By Nick Pantages
@nick_pantages22
Leaving your family and moving 4,800 miles away is one of the hardest things a 15-year-old can do. But since she left her home in Kyiv, Ukraine, three years ago, Kateryna Koval has fit in perfectly at Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville., N.Y., blossoming into the No. 1 high school post player in the country.
Playing hoops was not always this easy for Koval, a 6-foot-4 center got a relatively late start to her basketball career.
“To be honest, I didn’t like basketball,” Koval said. “My dad kind of made me try [to play]. I used to dance when I was a kid, and I loved that.”
Once she began to take the game seriously around the age of 12, Koval was forced to choose between ballet and basketball. As soon as Koval realized how talented she really was, coming to America and pursuing a potential collegiate or professional career was the best decision – due to the higher level of competition and increased recruiting opportunities.
Fortunately enough, LuHi was the perfect landing spot.
After making a very good initial connection and relationship with head coach Christina Raiti, who saw Koval’s highlights and convinced her to attend without even visiting the school. That faith in the coaching staff has paid dividends.
“I feel like from going to like 15 to now being almost 18 years old are very important years in your life,” said Koval, who now goes by Kate. “Being around all the coaches for three years really taught me a lot of things, and the mentality that we have and our life views are very similar.”
In her junior campaign, Koval put up 15.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game en route to winning a state title and being named the Gatorade New York Girls Basketball Player of the Year, earning the No. 5 ranking in the ESPNW top 100 rankings.
Koval’s stellar play earned her a long list of college offers, including from perennial powers Notre Dame and Stanford, and defending champion LSU. Ultimately, Koval chose the Fighting Irish and coach Niele Ivey.
Notre Dame’s combination of academic and athletic success, along with an electric in-game atmosphere, drew her to the school.
“I like the educational part,” Koval said. “It’s obviously a great basketball program. I have a chance to win the national championship every year – and it felt like home.”
However, all the success on the court has not solved all of Koval’s worries off the court. Her family is still thousands of miles away, and the adjustment to a new culture and new language remains a challenge.
“I haven’t [ever] been away from my family for this long,” Koval said. “But I call them every single day.”
On the court, basketball has helped her adjust, and also to find her voice.
“I’m being a lot more vocal [as a leader] on the court this year,” she said. “I’ve been working very hard on that, especially with the language barrier.”
Koval’s connection to her birth country remains strong, as Koval still represents Ukraine on the international stage. She has played for the national team for almost six years – at the FIBA U16 Women’s European Challengers in 2021, she averaged 26 points and 14.2 rebounds per game – and sees that commitment as something that is greater than basketball. It is her chance to go home and see her family and the friends that she grew up with, along with representing her home country on a worldwide scale. Suiting up in the Ukrainian blue and yellow is a source of pride for Koval.
“I always say that people don’t understand that it’s a different feeling to play for your country, when you have that flag on your chest and your name on your back,” Koval said.
The Russia-Ukraine war has added an additional worry to Koval’s life. The difficulty of being so far from her family while her country is going through such a turbulent time is something that she carries with her every day. It is also what inspires her to keep going, making sure to better herself each and every day, on and off the court.
“It’s definitely hard, especially the first year [the war] started,” Koval said. “It was hard, and to this day it is always on my mind because you never know what is going to happen, especially with me knowing that my family – , my grandma, my father – are still there.”
“It also gave me another motivation,” she continued. “It gave me another reason why I play basketball and how blessed I am to be able to go to the gym and go to school every day. I think about it every single day.”
Photo by Braedan Shea/The Student