Danielle Patterson is excited to be hitting the hardwood. Born in Queens and having spent her high school years in Brooklyn, Patterson is enjoying the action as a guard/forward at Indiana University.
Patterson began her college days at University of Notre Dame and was part of the Fighting Irish team that won the NCAA Championship in 2018. After her sophomore year, she decided to transfer. NCAA rules required her to sit out last season.
“When you’re an athlete, you take every second and you try to make the most of it,” she said. “Being out for a year teaches you how much you miss the game, being with your teammates and playing competitively.”
Growing up in New York City, basketball was a huge part of the culture. Patterson began playing in a local park. There weren’t a lot of girls playing, so she didn’t really start playing against girls until she got into organized leagues. Across the street from her home was a CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) league, which she joined.
“I would always have to play against the guys,” said Patterson, a graduate of The Mary Louis Academy. “For a lot of the time, they would be so much better than me and so much stronger. I’d get knocked around, but I think it made me better in the long run.”
“My parents were actually my first coaches,” she added. “One thing led to another and I started playing AAU ball. I fell in love with it.”
She admires New York ballers Tina Charles and Sue Bird. “Knowing they came out of the same [high school] league that I was playing in gave me a lot of hope,” Patterson said. “They played at such a high level in college and now they’re playing in the WNBA. They’ve had such good careers. It sets a really good path.”
By the time Patterson was in sixth or seventh grade, she knew she wanted to play college basketball when she got a recruitment letter from a nationally ranked Division I school. It made her work that much harder to achieve her goals.
A sports broadcast major, Patterson hopes to become a commentator. She’s done some podcasts, including a recurring segment last year at Indiana where she interviewed several of her teammates. Last summer, she did an internship at a radio station, covering both the pandemic and #BlackLivesMatter.
“Obviously, we couldn’t do a lot of basketball or go places, so it really helped having Zoom and social media sites where you could connect with people,” said Patterson, who has two more years of playing eligibility. She will likely use that time to pursue a master’s degree.