The more you watch Danielle Watson play basketball, the more you appreciate her skills.
Watson is a senior at Nokomis, and a big reason the Warriors will play Leavitt for the Class B girls basketball state title at 7 p.m. Friday at the Cumberland County Civic Center.
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She can rebound at both ends. She can shoot from the outside. At 5 feet, 9 inches, she blocks more shots than most high-schoolers. She may even be the second-best passer on the team behind point guard Julie Smith.
But what you really notice with Watson is what you don’t notice. To watch her play is like watching Nicolas Cage act, Robert Parish play basketball or a world-class poker player do his thing at the table. Watson has emotions inside, but her face never betrays any of them.
“She’s not a very excitable kid,” Nokomis coach Kori Dionne said. “You look at her, and what you see is what you get. There is emotion in there, but she doesn’t show it. I’ve been coaching her since seventh or eighth grade — she’s the same way with me as she is out on the floor.”
In the Eastern B final, Medomak Valley’s Ericka Christensen blocked a shot by a Nokomis player while Medomak was making a run. Christensen screamed as loud as she could and joyously embraced a teammate. When Watson blocks a shot, she never gives any sign she notices.
“I’m always like that,” Watson said. “I get mad sometimes, but I don’t really show it on the court. I don’t really show much emotion on the court, but I do get into it. I’m shy at first, but once you get to know me, I’m not.
“I don’t try not to show emotion, or try to show emotion. I just go out and play.”
Blocking shots is something Watson appears to do easily. Dionne said that in one game this season, Nokomis was pressing and the other team kept racing downcourt for layups. Dionne said Watson blocked layups on five or six consecutive trips down the floor.
“She gets herself in the right position for the block,” Dionne said. “She’s got such a wingspan that even if she does get beat a little bit underneath there, she still has that reach to be able to block the ball. That’s something that gets the crowd pumped up, gets the kids pumped up.”
But, of course, it doesn’t get Watson pumped up, at least outwardly. Dionne has been seeing this for years and was convinced she could somehow light a fire under her center.
“I’ve been driving myself batty over that since I had her when she was in middle school,” Dionne said. “I was like, ‘I swear, I’m going to find the right button to push.’
“And it’s just because I wanted to see that emotion, see that fire. But it’s not like she doesn’t play with it. I was talking to my JV coach at one point, and he was like, ‘You know what? That’s just who she is. You’re not going to change that.’ “
So Dionne accepted it, and she came to realize all that Watson could offer.
Defensively, she draws tough assignments and doesn’t get lit up for big point totals. This season, she’s started joking around more at practice and got people laughing.
“I like playing with my team,” Watson said. “We’re all really close, and we joke around during practice and stuff. It’s nice being on the court with them. We’re all used to how we play with each other, so we’re comfortable playing with each other, and we know what we need to do.”
If one play this season defined Watson, it was in the final seconds of the third quarter of the Eastern B semifinals against Presque Isle. Watson got a long pass in the left corner with about two seconds left.
Instead of panicking or tossing up a wild shot, she somehow computed that she had enough time to pivot and hit Marissa Shaw with a perfect pass for a buzzer-beating layup.
“I think that’s where her being laid-back kind of comes into play, because she doesn’t get herself overly excited or overly nerved up,” Dionne said. “She just has that ability to just kind of step back and take it all in and see what’s going on.”
So even though Dionne wanted badly to see that fire, she can live without it, because having Watson on the team means a lot of little things get done.
“A lot of people can’t imagine being like that,” Dionne said. “But that’s who she is. She’s happy with that and we’re happy with that. She still is a fun girl to have around, and she still gives us what we need on the floor.”
Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243
mdifilippo@centralmaine.com
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