Como Park Senior High School’s Shania Nichols-Van Nett must have a high threshold of pain. The senior basketball player, who this winter reached the 1,000-point plateau, suffered three major knee injuries in four years but never let it stop her.
“If you put your mind to something you can do anything you want,” Nichols-Van Nett said.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way alright. Nichols Van-Nett, who made varsity as a seventh grader, tore her ACL her freshman year. Then, she tore it again after making it back to the court.
“It brought me back even further than I was in the beginning,” she said. “It’s not just a physical process, it’s a mental process. I lost myself a lot in trying to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be, and even if I wanted to still play basketball. It’s not easy and you can’t just push through it.”
But Nichols-Van Nett told herself that basketball was indeed what she wanted to do. “It’s an outlet for me that allows me to express myself and my feelings on the court and off.”
Then came another injury. Nichols-Van Nett developed a bacterial infection in her knee when the screws that were holding it together broke.
“After I thought it was all done and over, it wasn’t,” she said, although she was able to play about half her junior season as Como Park advanced to the state tournament.
Her coach at Como Park, Olonda England, never gets tired of watching her. “Shania Nichols-Van Nett will give you 110% in practice, in the game and in the classroom!” she said.
Nichols-Van Nett grew up watching her older sister Makayla play basketball, and she was hooked.
“We are a first generation basketball family,” she said. “I would go to her AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) practices. I’d play some games if they didn’t have enough players. I wound up really enjoying it. I would be so happy to just go to practices and work out. I’d bring my shoes ‘just in case’.”
Nichols-Van Nett has gone on some college visits but hasn’t settled on one just yet. She said she’d like to remain close to home; “I’m a family girl.”
She’s also hoping to be a guiding light for other Indigenous students.
“I want to inspire our youth and Native kids and women, and show them that anyone can do anything,” Nichols Van-Nett said. “Our Native culture is strong in many aspects.”
