Kadence Nickoloff '24 Recruiting Profile

   Growing up, I always wanted to be a physical therapist. I never knew why until recently, when I was thinking back on my life experiences. My career as an athlete started when I was about four years old. I started out playing softball, but have always been in love with basketball. My hometown doesn’t offer a basketball team for girls under fourth grade, so I had to settle for softball for about six years. I consistently played softball every year, but I practiced playing basketball.

After what felt like a lifetime, I was finally allowed to play basketball. The first three years of my basketball career were supposed to be all about fundamentals, growth, and having fun while learning everything I would need to know before I started playing for my schools middle school program. Before these first three years I always told my family I would play basketball in college and go into the WNBA because I loved basketball more than anything else in the world, but during those three years I had extremely bad coaching experiences. After a bad game at practice, we would run more than anything. Especially if specific people had a bad game, I just happened to be one of them. As the poor treatment grew worse and the respect I had for my coach started to slip away, the spark and love I once had for basketball quickly slipped away with it. Every year, my family would consistently remind me that my performance would never define who I was as a person, and I believed them for the first five years of my career, until I started playing basketball. At just two years old, my parents bought me my first NBA jersey and I protected it with my life. From that day, moving forward, I knew that I would love basketball with my heart, but what I didn’t know was that one coach would ruin everything in a matter of seconds. 

My seventh and eighth grade years were much better than the previous years as I had a coach that believed in me. He knew I had a lot of potential and dedication, so he would throw many different things at me because he knew I would figure each of them out no matter how long it took to get it right, although these two years of middle school basketball had been the best years of my career, so far, those weren’t enough to bring back the spark I once had. 

High school basketball brought a lot more experiences, and better coaching as well. The last four years of my career I have experienced amazing coaches who have helped me through many obstacles that life has thrown my way. They supported me through everything and put in a lot of time and effort into my career. With the many hours and many long conversations, they have brought back the love I once had for basketball and with that love came the spark I never thought I would find again.

     I’m known as the one who gets injured the most during sports and am constantly doing physical therapy or seeing doctors, which happens to be another obstacle my coaches have supported me through with hope that I would be back to the athlete I had been before the injury. As I spent much of my time in physical therapy facilities the last few years, I started to understand why I wanted to be a physical therapist. I didn't think my chances at playing college basketball were very high, so I decided to set goals that were "more achievable." I never thought I'd see myself being recruited because of how many people have been doubting me through the years, and are still doubting me as of right now. I have considered  how I can stay close to sports and athletes after I graduate and realized that a lot of athletes suffer traumatic injuries that require them to go through physical therapy. Preparing myself for this profession hasn’t been easy as I’m taking the Health Science program at the Newaygo County Career Tech Center and have been studying many different materials to prepare myself for HOSA, clinicals, and physical therapy programs in college, but I'm excited to peruse my career as an athlete and continue playing basketball because it's something I love and my family enjoys watching.