Paige McNichol

Head, Heart, and Hardwood: The Steady Growth of Paige McNichol

She started by following her sister’s footsteps — now she’s learning how to run her own race.

Some stories start with destiny. Paige McNichol’s started with imitation. She was six years old when she first picked up a basketball, mostly because her older sister already had one. “She was my role model,” Paige says. “I wanted to do everything she did.”

That kind of childhood hero worship usually fades. For Paige, it didn’t. It grew. By her final year of junior high, she’d led her team all the way to the finals — and won the banner. That win flipped the switch. “From that point on, I knew I wanted to play at the highest level I could,” she says.

But Paige will be the first to tell you: the hardest part of basketball isn’t the defense or the conditioning. It’s the space between your ears. “When you’re too hard on yourself,” she says, “you don’t allow yourself to show your true potential.” So she’s been working on that — choosing to enjoy the game instead of fearing the outcome, learning to focus on what she can control.

She’s also learned to listen to her body. After injuries, Paige realized recovery isn’t weakness — it’s information. “Your body’s way of telling you something needs to change,” she says. It’s the kind of perspective that turns an athlete into a pro long before they ever sign a contract.

What drives her now is simple but strong: the love of winning, the love of improving, and the love of her team. “Nothing beats winning a close game with people you care about,” she says. Her goal this season is to adjust to the university game’s pace — to learn how to move faster, think sharper, compete harder. Her long-term plan? Finish her degree, finish her career, and finish strong.

Success, to Paige, isn’t medals or headlines. It’s peace. “If I can say I did my absolute best,” she says, “then I’ve succeeded.”

She credits much of her growth to a former coach, Andrew, a mentor whose lessons reach far beyond the court. “He taught me that people’s love for me isn’t defined by wins or losses,” she says. “That changed how I see the game.”

When she looks back, her advice to younger athletes sounds like something every competitor forgets at least once:

“Enjoy the process of learning. Don’t be too hard on yourself. The game’s meant to be enjoyed — so enjoy it.”

That’s the new definition of toughness — not just grinding through, but staying grateful through it. Paige McNichol plays with both — the head of a thinker, the heart of a competitor, and the perspective of someone who’s finally learned that progress is supposed to take time.