-off comes. So we can go ahead and punch them in the mouth. And then if they do come back, we will have energy for our second team to get back in the game if we did face adversity like we did.”

3. (Washington coach David Allewalt) was saying last year that y’all played a lot of really tough competition and you play a lot this year too, along with the brutal Eastern Plains Conference. What is that doing for guys like you and the other members of the team to make you better?

“It’s making all of us better because we know if we wanna be a state championship team, we know how to beat teams like we’re playing right now.”

4. I would assume you’ve got a lot of colleges that are looking at you. Can you name some colleges that have interest in you or colleges you have interest in?

“I’ve been talking a lot to Appalachian State. I’ve been talking to … I talked to Clemson some in the summer. I talked to ECU, I talked to Western Carolina University. And I talked to NC State a little bit in the summer. I feel like Appalachian State probably has the most interest in me right now.”

5. What are your goals as far as the rest of the season? You’ve played two games, there’s a lot more to go and big games like against Farmville Central and Greene Central in the conference.

“I wanna just take every game step by step, getting every team, like every rematch game. I wanna beat every team that we lost to last year. I want to just get better as a team and get more chemistry with my teammates. I feel like that’s gonna be one of the more competitive and physical games that we play (against Farmville Central). I’m ready to see them, too, but I’m more ready to see Northern Nash.” (Saturday in the Good Guys vs. Cancer Basketball Showcase at First Flight High School in Kitty Hawk.)