Girls Underclassman of the Year: Natalie Neumann
Photo Courtesy of Natalie Neumann
May 19, 2023
By the end of her freshman year, current sophomore Natalie Neumann had established herself as a true renaissance athlete: she had already played a half-dozen water polo games, won a league championship for girls basketball, and out-sprinted her competitors in the anchor leg of the track and field 4×100 meter relay.
Starting sophomore year, however, Neumann decided to focus on only one sport in order to dedicate herself fully to it.
“When I do sports, I’m sort of an overachiever: I spend a lot of time outside of practice putting in work but I [can’t] do that for every single sport,” Neumann said. “So sophomore year I just ended up doing basketball.”
This year on the basketball team she was a starting varsity player, shot 34% from the three-point-line, one of the best averages on the team, and helped take Paly to the Open Division in Leagues for a third straight year.
Basketball had always been special to Neumann. She started playing at a local YMCA at the age of five and has continued ever since in a varied scope: from club and school teams to practicing, shooting, and playing on her own.
Across these different forms of the game however, the reason for her love and joy for the sport has never changed.
“Basketball is an outlet I [can] go to when I don’t want to think about anything else,” Neumann said. “When I play basketball –– just me outside practicing –– it help[s] me clear my mind. That made me really love the game and like putting in the work.”
And “put in the work” she does. On top of the three hour practices that happened every day after school for the Paly team, Neumann often spends up to an hour after practice shooting and practicing rebounds. Most days, Neuman recruits one teammate or another to shoot with her. Usually it’s her fellow sophomore Katheriner Garr.
“We work on some shooting and rebounding for each other,” Garr siad. “Some other people do it [too], but we usually say the longest; the coach [even] kicks us out sometimes.”
Garr has played with Neumann since fourth grade, on AAU club teams, through Jordan (now Greene) athletics, and now at Paly. Across all she has been able to witness Neumann’s fierce, unyielding commitment.
“If she’s dedicated to something, she’s going to spend a lot of time doing it and working on it,” Garr said. “If she wants something, she’s going to do as much as she can to get it.”
The basketball coach, Scott Peters, agrees, noting how constant Neumann’s effort is.
This daily “hard work” doesn’t just make Neumann a better athlete and better player. It helps make the whole team better.
“If someone’s [working hard], then everyone else is doing that too,” Garr said. “Other people started shooting after [practice] because she was. People are trying to get better because they’re noticing everyone else wants to get better too.”
Peters seconds this sentiment.
“On our basketball team we’ve always tried to have a lot of threats and not try to be centered around one person,” Peters said. “If [you] have all five players like Natalie –– that work as hard as Natalie –– you know your team is going to do well.”
This year, the girls basketball team is graduating a solid set of seniors, creating opportunity for “threats” like Neumann to step into roles of leadership. Although she is looking forward to having a stronger presence on the team, she worries about potential added pressures as well as the looming decision about whether or not to play at the collegiate level, and hopes to maintain her love for the game despite these factors.
“As I’ve gotten older, there has been more of a commitment to basketball, especially being on varsity and [trying] to get minutes…or thinking about playing at the next level; there [are] a lot of little things that can make it more stressful,” Neumann said. “I’ve always struggled with anxiety and sometimes I can get in my head.”
However, to combat this pressure Neuman goes back to the basics, back to her five-year old self shooting hoops at the YMCA or on her driveway with her brother just for the fun of it. She tries to remember why she started: for the escape and clear-headedness the sport provides.
“[Sometimes] I wake up early in the morning or practice outside late at night with my headphones.” Neumann said. “I love the game but practicing on my own has always been one of my favorite parts [and] even as it becomes more stressful, I just want to keep reminding myself that this is something I love to do.”
