Natalie Conner is a natural athlete.

When one factors in how hard she works to make herself better, Conner becomes a great athlete who can play a different sport every season and be good at each one.

She came within just 25 points of reaching the 1,000-career points milestone as a sophomore, something that has never been done by a student-athlete at Northwestern Lehigh.

Reaching the mark even as a junior is quite an accomplishment, but Conner likes to push herself, and does it in a way where she never loses sight of what is good for the team.

While having her put up big point totals is great for the team, Conner is known for getting the ball to her teammates when the situation calls for it.

Late last season, as Conner was getting closer to the 1,000-point milestone, her focus was on the team and how she could help it.

Maybe that was being just a little better defensively. A little quicker to the basket. A little tougher around the basket fighting for a rebound.

“I can’t lie, getting there [1,000 points] as a sophomore was definitely a goal for me. You can’t just focus on that though because everyone has to focus on winning. We were all focused on that,” said Conner. “I just had to find that balance between my goal as an individual and the goal of the team, but I have always had the goal of winning as a team, so that made it pretty easy.”

Conner is smart enough to realize that had Northwestern Lehigh kept winning - even just one more game – it would have given her a better chance of reaching her goal as a sophomore.

Another reason for getting it done as a sophomore was that it would have been out of the way, whereas now, Conner has to face the questions about when she thinks she will reach the magic number and all else that comes along with it.

Coach Chris Deutsch has watched Conner’s development in her two seasons on the varsity team and believes that the success she has had comes from the work that she puts into her game.

“Natalie has worked very hard not just at basketball, but at everything she does. She realizes that there is a benefit to putting in extra work, maybe shooting a few more foul shots at practice or focusing on one part of her game to make it better,” said Deutsch when last season ended. “She is very driven, and I think that the other girls are motivated by her.”

“I just feel that any success you have is payback for all the hard work that you put in. I remember when I was little being out shooting until it was dark or staying after practice,” recalled Conner. “I’m just glad that I’m seeing results for all of the work that I put in. It’s so surreal to be able to feel like I accomplished what I wanted to do.”

Next year’s team will have a number of new faces, especially in the starting lineup. The Lady Tigers lose four seniors – Mallory Conner, Emma Freeman, Hannah Gober, and Olivia Reinhart – all of whom were starters at one point or another. Their exit is going to mean a greater role for Conner as a leader both on and off the court, as well as playing without her big sister, Mallory.

“It’s going to be weird. She really helped me get comfortable here and it’s always great having her there, so it will definitely be different,” said the younger Conner about her sister’s pending graduation. “As for the leadership thing, it’s not going to all be on me. We have some good players who will be back, and I think it will be more of a situation where we all look to help them adjust. I’ve already made friendships with a lot of the younger players on the team and we’re all friends, so that won’t be too tough.”

In the spring, Conner can be found on the softball field where she is putting up nice numbers offensively and locks down the shortstop position well defensively. While she loves playing softball and puts all of her effort into it, basketball has always been her sport.

“I like a lot of sports,” said Conner. “Basketball though has always been the one that I wanted to play the most. When I’m at practice or shooting around and working on things outside of school, it never feels like I am working. It’s just what I love to do. I’m competitive, so I work at everything and try to be the best that I can no matter what I play, but basketball is really my passion.”

Over her junior and senior seasons, Conner is hoping to help her teams reach even more goals than they have reached in her first two years. For baseball, it’s getting to the state finals after having been eliminated in the semifinal each of her first two seasons. For basketball, the goal is a district championship and a deep run in states.

“I think I will have done the things that I wanted to do on a personal level, but we have team accomplishments that I think we can reach,” said Conner. “In softball, I want us to be successful this year for our seniors. We have a lot of great players that I’m close to, and I want to experience the success of getting to the finals with them. Hopefully, there will be younger players who will feel the same way about helping our team have success when I’m in my final season.”