UPPER LAKE >> Most valuable player awards are almost always reserved for players who compete on a winning team, as in a league or co-league champion. Every now and then a player on a second-place team will nab one, but it’s rare.
Natalie Karlsson, junior do-everything guard for Upper Lake High School in 2015-16, played on a Cougars squad that tied for third place in the North Central League II basketball standings, but that didn’t stop the league’s coaches from naming Karlsson a co-MVP on the 2016 All-League team, that’s how impressed they were with her play.
Karlsson, who led all of Lake County — girls and boys — with 550 points scored during the most recent basketball season, simply dominated games for the Cougars on a handful of occasions. Defenses were able to slow her down late in the season as they went all out to stop her, but she still finished the season averaging 20.4 points a game. Along the way she collected career point 1,000 and depending on how her senior year goes, Karlsson could end up graduating as one of the top-five scorers in county history.
“Talking to Sonoma Academy coach Kevin Christensen about if a third-place team deserves to have a co-MVP, he said she is the only player that each team has to dedicate at least two players defensively to stop,” Upper Lake coach Mike Smith.
Sonoma Academy won the league title with a 13-1 record followed by St. Vincent at 11-3 and Upper Lake and Rincon Valley Christian at 9-5.
“The crazy part was that it rarely mattered about two defenders when we played at home. She was tough to stop,” Smith added.
Karlsson helped Upper Lake through a rebuilding year and the Cougars finished 14-13 overall and qualified for the North Coast Section Division V playoffs as an at-large team.
As a setter for the Cougars during the 2015 volleyball season, Karlsson earned an honorable mention. After playing softball each of her first two years at Upper Lake, Karlsson ran track in 2016 and competed in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 4×100 relay, 4×400 relay and the long jump.
The Record-Bee will profile female and male candidates for the Athlete of the Year award leading up to the naming of the 2015-16 winners. Coach of the Year winners in boys’ and girls’ sports also will be honored.
Athlete of the Year candidates must be juniors or seniors who play at least two varsity sports and are in good academic standing at their respective schools.
