Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athletes: Stephen Curry and Cole Palmer
Favorite team: North Carolina Tar Heels
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the SOL Colonial Division at CB South with the high school basketball team this past season.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I shot a three-pointer and the ball spun around and got stuck on the rim.
Future plans: Attend college and hopefully play basketball.
Words to live by: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3
One goal before you turn 30: Have a job that I love to do and start a family.
By Mary Jane Souder
There’s a story Nolan Watkins likes to tell.
It’s not about his successes on the soccer pitch or basketball court, even though there would be a long list of those for the Souderton senior. Beginning with how Watkins was chosen defensive MVP of last fall’s soccer team that advanced to the state tournament for the first time since 2014 or how he was a captain of this winter’s Souderton basketball team that captured the program’s first title in over a decade.
Instead, the story would be about his anticipated eighth grade season with his SHYBA travel team, a season that didn’t happen for Watkins.
“The cool part of my story, the part I really enjoy talking about– I was cut from the team, which probably not a lot of people know,” he said. “It would have been my last year of travel, and I was cut from the team.”
Not the kind of news anyone saw coming since Watkins had been a member of SHYBA’s travel team the preceding years.
“It was kind of a make-or-break point for me,” he said. “I remember getting the email. Me and my parents were stunned.
“They talked to me and were like, ‘Hey, we’re not going to force you to continue (playing basketball) if you don’t want to.’”
So far, this might not sound like the kind of story most would enjoy telling, but Watkins chose to use his lowest moment in basketball as motivation.
“It was hard for me in eighth grade to (swallow), but I decided myself that – you know what, I’m going to use this to motivate me rather than completely take away the game I love, use it as fuel rather than as something to take it away,” Watkins said.
Quitting, he said, was never a consideration.
“I always wanted to play the game, so it wasn’t going to stop me,” Watkins said.
That perseverance paid off.
Undeterred, he joined the Perkasie Knights on the AAU circuit and played for his middle school team that winter. When he arrived in high school, he was on the freshman team, and by his sophomore year, he was a swing player seeing varsity minutes. He went on to become a key starter in each of the last two seasons.
“He showed me flashes his sophomore year, and he just worked each year to get better and better,” Souderton coach Okoteh Sackitey said. “He was a captain this year. He’s not the most vocal, but he’s really poised and well spoken when he does speak.
“Me and him have had good conversations. He’s the first one to support me in a game. He’ll say (to his teammates), ‘Trust coach.’ We’ve been in clutch situations where I made the call for offense or defense. We’ll be in the huddle, and when people are looking around – are we sure this is what we should do, he’ll say, ‘Yes, trust coach.’ I appreciate that. He’s just a good kid.”
Basketball it is…
Interestingly, golf was actually Watkins’ first sport of choice, albeit short-lived.
“When I was really little, I used to watch golf with my dad, and I used to play with plastic clubs in the backyard,” he said. “As I grew older, I couldn’t really be patient that much, so I had to switch to soccer, basketball and baseball. It got to the point where I got metal clubs and played for about a year and then grew out of it.
“I started soccer, basketball and baseball at the young age when they first started offering them.”
He played baseball until he was 13 after his team, Indian Valley Storm, went to Coopersburg for its final tournament.
“After that, I didn’t really have any more interest in it because it was slow paced compared to soccer and basketball,” Watkins said. “Soccer and basketball kept my interest throughout. That was mainly because of the speed of the game.
“My dad and mom (Mark and Trisha Watkins) both played basketball in high school. It’s a basketball house. Basketball has always been the main go-to. It just felt more natural for me.”
Although basketball was his preference, soccer was a close second.
“I didn’t play travel soccer until my later years, so I was lucky to get on my travel team, Towamencin Dynamo,” he said. “I had just played rec league until then.
“My parents weren’t sure I was going to be able to make a travel team because of how competitive it is, but I was lucky to make it. My skills really improved towards seventh and eighth grade going into high school.”
Still, Watkins wasn’t sure if he would play soccer his senior year.
“I’m trying to get recruited for basketball for college, and it was a challenge whether I wanted to take a risk of playing soccer and missing out on that crucial preseason time for basketball and also the risk of injury before the season.” he said. “There were a bunch of pros and cons.”
His basketball coach gave Watkins the affirmation he may have needed.
“Basketball is his primary sport,” Sackitey said. “I told him if anyone can balance both - that would be him, and he did.”
A soccer success story
It’s safe to say no one was happier to see Watkins at soccer tryouts than coach Frank Demas.
“First off, we’re really glad he played soccer as well as basketball,” Demas said. “I know basketball is his primary sport, but he was a very influential player on our team throughout the season.”
An outside back, Watkins helped anchor a stingy defense that posted eight shutouts during the regular season and had three straight shutout wins in the District 1 4A Tournament to clinch a state tournament berth.
“Our defense was very good this year, and it came together very well in the playoffs, and he was a big part of that,” Demas said. “He played pretty much every second of every game.
“He’s just an incredibly intelligent athlete. I think he could probably play any sport he wanted to because of his athletic intelligence. He’s very aware of where he needs to be, what he should do.”
In addition to a high soccer IQ, Watkins was a selfless teammate.
“He’s very well liked by his peers, and he’s a hardworking kid,” Demas said. “Nobody could say anything bad about him. He’s a great kid.”
Watkins has no regrets that he opted to play.
“I’d been in the program for three years at Souderton (prior to my senior year), and I felt I was obliged to continue it my fourth year with all the guys that I’ve grown up with throughout the program,” he said. “I’m very glad I made the decision to play. We had an awesome year. I’m glad I tested it out and played.”
The basketball journey
Watkins gave glimpses of the player he would become on the basketball court as a sophomore swing player.
“He had some big games as a sophomore,” Sackitey said. “He had 10 points against Bensalem in a big win for the varsity. He came in and gave us a lift against CB West sophomore year.”
Watkins acknowledges he was a bit uncertain about the whole varsity experience.
“I didn’t know what to fully expect from varsity,” he said. “I remember when I got subbed in my first varsity game. I was super nervous. I couldn’t think straight.
“Normally, for me with anything to do with sports, I’m super calm and composed. That was the first time I was out of my comfort zone.”
It was Watkins’ double-digit effort against Bensalem in his debut that convinced Sackitey he was ready for varsity
“Coach O brought me to his room and told me that I was going to be full varsity,” Watkins said. “I was like, ‘Are you sure’ because I still wanted to develop. I knew I still wanted to play a lot of minutes, which is what jayvee was offering to me.
“So, I was like, ‘This is great, super exciting,’ but at the same time, I was like, ‘How is this going to work?’ I wasn’t getting lots of minutes, and I remember the very next game, I didn’t even get in the game.”
Sackitey realized he may have spoken too soon.
“It was too early,” the Indians’ coach said of making Watkins a full-time varsity player. “I was kind of excited about that game, but after two or three games on varsity, I asked him to play jayvee too. He got it and never gave me a hard time about it and never mentioned it.”
That same year, Watkins saw action in a district playoff game against Pottstown.
“We called a timeout, and we were supposed to be holding the ball, and Nolan took a shot,” Sackitey said. “He knew it, he accepted it, and he never passed the buck. I didn’t give him a hard time about it, and we
moved on.
“We didn’t talk about it for two years, and his senior season we were having a heart to heart. Those two things came up – me calling him up to the varsity only and then putting him back down. That was a mistake. We talked about that, and we also talked about his mistake at the end of the Pottstown game.
“He said he knew that was a mistake, and he was going to work hard to show me that it would never happen again and that I could trust him again. When he made a mistake, he owned it and resolved to get better.”
As a junior, Watkins averaged 11 points a game and was a fixture in the starting lineup.
“Going into senior year, we brought in Nate Rusike, a dynamic player in his own right who transferred in,” Sackitey said. “You could be nervous about someone coming in who is that talented – what will it mean for my role and my points, but he was the complete team player to his core and still averaged 10 points and did a lot of good things for us.”
Watkins walks away from high school basketball with no regrets. His Souderton team not only made history when it won the program’s first championship in over a decade - it was a team in the truest sense of the word with a different player stepping up almost every night.
“Seeing the growth from not only me but my teammates over the years – I think that’s what really helped us this year,” Watkins said. “We’ve been through hard times together with this group.
“I’m very thankful for the way I was raised by my parents. I’ve never really cared about the self-glory or being the big star on the team because I’ve learned from experience there’s more to a sport than that, and there’s more to life than that.
“I very much appreciate the way I was taught growing up because it’s helped me carry myself that I can help others shine and make the group a whole lot better rather than just one person individually.”
A true student-athlete
Away from sports, Watkins excels in the classroom where he takes a course load of honors and AP classes and boasts an impressive 4.2 GPA. He is a member of the National Honor Society as well as Souderton’s Athletic Leadership Council. He is also active in his church youth group.
As for his future, Watkins is undecided on a major and a school, but one thing is certain.
“I’m trying to go to a school that has higher academic standards because I put education first, no matter what,” he said.
With his passion for basketball still very much alive, he hopes to play at the next level.
“I love the camaraderie that goes with it,” Watkins said. “There are so many details that a lot of people don’t really pick up on when they watch the game – from hustling, from diving on the floor to even getting people water in timeout and huddles.
“I just love all the togetherness that goes into it.”
The school that lands Watkins, according to his coach, will be inheriting a player with not only a high sports IQ but a player who learns from his mistakes. The then sophomore who took an ill-advised shot late in a playoff game went on to become the player Sackitey most wanted to have the ball in his hands late in games.
“He has been really so smart and mature with the ball in late game situations,” Sackitey said. “Anyone who’s watched our games – he is the guy you want on the court at the end of the game because he’s going to be smart with the ball, so he really learned from it.
“It’s been a tremendous pleasure to have him on the team. I love the kid.”
