Karolina Ramirez transfers home, running point for Martin County girls basketball

It’s not every day when the new girl joining your high school basketball team has 104,000 Instagram followers and has made appearances on “Live With Kelly and Ryan” and “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

Martin County’s star sophomore point guard Karolina Ramirez, who lives in Stuart, decided one year as a freshman at The Benjamin School in Palm Beach Gardens was enough, too much of a commute. Ramirez decided to transfer to her zoned school, Martin County High, this season.

The Tigers worried whether Ramirez’s ego was as big as her social media following.

“The girls were actually nervous about her transferring," Martin County coach Georgia Taylor said. “Some of them thought she might be big-headed and overconfident. But she walked in and was so humble and friendly. The girls were like, 'Oh, she’s not scary at all.'"

Martin County got off to a fantastic start, winning 10 of its first 12 games. However, “The Ramirez Show” came back to Palm Beach County on Wednesday night and the Tigers hit a speed bump against a powerful Somerset Canyons squad, ranked 59th in Florida.

Martin County controlled the contest in the first half, leading by as many as 6 points. Somerset Canyons, keying on Ramirez, wore down the Tigers. The charter school from western Boynton Beach pulled away in the second half to post a 60-44 triumph and move to 10-5.

National TV: Stuart basketball phenom zooms onto 'Kelly Clarkson Show'

Somerset Canyons coach Anthony McCutcheon called guard Delanie Doty the hero as she scored 12 points and defended Ramirez, holding her to just 9 points — 6 below Ramirez’s scoring average. The consummate floor general, Ramirez also had five assists and four rebounds.

“She works really hard on her craft but she’s getting every team’s best shot," McCutcheon said of Ramirez. “She’s getting face-guarded every single game. Some teams are going box-and-one on her. Every game she continues to push forward and produce and they’re doing very well this year."

Going viral

When Ramirez was 10 years old, her videos on her Instagram elicited an invitation to the Ripa/Seacrest program where she performed basketball stunts — including dribbling two basketballs while bouncing on a pogo stick. She had 35,000 followers at age 10 and it’s steadily grown.

In a quiet moment before Wednesday’s game, outside the visitor locker room, Ramirez said: “It was cool. Not something everyone gets to experience. It was nerve-wracking having to do all those things live. It was fun. People started to recognize me. I was at an Orlando Magic game and, 'Oh, you were that girl.' It doesn’t really affect me that sometimes people know who I am.’’

Her last video that went viral came a couple of months ago when Ramirez, while attending her brother’s travel-league game, sank a shot from halfcourt, Stephen-Curry-like.  Curry is one of her idols and she performed part of Curry's pregame warm-up routine for television, doing tricks while dribbling with two basketballs.

Her nickname in the locker room is “Logo Lina" after the halfcourt shot.

“That blew up," said Ramirez, who first picked up basketball at age 4. “But my favorites are some of the highlights from my games and me and my team scoring.”

It is Ramirez’s father — not her — who runs the account. But watching Ramirez play for her school, there’s no showboating. She’s fundamentally superb, dribbling adeptly with either hand, always making the right pass with a soft touch. On the game’s first possession, a basketball junkie could sense her vision as she drove the lane, and made a no-look, over-the-head pass to an open teammate in the corner.

The 15-year-old redhead also is an unmistakable leader — patting teammates on the back after a mistake.

“She brings energy wherever she goes," Taylor said. “I have her in a basketball phys ed class. She’s always smiling, walks in smiling. On the court, she’s clapping, encouraging her teammates.’’

“I try to give positive feedback when I can," Ramirez said. “I know I would want someone to boost me up. That’s what I try to do."

On Wednesday, Becca Witt added 13 points, but depth is an issue. Since Kaitlyn Tanis went down two weeks ago with a broken foot, the team has literally no bench, using just a five-person rotation the past couple of games. That had an effect late in Wednesday’s loss.

Still, the grit is there as all five Tigers wear black knee pads, not for fashion. “We all wear knee pads because we all hustle and try to get every loose ball and dive on the floor," Ramirez said. “It’s to protect us from bruises and aches.’’

Somerset-Canyons shows defensive grit

The Tigers will hurt after this loss as Canyons outrebounded them badly in the second half. Canyons center Rebecca Souverain finished with 13 points and had three blocks in the second half. Alana Fabrini got hot from deep to post 13 points.

But Doty proved most valuable, never coming out, stalking Ramirez, whose biggest highlight was bolting for a coast-to-coast layup with 5:13 left to cut the deficit to 6 points. Canyons then blew it back open.

“She’s really good and can do everything on the floor," Doty said. “I knew what she was able to do and what she’s good at in order to guard her."

Taylor thought her squad made a bad choice in trying to run with Somerset-Canyons. “Our coach wanted us to slow down the ball," Ramirez said. “But I think we were playing frustrated and were trying to rush."

There weren’t a lot of highlight videos for Ramirez’s Instagram on Wednesday, but surely more is coming in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Karolina Ramirez transfers home, running point for Martin County girls