During this past girls basketball season, one of our girls basketball players, Emma Niemczyk, made an amazing, half-court, buzzer-beating shot. Here, we take a deeper dive on the player with a QnA!

Any pre-game rituals or superstitions?

I have to have a twist in my hair and into a low bun. Pre-game, we have to be blasting music in the locker room; otherwise it’s not the same.

Song that gets you hyped?

Pop Out [-Polo G] or The Box [-Roddy Rich] or anything by Rihanna

Best/Favorite play?

Probably the half-court shot or anything on defense. I love defense.

Most embarrassing moment on the court?

Probably when I got blocked and the ball went into the other court.

Is there a meaning behind your jersey number?

In softball, I’m #1 and basketball I’m #12, and that equals half of my dad’s old jersey number.

When did you start playing and why?

I started playing when I was 8 years old, 3rd grade, because my parents just wanted to put me in a sport when I was younger, it just stuck.

Worst injury?

When I dislocated my knee-cap. I was out for a couple of months.

Favorite things about the team and playing for North?

The energy and how close we all are. Everyone on the team is so close and we all have such a good relationship with each other.

Who’s your favorite basketball player and team?

I’ll have to go basic and just say Giannis just because he’s such a team player and all around he’s just a nice and funny person. My favorite team would have to be UConn or the Gamecocks because they’re such good teams they always have heart and always battle it out.

Do you plan on continuing to play basketball after high school? What team do you want to play for in college and/or the WNBA?

I’m not going to play after high school just because basketball is my second sport. I’m going to go to college for softball. If I were to play for a team,  I’d probably go to a smaller school, like a Division 2 or 3.

How tall are you?

5’8”

How tall are you compared to your teammates?

I’m probably the 3rd or 4th tallest on Varsity and and 6th tallest on the team, so I’m kind of taller, but not for a forward position.

What do you think you and the team as a whole could improve on?

We could all improve on our mindset. Going into the season, we all had the mindset of ‘We’re probably not going to win a game,’ and then to this point, we’ve won nine games, so we just need to keep the positive mindset and keep that growing. For me, the same thing. Probably staying positive. I always talk down on myself when I make a mistake, so staying positive.

Favorite school you’ve played in?

Everyone says that they hate playing in Hortonville, but I just love the environment and how it always feels full. Playing in that type of environment gets you better in all different categories. It’s just fun to play in loud environments.

What is the hardest team you played against?

The hardest team we’ve played against is ourselves. We can compete with anybody, but we fight battles against ourselves, not against other people. We just get down on ourselves, and I think that if we’re doing good with ourselves, then we’re playing good as a team and competing with anybody, but when we’re playing down to the level of our competition and not playing to our standards, then we’re just competing against ourselves.