New coach takes on Soaring Eagle girls basketball

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Natalie Williams

By Kim Brenneisen

Special to the Intermountain Catholic

The Juan Diego Catholic High School girls basketball team is looking forward to the 2011-12 season with new coach Natalie Williams, and many of the players are excited to start learning from her.

Williams is no stranger to the West – or Utah. She attended Taylorsville High School and then the University of California-Los Angeles, where she played volleyball and was a forward on the basketball team.

Williams also played professional basketball in the Women’s National Basketball Association for the Utah Starzz and the Indiana Fever. In 1999, she was named USA Basketball’s Female Athlete of the Year. Williams also played basketball with the national team in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia and won a gold medal.

Despite her travels, Williams’ sports achievements have been widely appreciated here in her home state. Earlier this month, she was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame along with fellow sports figures Jerry Sloan, Phil Johnson, Doug Toole and Annette Ausseresses.

At Juan Diego, Williams takes the reins from Ashlee McKray, who coached the Soaring Eagle team for four years and ended with a record of 35-52.

Before coming to JD, Williams was an assistant coach at Skyline High School in Utah. Williams says she loves helping athletes get better and feels she can improve their skills and make basketball more fun.

"My goal here at Juan Diego is not only to help these young ladies succeed and win, but to teach them life skills that they can take with them forever," Williams said.

Williams has already taken a liking to the community at JD in her short time on campus. She loves how everyone seems to take care of one another and says that it is just like an extended family.

Williams has seen a lot of girls with potential for greatness this season, and believes this team is different from others she has coached. "At JD they put more pressure on themselves to succeed and that makes everyone work harder," she said.

The team has had open gym sessions where players can get a taste of Williams’ coaching method. Over the summer, players competed in tournaments at the University of Utah and Utah Valley University with Williams as the head coach.

Junior basketball player Hannah Ledek was on the team her freshman and sophomore years and was one of the players played under Williams over the summer. Ledek likes her positivity and helpfulness. "She really cares about all of us and wants to make sure that we’re doing our best," Ledek said. "With her as the head coach, the team will have a different dynamic."

Freshman Allyn Mitchell had the opportunity to see how Williams coaches from the open gyms and a summer camp. "She is a really good coach," Mitchell said. "She doesn’t just work on your basketball skills but she also develops you as a person and wants to makes you a better person."

Williams also is different from other coaches because of her experience in high school, college, and her professional career, Mitchell said. "She’s gone through what we’re going through," Mitchell added.

Tryouts for the team were Nov. 7-8, and Williams encouraged anyone interested to give it a shot.

"Girls should have tried out," she said. "One, it would have [given] them the opportunity to make the team; two, they’ll learn life lessons about adversity, how to deal with conflict, how to encourage and help others, and to push themselves further than they ever have. And we’ll have a lot of fun."

Kim Brenneisen is a sophomore at Juan Diego Catholic High School.