City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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There was no agonizing decision to make, Natalie Magnotta wasn’t missing her last dance.

The Episcopal Academy senior’s athletic future is in soccer, and for good reason. Magnotta, who has signed with national powerhouse Penn State, could have easily decided not to play out her senior season and start focusing on her future in State College.

But basketball’s been a big part of her life and it was never a question, she’d be playing her senior season.

“It’s always been nice having a second sport you just love playing,” Magnotta said. “Playing with a small team, all coming from a small area, we just pick each other up. 

“I just love the sport, I wouldn’t want to stop playing before it was truly my last season.”

Some players don’t accomplish in a career what Magnotta did this fall. As a captain for EA, she was the keystone of the team’s nigh-impervious defense and named the Inter-Ac’s MVP as a center back; not exactly a common occurrence.

The Churchwomen nearly swept through the Inter-Ac, going 11-0-1 and gave up just 10 goals all season as they won the PAISAA title. Magnotta’s play earned her a spot on the PA Soccer Coaches Association All-State and All-Region teams and in late October, she was selected to the East roster for the annual High School Soccer All-American Game that was played in December.

Magnotta called it a special experience to meet and compete with or against some of the nation’s top high school seniors. She also proved she could hang there as well with a few national publications highlighting her as a standout player in the game.

“I started off pretty scared, just a little bit, but as soon as I got into the game, I just felt comfortable playing soccer and playing with all those girls,” Magnotta said. “I feel like I’m one to always rise to the level, I play better against better competition.”

EA coach Chuck Simmonds couldn’t blame Magnotta when she had to miss an early-season game to travel to North Carolina to compete as an All-American, but he much prefers No. 22 to be on the court.

“We always play better when she’s out there,” Simmonds said. “Even when she was a freshman, she could defend the other team’s best player. She can handle pressure in the backcourt, knock down a shot, she’s good in transition so there’s a lot of things she just does naturally.”

Magnotta, also a team captain for the Churchwomen this winter, has been a dependable piece for all four years of her career. She and Simmonds go back beyond that, Simmonds having taught Magnotta in fifth grade and the EA coach didn’t even think about whether or not he’d have the senior for one last season together.

“It was never a conversation we had to have, so I never brought up if she wasn’t (playing),” Simmonds said. “She got voted a captain and early on, we were having discussions about this season. I’ve known her since she was young, it’s fun getting to coach them in high school after I’ve taught them, and she’s just someone who has helped our program.”

Some of what makes Magnotta such an effective soccer player definitely translates to basketball. She played every second of Sunday’s win over Imhotep Charter at the Maggie Lucas Classic, she’s quick to scan the floor and keep the ball moving - an integral part of a center back’s role - and her running the floor led to some easy opportunities for layups while on defense she's constantly in motion.

“I can play this a little more stress-free than I do soccer,” Magnotta said. “Being able to play high school basketball with this team is really what keeps the fun in it.”

While Magnotta didn’t even have to think about whether she wanted to play or not this winter, there did come a time when she had to make the hard choice about which sport she was going to put first. Up until seventh grade, Magnotta balanced club soccer with Penn Fusion - the West Chester based organization one of the top clubs on the elite ECNL circuit - and travel basketball with the Comets.

Her teammates from that Comets group included Joanie Quinn and Brooke Wilson, two of the area’s top seniors this year, so she was in good company there. For Magnotta, it was about figuring which sport fit her best and despite playing one of the most stressful positions in a soccer formation, the pitch was where she felt most comfortable.

“I felt like I was a little bit better at it and I think you’d pick the thing you’re better at, but it was still a really hard decision,” Magnotta said. “I played soccer for longer and, I don’t know, I felt like I had more of a future on the soccer side. I can’t pick a specific thing, I think I just gravitated more to soccer.”

On the pitch, a center back’s margin of error is practically microscopic, with a missed tackle or improper positioning usually giving an opposing attacker a free run on goal. It’s why a lot of players aren’t built for that spot yet it seemed to bring out Magnotta’s best.

“I think I can deal with stress in that position pretty well,” Magnotta said. “I’ve always been a defender, I like being able to see the whole field in front of me and facilitating for my teammates, plus, I always like the feeling of being able to make a big tackle and stopping a goal from being scored.”

Sticking with hoops, even if it was only for Episcopal Academy, may have indirectly helped Magnotta too. She explained that as an underclassmen, a lot of Penn Fusion’s practices for her age group overlapped with EA basketball practice, so she’d often end up getting her soccer training with the team two years ahead of her.

While she could drown out the stress playing soccer, that internal pressure became a more present opponent between the lines 94 feet apart on a basketball court. Ironically, the sport that became an outlet to step away from soccer a couple hours each day for a few months was at first a cause of consternation.

“Basketball, I think I knew I’d enjoy it more as a second sport,” Magnotta said. “I would put a lot of pressure on myself on the basketball court, and it’s a really tough sport if you’re always in your head about it. I was always able to let that go a little more with soccer on the competitive side, so for basketball when I’m able to not be in my head as much, I play better.”

There really wasn’t much of a choice when it came to her future home either. Magnotta’s family is full of ardent Penn State fans and she’d grown up going to Beaver Stadium on Saturdays through her grandparents’ season football tickets, so an opportunity to play for the Nittany Lions was too good to pass on.

“Going to a White Out game when you’re six years old gives you a pretty good vision of the school,” Magnotta said with a laugh.

Magnotta’s future coach at Penn State, Erica (Walsh) Dambach, is a legend in local soccer circles. Her senior year at Lower Moreland High School, there was no girls’ soccer program, so she simply played on the boys’ team and was one of the best, if not the best, players on the roster. She’s won more than 300 matches at the Division I level, led Penn State to its first national title in 2015 and has helped 23 players get drafted into the NWSL since the league’s inception in 2012.

“When I had my visit there, I had a meeting with just her, it felt like we connected and as she was saying everything about the school and the team, it was hard to not want to go there,” Magnotta said.

Dambach, like Magnotta, also played basketball in high school. Her name hangs on a banner in the Lower Moreland gym as part of the school’s 1,000-point club, a unique footnote on a resume featuring an office full of Big Ten championships, a national title, two College Cups and several Olympic and World Cup appearances as an assistant coach for the US Women’s National Team.

Magnotta actually did not know she shared a dual-sport background with Dambach and when told of it, was excited to bring it up next time she talked with her soon-to-be coach.

EA is out of the mix for an Inter-Ac basketball title, but Magnotta was more interested in enjoying the time she had left with her teammates anyway. The senior is on a brief break from soccer training for a couple more weeks, but soon enough it’ll be back to club and then late this summer, up to University Park for preseason.

Magnotta just wants to help in any way she can this coming fall, Penn State is still pretty loaded from last year’s NCAA quarterfinal run so she’s not expecting to make the starting 11, but if she has any spare time it wouldn’t be surprising if a basketball somehow winds up back in her hands.

“I’ll try to find other ways to play, but it may be hard with my soccer schedule,” Magnotta said. “I’m definitely going to miss it. I think you don’t realize it until you’re actually done playing how much the sport’s had an impact on you.”