PROVIDENCE – If you asked Nicole Mendes what her favorite sports memory is, you might expect her to regale you a story about how she helped lead Oklahoma’s softball team to two national championships or how it felt to represent Mexico at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“It honestly had nothing to do with softball at all. Basketball is my true love, I'm just awful at it,” Mendes said.
She continued: “I remember it was my first year ever playing basketball, and I was really good at defense, awful at shooting. But my first year I had a ton to learn, and I got a fast break and I was dribbling, and no one around me, just dribbled it off my foot, fell, rolled over [and] the ball shot off.”
Mendes told this endearing story and shared other details about her life – including her love for frozen lasagna – during a live interview Thursday evening with Providence Journal sports reporters Jacob Rousseau and Chloe Patel at the 2024 All-State Rhode Island High School Sports Awards.
The annual show recognizes the top student-athletes across Rhode Island and features special guests. Previous guests include Boston Red Sox legends Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz, former New England Patriots sensation Rob Gronkowski and former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce. Awards were given to the Players of the Year in each high school sport, as well as several special awards , including overall boys athletes of the year, overall girls athletes of the year, team of the year, coaches of the year and more.
This year’s guest, Mendes, who plays for the professional softball team the New York Rise and is an ESPN analyst, had advice to share – about burnout, her faith, the dangers of social media and the value of teamsmanship – with the hundreds of student-athletes and family members gathered at Veterans Memorial Auditorium.
Mendes said she was surprised when she felt burned-out after her participation in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“You think about these goals – and these are great goals to have and create – and you dream and strive for, but no one tells you about what happens right after, because as an athlete, you're always taught, ‘OK, you get this goal, what's next? How can you be better? How can you be at the next level? How can you be more elite?’ And you're chasing, chasing, chasing, and then I literally reached the pinnacle of my sport, and then it didn't fulfill me in a way that I thought it would,” Mendes said.
The biggest thing that helped Mendes ground herself was finding her “why.” For her, it was her faith.
“My why is Jesus Christ," Mendes said. "My faith is so important to me, and being grounded in who I am with God is so important, because in everything else – it can be a good game, it can be an awful appearance, whatever it is, it doesn't affect me one way or another. Whenever I base my identity in him, then I'm able to just go out and play free, because it's just a game at the end of the day,” she said to a round of applause.
And Mendes, who confided she was homeschooled and had no experience in social media until college, had some practical advice about how to navigate social networks: pay no attention to the comments. She has gone as far as giving herself a strict no-social-media policy when things get too overwhelming.
A recurring theme during Mendes’ interview was the value of having teammates and being a good one at that, too. She closed with a piece of advice to seniors who are heading to college.
“Whenever you learn something, you don't have to hold onto it,” Mendes said. “The best thing that you can do is share it with somebody else. And the same thing is, whenever you're curious about something, ask somebody else. Be able to share and learn and grow. I think that's something that is so special about sports, and that's why I love it so much.”
The All-State Rhode Island High School Sports Awards show is part of the USA TODAY High School Sports Awards, the largest high school sports recognition program in the country.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: At Journal All-State Awards, Nicole Mendes talks about faith, burnout and teammates
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