This is the continuation of a series of Body, Mind & Soul stories that highlights member student-athletes, coaches and administrators of Conference Carolinas.

BRISTOL, Tenn. - In 2016, Hollywood released the film Hidden Figures, a biographical drama about three African American female mathematicians who played pivotal roles at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the height of the global space race.

The movie, which starred Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe as the pioneering women, received three nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Little did we know when the film was released, a 16-year-old female math prodigy from Knoxville, Tennessee was already conjuring up thoughts of becoming her own version of Hidden Figures. Her name was Trinity Lee and her dream was to some day work at NASA as an aerospace engineer.

Fast forward five years and you’ll find Lee on the Bristol, Tennessee campus of King University. Soft-spoken with a humility that belies her remarkable achievements, she may be one of the most exceptional student-athletes in all of college sports today.

As a senior civil engineering major, Lee is well on her way to her dream career. She is one of only 10 students nationwide selected for the prestigious SPIRAL intern program, which is sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for young, gifted mathematics majors.

And as a four-year member of the King women’s basketball team, Trinity is one of Conference Carolinas' premier athletes. Through Dec. 18, the 5-foot-7, sharp-shooting guard is averaging 18.6 points per game and has made 50 percent (28-of-56) of her three-point shots, leading the conference in both scoring categories. Her figure beyond the arc also ranks sixth among all NCAA Division II players.

While Lee is a shining star on the hardwood floor, much of her time has been spent studying stars in the universe. While still a few months from graduation, she has already served two intern stints with NASA.  

While the space organization has strived for more diversity in its ranks, NASA continues to be composed of mostly white males. Lee represented the only African American female in the intern group at last summer’s Zoom program.  

“From June to early August, we met online for eight hours a day,” Lee said. “I also was part of our ‘Oceans Group’ that worked on its own project. We studied volcanic ashes from the 2012 North Pagan eruption (the Mariana Islands) using NASA Satellite Modis Aqua data online.”

At the end of the summer, Lee was required to make a 12-minute presentation via Zoom to an audience of fellow students and NASA professionals. As one might imagine, Trinity had to battle her nerves while giving the report.

“Oh my goodness,” she recalled. “It was really intimidating, knowing you were being watched by NASA engineers and your peers. I’m sure I was shaking, but luckily my voice didn’t quiver. Actually, I thought I spoke pretty well.”

Apparently NASA officials thought she did as well. In fact, they selected her and three other student interns to make their presentations at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Conference that advances earth and space science in Chicago next year. 

While Lee may have been nervous when making her NASA presentation last summer, she was really on pins and needles two weeks into her fall semester when she had to ask her basketball coach a very difficult request. 

“NASA offered us an opportunity to spend a week at their Palmdale (California) facility in December, so I had to ask Coach (Michael) Phelps if I could go. It meant I would miss a game or two during our season. I didn’t think he would let me. But he was great. He told me I should go because it was best for my future. He was so nice.”

She would miss two games with the Tornado, who boast a 7-3 overall record and are near the top in Conference Carolinas with a 6-2 league mark.  

The morning after King’s 80-76 road victory over UNC Pembroke on Dec. 4 – a game in which Lee erupted for a career-high 31 points and became only the third Tornado to reach the 1,000-point career milestone in the Division II era – Trinity boarded a plane for her trip to the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale north of Los Angeles.

She and the other interns were housed at a nearby hotel. Not surprisingly, they spent the entire week up in the air.

“We rode in a DC-8 airplane the whole time we were there,” said Lee, who also learned she was named the Conference Carolinas Player of the Week while she was in Southern California. “We flew around the LA Basin and the Central Valley, taking measurements of air pollution. We also got a tour of the hangar where there were a lot of military aircraft that had been converted for research.”

It was finals week back at King. However, Trinity had only one final, which she took virtually while in Southern California.

After a self-described “normal childhood,” Lee discovered her exceptional math acumen during her junior year at Bearden High School. In her Dual Enrollment Probability and Statistics class, each student was required to take an annual state cumulative exam – a test that was notoriously difficult.

While Lee fretted about the test, the next day her teacher delivered some shocking news. Not only had Trinity scored the highest grade among all students, she had posted the best result ever in the many years the teacher had taught the class.

“I couldn’t believe it,” recalled Trinity. “I’ve always loved math, though. It’s logical. I kind of see it as a puzzle.”

She credits her parents and King freshmen math teacher Dr. Linderman, among others, for their encouragement in pursuing a career in a male-dominated field.

Lee’s father, Alex, and mother, Latanya, met as students at the University of Tennessee, where both were political science majors. Her dad, a former Volunteer football player, owns his own clothing company, while her mom is a bookkeeper at a Knoxville auto repair shop.

“My parents have always been supportive in my activities,” she said. “In high school, they never missed one of my basketball games and now in college, they rarely miss our home games (despite a two-hour drive). They have told me lots of times, ‘Don’t worry about what other people are doing. You do what you have to do.’ That may mean working overtime, doing extra study, just doing things others might not be willing to do. Mostly, they’ve just told me to do my best.”

Professor Linderman recognized her promise in the mathematics field immediately.

“He has helped me in deciding what to study in grad school, guiding me into engineering,” Trinity said. “I really appreciate him a lot. He’s always looked out for me.”

Initially, Trinity registered at King as a psychology major. She soon discovered it was a bad decision.

“I spoke with my parents and they said, ‘math was your favorite subject in high school so why not major in math or physics.”

It was at this time when Lee saw the movie Hidden Figures, although she now admits she still hasn’t seen the entire film (“I may try to later this week”).

“That movie helped me realize how lucky I was not to be born during that time,” she admits. “I was so impressed with Katherine Johnson (depicted by Henson). How smart and strong she was. She prevailed! So she’s definitely a role model for me. If she could do it under those circumstances, I can do it, too!”

In addition, Lee watched a NASA rocket launch on TV which sealed the deal. She had caught the space bug.  

While her engineering studies consume much of her time, Trinity may also be the hardest worker on the Tornado basketball team. And it shows in competition, as she routinely buries more than half her three-point attempts while averaging nearly 20 points per game as King’s top scorer.  

Her coach may be one of her greatest admirers.

“Miss Lee is very humble,” said King women's basketball interim head coach Michael Phelps. “She’s very soft-spoken off the court. She leads by example. But she’s very competitive by nature. She spends a lot of time on her shot outside of practice. She’s just a perfectionist.”

Phelps tells a story that reflects Lee’s mission to be perfect.

“We do a shooting drill at practice where every player takes 10 shots on the court,” he said. “If she makes anything lower than seven baskets, she’s disappointed. One time she made 10 out of 10. She had no reaction whatsoever. She expected to be perfect.”

With her lofty career goals and time spent with NASA, Trinity is an easy target for ribbing by her teammates.

“Some of them just call me ‘NASA’ or ‘astronaut.’ I love it and just laugh. I’m their little scientist!  

Trinity isn’t immune to Coach Phelps’ kidding as well.

“I tease her every chance I get,” he says with pride. “Sometimes in practice, I’ll be suggesting some play to run and I’ll start by saying, ‘I’m not smart enough to be a rocket scientist but I think this will work.' It’s a running joke among the players. The first time I said it, Trinity was embarrassed. Now she just rolls her eyes and smiles.”

There have also been a lot of smiles on the Bristol campus this season, as the King hoopsters have been playing at a high winning clip and Lee has emerged as one of the greatest scorers in school history.

Yet despite her accolades, the senior’s humility remains on full display.

“When Trinity broke the 1,000-point mark, we had no idea,” said Phelps, shaking his head. “That’s the type of player she is. She said nothing. She was just focused on the team winning. A day later, my Sports Information Director emailed me that Trinity had surpassed the milestone and I had to tell her and the team. He put something out on social media.”

Interestingly, Phelps believes that Lee’s mathematics courses have actually helped her in basketball.

“She understands angles,” he said. “There was a play that involved a ball screen and you had to take the right angle. A lot of players would have taken a flat angle but Trinity saw the fastest way to reach a spot on the course was to take a 45-degree angle.”

Lee thinks that playing a competitive sport has also taught her a lesson of perseverance.

Sometimes you have a bad day in the classroom just like on the basketball court,” she said. “The basketball experience has helped me be competitive in the classroom. It’s taught me how to take criticism and turn failures into success.”

Coach Phelps believes Lee could play professionally after college.

“She shoots the ball so well and is athletic enough to play overseas,” said Phelps. “She’s also a great defender. She would need to get a little bigger to play at the next level though.”

For Lee, the thought of playing after her King career ends is not even a consideration. Her decision is a slam dunk. She will follow her NASA destiny while foregoing a future in basketball.

“Sadly, yes, my basketball will end in March or whenever we finish playing,” she said. “My last practice and my last home game on Senior Day will be a very emotional day. I’m appreciating every day this year.”

Following her graduation, Lee plans to immediately pursue her master’s and Ph.D. degrees at a top aerospace engineering school. She has applied to Caltech, Southern California, UC Irvine, Georgia Tech, Florida and Florida Tech, with a NASA Airborne Research official providing some guidance.

Coach Phelps is confident that his star guard will excel in her graduate studies, just as she has on his basketball team.

“Miss Lee is going to represent herself and King University with the utmost respect,” he said. “It’s just how she was raised. She’s paved the way for other student-athletes here. She’s instilled the value of hard work and high expectations to all her teammates. Some of them are going to be doctors or other professionals, and she helped set the example. We are all so proud of her.”

While she has met every challenge step-by-step during her college time, Lee still marvels how a high school math test and an inspirational movie has led her to the precipice of a career in space.

“I would never have dreamed I would work for NASA,” she says almost in disbelief. “This is beyond what I ever thought of myself, to be on a path to working at the NASA facility. I’m living my dream.”

And unlike those pioneering women in Hidden Figures, Trinity Lee’s figures in the classroom and on the basketball court are in full view for all to see.  

Bob Rose is a longtime sports public relations executive who has worked for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, the NFL Cardinals, Cal, Stanford and other organizations. Bob works with Assistant Commissioner for External Relations Brian Hand and the entire Conference Carolinas office to help tell the stories of the tremendous student-athletes, coaches and administrators in Conference Carolinas.