Lake County female athlete of the year

To go “12-for-12” and be on the run basically from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m., she had to be more than just athletic, skilled and indefatigable.

Being organized was also required.

Ashley Niedermayer played a sport each of the 12 sports seasons during her four years at Stevenson, where the feat is about as rare as a ballplayer hitting 2 grand slams in one game, which she did last year.

No other female senior athlete at the Lincolnshire high school in 2010-11 went four years without taking a season off.

Niedermayer accomplished it by missing few details — starting with her wardrobe.

“Ashley is very particular about what she wears,” said best friend Emma Patrash, who’s known Niedermayer since the two were in kindergarten. “You go to her house and she has her outfits planned out for two weeks.”

Niedermayer wore a field hockey skirt for the Patriots in the fall. She dressed in a Stevenson basketball jersey and shorts in the winter and slipped on a softball glove in the spring.

No matter the season, she styled.

An all-state field hockey player as both a junior and senior, a two-year starting forward for the basketball team that won 21 games in each of the last two seasons and a two-time all-conference and all-area softball player, Niedermayer is the Daily Herald’s Lake County female athlete of the year.

Interestingly enough, this year at Stevenson, athletic director Trish Betthauser introduced the three-sport athlete patch. It’s similar to what some other schools in the area are doing, Betthauser explained. Stevenson three-sport participants at every level and grade were honored and received a chevron patch. Niedermayer and Jaffar Mascoll were the only two seniors — at a school whose enrollment, according to its website, is 4,205 — who competed in three sports for fall, winter and spring.

“It’s definitely challenging,” Niedermayer said. “But I think most people could get it done. You may not have as much time on the weekends to go hang out with your friends, but you make a lot of friends during the sports. So that’s not something you really need to worry about. I think you can have a social life and play sports, and academically get everything together. I think it just takes more organization, and you have to prioritize.”

Like many athletes, the busier Niedermayer is, the better she performs academically.

“The three days a year where I don’t have a sport, I’ll come home from school and maybe not do my homework real well,” Niedermayer said. “I’ll go to a friend’s house, or watch TV, and then it’s 9 o’clock and I’m like, ‘Ah,’ I haven’t started yet.’ ... (Being involved) in sports, you have a set plan. Every day, you go to school, go to practice, come home, eat dinner and right (afterward) do your homework because you know you’re not going to have time. You can’t procrastinate.”

Niedermayer’s busy fall itinerary included playing center midfield in field hockey, which, while not sanctioned by the IHSA, is a varsity sport at Stevenson. Her 5-foot-11 frame, athleticism and speed only partly explain why she was voted as one of the state’s best players.

“One of the things people don’t know about Ashley is that she’s her own biggest critic,” said Patrash, the field hockey team’s goalie and an all-stater herself. Patrash also played varsity softball the last three springs with Niedermayer. “She pushes herself harder than any coach does. New Trier is one of our biggest rivals (in field hockey), and she tried every year to be as good as them if not better. She focuses on both what she can do better and what she does well.”

The Niedermayer name has become almost synonymous with Stevenson field hockey. Rebekah Niedermayer, who just graduated from Trinity International, where she played soccer for the Deerfield university, was an all-state field hockey player in 2006.

Emily Niedermayer, who graduated high school last year and is now playing soccer at Cedarville College in Ohio, was a field hockey all-stater in 2008 and 2009.

“I think my sister Rebekah knew someone that played (field hockey), and she thought it might be fun because it’s just like soccer and she loves soccer,” said Niedermayer, the youngest of four girls of Dawn and Gordon, who live in Buffalo Grove. The couple’s oldest daughter, Sarah, did not play sports at Stevenson.

“(Rebekah) went to a camp and she tried out for the (Stevenson) team. When you watch it, it looks like a lot of fun, I think. Some people think it’s really boring. But Emily and I were both like, ‘Sure, let’s go play field hockey.’ ”

Ashley played three varsity seasons in both field hockey and softball. After patrolling center field for the varsity softball team each of the last two springs, she moved to third base and hit .425 with 14 extra-base hits, including 4 home runs. As a junior, she socked a school-record 8 homers, including the pair of grand slams in a game against Mundelein.

Late this summer, Niedermayer will head off to Cornerstone University, where she will play basketball for the NAIA school in Ohio. While she loves field hockey, few colleges that she was looking at offer the sport. Basketball’s fast pace appealed to her.

“I was looking at smaller Christian schools, and (Cornerstone) was one of them that I knew of,” Niedermayer said. “My sisters applied there.”

“Ashley is so good at all three sports that she couldn’t pick just one to specialize in (in high school),” Patrash said. “She could play field hockey and softball in college, too.”

The fashion-conscious Niedermayer will settle for wearing one title in college: one-sport student-athlete.