Former Casey County basketball standout Natalie Duggins hopes to be a more vocal leader at Centre College this season. (Centre College Photo)
Almost everyone in Centre College junior basketball player Natalie Duggins’ family plays sports.
Her uncle, Keith Tarter, is in the Centre College Hall of Fame after his stellar football career. Her mother, Nell, was also a standout basketball player at Centre College. Her cousins are athletes. Her aunt, Jenny, also a Centre graduate who ran track for the Colonels, has been an Ironman participant.
So who is the best athlete in her family?
“I would probably say out of my parents and uncles, it would probably be my mom. Out of the younger kids, I would probably say (cousin) Jakei (Tarter, a Boyle County High School football/basketball player),” Duggins, who started 24 games and averaged 9.0 points and 8.7 rebounds per game last season, said.
“We all enjoy sports. We like being with other people playing sports. It doesn’t matter what sport. We are just athletic and like to have fun playing.”
However, it was a non-sports experience that seems to have made the biggest impact on Duggins’ life. She’s a mathematics major who plans to be a doctor (her aunt Jenny is a doctor and she’s liked her stories of helping others).
But that is not what has influenced Duggins to soon pursue a medical career.
When she was in kindergarten in Casey County, she wrecked a utility terrain vehicle into a stone well and was in the hospital for about a month after lacerating her pancreas and liver.
“My dad said I was probably the most happy of anybody he’s ever seen in a hospital,” Duggins, a mathematics major and art minor, said. “I don’t know why I was so happy. I look at pictures of all my stuffed animals, doing art stuff when I was in there. Everybody was coming to see me. I even had my sixth birthday in the hospital.”
“I would like to do that to help other kids and their parents feel that way and not be so sad and upset about being in the hospital.”
Now she’s concentrating on helping the Colonels have a successful season. She played in all 11 games her freshman year — the COVID season — and led Centre in field goal percentage (50) and free throw percentage (85). She started all 24 games as a sophomore and shot 50.6 percent from the field and 80.1 percent at the foul line.
“I hear I should shoot a lot more. I probably should. I can hit a 3. I think you might see more of that this year,” Duggins, who helped Casey County win the 2020 12th Region championship, said.
Duggins admits she has gotten tougher mentally and physically at Centre, learning to deal with longer practices that also often start later than high school workouts did.
“The time you spend on basketball can be challenging with the time you spend on academics but I have still grown to be more social,” Duggins said. “In high school we were pretty successful but here is a different pace. I have grown more as a post (player) and not a 4 (power forward).”
She figured she would be more of a small forward playing more on the outside but has grown to like the role that finds her playing inside a lot and liking it.
“I have a pretty good basketball IQ. I can also judge team chemistry. We can almost reach each other’s minds now and that helps me with what I do,” Duggins said. “Coach (Wendie) Austin has pushed me to be more of a vocal leader because I am kind of shy. I am accepting the challenge and I should be able to do it because people respect me and look up to me.”
Duggins says she has never been overly talkative but being more vocal has been easier than she thought so far.
“People are listening and taking what I am saying and doing it,” she said.
Duggins seldom shows emotion on the court but does get frustrated — mainly at herself.
“I don’t want to show it because it lets the other team know I am frustrated and that would make it worse. I know I have to stay positive for my teammates even if I am frustrated with how I am doing,” she said.
Her style sometimes seems effortless and can make it hard to gauge all she’s done in a game. Sometimes the junior is even surprised when she sees her statistics after a game.
“Sometimes I don’t even realize I have the points or rebounds I do. I go out and if another player is having a good night, that’s good for them and they can have all the points. I am just out there to win, have fun and be with teammates. I really don’t worry about stats but I am hoping for a double-double (average) this year. I think that is very reachable,” she said.
Centre opens the season with two games in Ferrum, Va., Nov. 12 and 13 against Ferrum and Bridgewater before its home opener Nov. 18 against Spalding.
“I think it is going to be pretty good year for us. We have been playing since August in open gyms and got to know each other. We are going to get better and be on the way up,” she said. “We are pushing to be our best and see if it pays off in games. Practice can kind of get routine but some days are completely different and you want to be there for those days. Some days you don’t want to be there but you know you have to. That’s just part of it.”
Same with the academic routine that will eventually get her into medical school. The classes, homework and extra credit convocations combined with basketball practice and weight workouts have forced her to learn to say no to a lot of things.
“You can’t always say yes because you are going to be tired and you have to know you can say no and it is okay. Having a social life is okay and you need one to survive but it’s hard. I do study groups, go have lunch and dinner together and hang out when homework is done to make sure I have some kind of social life. But you know that is all just part of what it takes to be an athlete here.”
