By Savannah Vasquez

NICEIVLLE, Fla. - Family is everything to Northwest Florida State guard Noelani Cornfield. The freshman said it was her family that got her started in the sport, and her family who pushed her to take the leap from her hometown of Gowanda, New York to Niceville, Florida.

“My mom put a basketball in my sister and my hands at the age of two,” Cornfield said, noting that her twin sister, Tashawni is a shooting guard for University of South Carolina Aiken. “I guess when I got the basketball I started dribbling and she started throwing it so that’s when I started playing point guard and I just went from there.”

Cornfield, a proud member of the Seneca Nation, said the small-town community she grew up pushed her to make the most of every opportunity.

“I live on a small reservation so everybody knows everybody, and everyone is close,” she said. “I think it’s great, a small community where everybody cares for one another; it’s something special.”

At NWF, Cornfield is focused on pulling her weight on the court and making her team family proud. 

“My personal goals are to run the team and meet Coach Bart Walker’s expectations to get us where we need to go,” she said. “He has high expectations and that pushes us to get there. I think everybody holds one another to certain standards and we don’t let each other lack accountability.”    

Looking toward the future, Cornfield said she hopes to gain a computer science degree and move to the next level in her basketball career, but ultimately, she wants to return to Seneca Nation.

“I just want to be happy no matter the (basketball) level and I want to be close to home,” she said. “I just like the environment and the feeling of being home.”