UPPER LAKE >> Upper Lake High School multi-sport standout Natalie Karlsson has been named Female Athlete of the Year by the Coastal Mountain Conference and will be honored March 13 during the annual CMC athletic directors and principals meeting at the Broiler Steak House in Ukiah.
Karlsson and CMC Male Athlete of the Year Myles Anderson of Fort Bragg High School will be presented with college scholarships during the meeting.
“She’s a real well-rounded young lady coming into her own,” said Upper Lake High School athletic director Mike Smith, who coached the 17-year-old Karlsson four straight seasons on the varsity girls basketball team.
“We’ve been to the playoffs every year with her on the team and that’s not a coincidence,” Smith said. “She brings that winning, competitive mindset to the team.”
It’s the second straight year a Lake County athlete has been named Female Athlete of the Year. In 2016 it was Kailei Foltmer of Middletown High School.
Karlsson, a first-team All-North Central League II selection in volleyball and basketball for the Cougars, led Upper Lake into the playoffs in both sports.
“She’s done some things we haven’t seen at Upper Lake in a long, long time,” Smith said of Karlsson helping the 2016 volleyball team post one of its best records in many seasons at 16-5, including a second-place finish in the NCL II standings, and a home playoff match.
The Cougars were title contenders in basketball as well, going 16-12 overall and 7-5 in league play. They shocked the North Coast Section with a 58-56 upset of No. 1 seed Convent of the Sacred Heart in the opening round of the Division V playoffs, the first time a No. 16 seed has beaten a top seed. Their season ended a few days later with a 48-40 loss to Clear Lake in the quarterfinals.
Karlsson finished her basketball career with 1,820 points, second all-time on the list of Lake County varsity scoring leaders. Primarily a ball distributor as the Cougars’ point guard her freshman and sophomore years, she was asked to carry the bulk of the scoring load her last two seasons at Upper Lake.
“The first couple of years we had an abundance of scorers and asked her to be the distributor,” Smith said. “I needed her to be the scorer her last two years and she really worked on her basketball shot and made that happen.”
A softball player during her freshman and sophomore seasons, Karlsson will return to the diamond this spring in an attempt to help the Cougars reach the Division V playoffs.
Off the court and playing field, Karlsson carries a 3.5-plus GPA in the classroom and regularly volunteers as a youth coach, according to Smith.
“She just a winner,” Smith said.
After Karlsson graduates from Upper Lake she will continue her academic and basketball pursuits in college. A handful of institutions are pursuing her services, among them College of the Siskiyous, Santa Rosa Junior College, Mendocino College and Napa Valley College.
“There’s a small college in Oregon that she’s also interested in,” Smith said.
